Overview

SeaweedFS brings S3 objects, POSIX files and Iceberg tables together, with access through S3, POSIX mounts, HDFS-compatible access, an Iceberg REST catalog and WebDAV. It is designed to scale from gigabytes to petabytes and support billions of files. That range can make one cluster serve varied workloads, but teams need to be comfortable running distributed storage rather than choosing a narrow, managed service.

Key features

The built-in Iceberg catalog supports Spark, Trino, Dremio and DuckDB. For teams building data pipelines around those tools, combining storage and catalog access in one cluster can reduce the need to assemble separate services. S3 users also get versioning, lifecycle rules, object immutability and cross-region replication.

Enterprise recovery is a meaningful operational advantage. Admins can restore deleted files through the Admin UI within a configurable retention window; the free 25 TB trial caps that window at one hour. Point-in-time recovery can rewind a folder, bucket or object to a chosen moment, undoing deletes and overwrites, with a preview before changes are applied.

Enterprise data protection automatically repairs missing or corrupted erasure-coding shards and checks them periodically against checksums to catch silent corruption. Customizable erasure coding can use a 20+4 ratio with 1.2× storage overhead, according to the maker. These controls matter for teams prioritizing recovery and durability, but they are Enterprise capabilities rather than a benefit of the free development license.

Enterprise also supports OIDC sign-in and role mapping in the Admin UI, with examples including Keycloak, Okta, Azure AD and Microsoft ADFS. Deployment guidance offers an official repository binary and the chrislusf/seaweedfs-enterprise container image.

Pricing

The Community support plan costs 0.00 USD per free for any cluster size, with GitHub issues and discussions and public documentation, but no guaranteed response time. Development & testing is also 0.00 USD per free for deployments under 25 TB, and is limited to development and testing. Production deployments require a paid license regardless of size, so the free plans are not a route to free production use.

The Capacity license — Monthly costs 2.00 USD per month, billed pay as you go; Capacity license — Yearly costs 20.00 USD per year, with simplified billing and a stated saving of about 17%. Both charge on used storage including replication or erasure-coding overhead. The yearly option lowers the stated cost for teams willing to use annual billing; either way, overhead counts toward billable capacity.

Support is optional and purchased separately from the capacity license. Essential support is 2000.00 USD per year for clusters up to 100 TB, with private email, a 5-business-day response and one advisory hour monthly. Small Production support is 5000.00 USD per year for up to 250 TB, with a 3-business-day response, two advisory hours monthly and an annual configuration review. Growth support is 15000.00 USD per year for up to 1 PB, with a 2–3-business-day response, four advisory hours monthly, upgrade guidance and deployment assistance.

Standard support costs 40000.00 USD per year for multi-petabyte deployments, with private Slack and email, a 1-business-day response, eight advisory hours monthly, and architecture and deployment assistance. Critical support costs 85000.00 USD per year for revenue-bearing workloads, with a 1-hour P1 response, private Slack, email and Zoom, direct engineering escalation and up to 12 advisory hours monthly. Enterprise 5 PB+ has custom volume pricing, with volume discounts and custom contracts and invoicing. If an Enterprise license expires, SeaweedFS says it falls back to the open-source implementation and data remains accessible, but self-healing features are disabled.

Platforms

SeaweedFS supports API access and Linux, macOS and Windows, as well as self-hosted deployment. That makes it a candidate for teams with varied client environments, while keeping deployment and cluster operations in their own stack.

Who it's for

Choose SeaweedFS when a team needs object, file and table access in a shared, self-hosted system, particularly if its data workflows use Spark, Trino, Dremio or DuckDB. Its enterprise recovery, shard repair and access controls suit operators who need stronger protection options and can budget for both licensing and support. It is less suitable for teams seeking free production storage or who would rather avoid running a distributed cluster.

Pros and cons

Multiple interfaces in one cluster: S3, POSIX, HDFS-compatible, Iceberg REST and WebDAV access can serve different workloads without splitting them across storage systems.
Useful Iceberg integrations: Spark, Trino, Dremio and DuckDB support makes the built-in catalog relevant to established analytics stacks.
Strong Enterprise recovery options: Deleted-file recovery, point-in-time rewind, shard repair and checksum checks address distinct operational risks.
Production is never free: even a small production deployment needs a paid capacity license, and support adds a separate annual cost.
Trial recovery is constrained: the free 25 TB trial allows only a one-hour deleted-file retention window.

Alternatives

Ceph is worth considering for teams that want free, open-source distributed storage; its block storage requires a running Ceph cluster. Hadoop Distributed File System is a free, self-hosted option under Apache License 2.0. JuiceFS offers a free self-hosted Community Edition with GitHub and Discord support, while its Cloud Service has custom pricing.

MooseFS has a free Community edition with a single active master and single-parity erasure coding. Quobyte offers a free edition up to 150 TB. BeeGFS is another freemium option with a free plan. Google Cloud Filestore is a paid option with a free trial. Panzura CloudFS uses capacity-based licensing with custom pricing.

Browse Distributed File System Software, Software-Defined Storage Software and Storage Replication Software for more options in these categories.

Verdict

SeaweedFS is a strong choice for teams that want one self-hosted cluster spanning S3, POSIX and Iceberg workloads, with Enterprise recovery and data-protection controls available. Choose it when that consolidation is worth operating and licensing a distributed system; look elsewhere if free production use or bundled support is essential.

	Panzura CloudFS	SeaweedFS
Free plan	No	Yes
Free trial	No	Yes
Paid from	—	$1.67/mo
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, self-hosted	api, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, Windows
Deployment model	hybrid	—
Free plan	—	Yes
Paid from	—	2 /mo

Panzura CloudFS vs SeaweedFS

Panzura CloudFS

SeaweedFS