Rclone: What is it, and should you use this service?

Our Verdict

A fantastic open up-source command-line tool for managing your deject storage empire, Rclone is a well-maintained and well-documented plan. Information technology makes performing circuitous operations on your remote files a cinch.

For

Super-versatile
Open-source

Against

Requires noesis of the command line
Bit of a learning bend

Tom'south Guide Verdict

A fantastic open-source control-line tool for managing your cloud storage empire, Rclone is a well-maintained and well-documented program. Information technology makes performing circuitous operations on your remote files a sure-fire.

Pros

+
Super-versatile
+
Open up-source

Cons

-
Requires knowledge of the command line
-
Bit of a learning curve

Rclone is a command-line program for managing files on cloud storage. Information technology supports over forty cloud storage products, including the best deject storage services from Google, Amazon, Dropbox, Mega, Microsoft, Zoho, and pCloud.

Available for Linux, Windows, macOS, Debian, OpenBSD, and several other operating systems, Rclone is a Swiss-army knife for cloud storage. It'southward a versatile tool, only Rclone's most common function is to work as a bridge betwixt unlike deject storage providers, assuasive y'all to move, re-create, and sync files between providers with ease.

In our Rclone review, we look at why it's a elevation tool for anyone who uses cloud storage in a business environment.

Rclone: Plans and pricing

Rclone's webpage covering sponsorship and donations — Rclone is gratis, but there are diverse means to donate to the project (Prototype credit: Rclone)

Rclone is an open up-source project created past thousands of volunteers. You can use it for free, and even distribute information technology every bit part of your products at no accuse. The developers of Rclone take donations through GitHub sponsorships, PayPal, Patreon, Bitcoin, and Liberapay.

Features

Rclone's webpage discussing remote controlling the service — Rclone can run equally a service where you access its commands remotely over HTTP (Image credit: Rclone)

To utilize Rclone, you create configuration files for each of the cloud providers you lot want to work with. Once the configuration is ready, you can run Rclone commands that perform actions on your remote storage spaces.

For case, you can run 'rclone copy source:sourcepath dest:destpath' to copy all the files from a directory on i cloud storage provider to a directory on another, automatically skipping all the files that have already been copied.

Each control has many flags you tin set that change exactly what the control will do, and you tin add filters that specify which files should be ignored. And as Rclone runs from the command line, you tin create batch scripts to perform complex operations on a schedule without requiring user input.

Run Rclone with the flag '–rc', and it becomes a service listening on an HTTP server. This means you can perform Rclone commands remotely by using the application programming interface (API) or connecting through HTTP.

Rclone's graphical user interface for browsing cloud drives — Rclone does have a graphical user interface you can use to change configuration settings or browse your cloud drives (Prototype credit: Rclone)

Though Rclone is primarily a command-line tool, it does have a graphical user interface (GUI). Merely run 'rclone rcd --rc-web-gui', and the web service volition start and open the GUI in your web browser. You tin can employ the browser interface to explore all your cloud drives and gear up upward new drive configurations.

Rclone's webpage explaining how to mount a remote cloud drive locally — You can employ Rclone to mountain a remote cloud drive locally, and utilize it as if information technology was a hard drive connected to your calculator (Image credit: Rclone)

You can use Rclone's mount control to mount remote cloud storage on a local mount indicate. This means that you can utilise your remote storage space as if it was attached to your local computer. All of your programs will see the cloud storage every bit just another local drive.

Interface and in use

Rclone's coding for setting up a new cloud storage provider — Setting upwards a new cloud storage provider in Rclone is remarkably simple considering all the variables at play (Image credit: Rclone)

Installation of Rclone depends on your operating system of selection, but you typically just need to download the software and extract information technology to a binder.

Setting upwards all your cloud providers takes a little time, as every cloud provider is different. But Rclone does an impressive task of streamlining and simplifying the process. You run 'rclone config', and follow the prompts for setting up config files for each of your remote drives.

In nigh cases, Rclone will open up a spider web browser page for you lot to log in to the cloud provider once to generate an authentication fundamental.

Support

Rclone's coding for getting further information on any commands — Y'all can get further information on whatever Rclone command by typing 'rclone control –aid' (Image credit: Rclone)

Rclone'southward documentation is splendid. Each Rclone command has documentation that clearly explains how to use it and the various modifiers you tin utilize. There'due south too an agile community forum, an Rclone Wiki, documentation on the GitHub project pages, and an Rclone Slack group.

As Rclone is an open up-source project, you don't get any kind of service level understanding that you lot may get from a commercial product. But if you're the blazon of person who is happy learning all the quirks of a production yourself, then Rclone has more ample documentation for your perusal.

Security

Rclone's webpage discussing its encryption functionality — You can utilize Rclone to encrypt your files on cloud storage providers that don't encrypt files by default (Paradigm credit: Rclone)

While files are being moved, copied, or synced across the network using Rclone, they are ever encrypted.

Many of the cloud providers you lot can use with Rclone also encrypt your files when they're at rest on the server, and then no one can read them except for you. For cloud providers that don't do this, such equally Google Bulldoze, Rclone offers a crypt function that encrypts all the files you upload and decrypts them when you download them.

The competition

Rclone is based on Rsync, which has been around since 1996. Rsync is a command-line tool that is usually installed on Linux and macOS by default, and it'southward available for Windows if you install Cygwin.

Though Rsync can sometimes be faster than Rclone at copying files, it has little support for deject storage providers and requires each reckoner to exist running a copy of Rsync for it to work.

Final verdict

Rclone is an outstanding tool for anyone who needs to perform complex operations on cloud storage providers. The ability to motion, copy, and sync files between multiple storage providers, local storage, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, and merely about every other kind of file storage system y'all can think of can be a huge boon to It managers tasked with looking subsequently a busy storage setup.

If you don't enjoy using the command line or only utilise 1 cloud storage provider, there are fewer features here of utilise to yous. Merely once you've ready Rclone and seen what you tin can do with it with just a few curt commands, y'all may find it an indispensable tool in your arsenal.

Richard brings over 20 years of website development, SEO, and marketing to the table. A graduate in Reckoner Science, Richard has lectured in Java programming and has built software for companies including Samsung and ASDA. Now, he writes for TechRadar, Tom's Guide, PC Gamer, and Creative Bloq.