Desktop and mobile apps
Universal access to your data, whatever platform you’re using.
Uploading your data to a server is only part of the story. You also need a choice of crossplatform clients to interact with the server, ideally in a seamless fashion.
SparkleShare is limited in this department because while it has desktop clients for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, there’s no mobile client functionality. It sits in the system tray and displays notifications about the synchronisation operations as well as a list of any changes that occur across all shared directories.
Syncthing is essentially a CLI utility wrapped around a browser-based interface. But the project also hosts a Python-based cross-platform graphical interface and a notification area icon that exposes all of Syncthing’s features accessible via the browser. In addition, there’s a functional mobile app for Android.
Similarly, along with Debs and RPMs, Seafile has clients for Windows and Mac OS X as well. Every Seafile desktop client has a unique private key. When a client and a server connect, they exchange the public key and negotiate a session key. This session key is then used to encrypt the data transfer. The desktop client sits in the system tray and displays notifications for sync operations.
Seafile also has clients for both Android and iOS. The latest version of the Android client supports client-side encryption for encrypted libraries and two-factor authentication.
Pydio has desktop and mobile apps for all platforms, which help access and synchronise documents from the devices to the Pydio server. The desktop app keeps files synchronised across all computers and the mobile app can stream audio and video directly from the Pydio server.
In the same vein, Nextcloud clients for Android, iOS and desktop systems make it possible to sync and share files, in a fully secure way through an encrypted connection.