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

Our Verdict

A fantastic open-source command-line tool for managing your deject storage empire, Rclone is a well-maintained and well-documented program. It makes performing complex operations on your remote files a sure-fire.

For

Super-versatile
Open up-source

Against

Requires knowledge of the command line
Bit of a learning curve

Tom's Guide Verdict

A fantastic open-source command-line tool for managing your cloud storage empire, Rclone is a well-maintained and well-documented program. It makes performing complex operations on your remote files a cinch.

Pros

+
Super-versatile
+
Open-source

Cons

-
Requires knowledge of the command line
-
Flake of a learning bend

Rclone is a command-line program for managing files on deject storage. Information technology supports over 40 cloud storage products, including the all-time 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 deject storage. It'south a versatile tool, simply Rclone'southward most common role is to work as a bridge between different cloud storage providers, allowing y'all to move, copy, and sync files between providers with ease.

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

Rclone: Plans and pricing

Rclone's webpage covering sponsorship and donations — Rclone is costless, but at that place are various ways to donate to the projection (Image credit: Rclone)

Rclone is an open-source project created by thousands of volunteers. Yous can use it for gratuitous, and even distribute information technology as part of your products at no charge. The developers of Rclone accept donations through GitHub sponsorships, PayPal, Patreon, Bitcoin, and Liberapay.

Features

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

To utilise Rclone, you create configuration files for each of the cloud providers y'all desire to piece of work with. In one case the configuration is set up, yous can run Rclone commands that perform actions on your remote storage spaces.

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

Each command has many flags you lot can prepare that alter exactly what the command will do, and you lot tin can add filters that specify which files should be ignored. And every bit 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 apply to alter configuration settings or browse your deject drives (Epitome credit: Rclone)

Though Rclone is primarily a command-line tool, information technology does have a graphical user interface (GUI). Simply run 'rclone rcd --rc-spider web-gui', and the web service will beginning and open the GUI in your web browser. You can employ the browser interface to explore all your deject drives and set upwards new bulldoze configurations.

Rclone's webpage explaining how to mount a remote cloud drive locally — You lot can use Rclone to mount a remote cloud drive locally, and use information technology as if it was a hard drive connected to your figurer (Epitome credit: Rclone)

You can employ Rclone'southward mount control to mountain remote cloud storage on a local mount indicate. This means that yous can utilize your remote storage space every bit if it was attached to your local reckoner. All of your programs will see the cloud storage as just another local drive.

Interface and in use

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

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

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

In near cases, Rclone will open a web browser page for you to log in to the cloud provider once to generate an hallmark cardinal.

Support

Rclone's coding for getting further information on any commands — You tin get farther information on any Rclone command past typing 'rclone command –help' (Paradigm credit: Rclone)

Rclone'south documentation is splendid. Each Rclone control has documentation that clearly explains how to use it and the various modifiers you tin apply. There'southward also an agile customs forum, an Rclone Wiki, documentation on the GitHub projection pages, and an Rclone Slack group.

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

Security

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

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

Many of the cloud providers y'all can use with Rclone too encrypt your files when they're at remainder on the server, and so no one tin read them except for you lot. For cloud providers that don't practise this, such equally Google Drive, Rclone offers a crypt function that encrypts all the files y'all 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 commonly installed on Linux and macOS by default, and it's available for Windows if you install Cygwin.

Though Rsync can sometimes be faster than Rclone at copying files, information technology has little support for cloud storage providers and requires each calculator to be running a re-create of Rsync for it to piece of work.

Final verdict

Rclone is an outstanding tool for anyone who needs to perform circuitous operations on cloud storage providers. The ability to move, copy, and sync files between multiple storage providers, local storage, FTP (file transfer protocol) servers, and just about every other kind of file storage organisation you lot tin think of tin be a huge boon to Information technology managers tasked with looking after a busy storage setup.

If you don't enjoy using the control line or only use one cloud storage provider, there are fewer features here of utilise to you lot. Merely once you've set up up Rclone and seen what you tin can do with information technology with just a few brusk commands, you may find it an indispensable tool in your armory.

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