Locker: Open source Google Drive alternative using your own S3 bucket

What it does

Locker is an open-source file storage platform that users self-host on their own infrastructure. It provides core file management features: upload, organize, and share files through a web interface. The platform includes a virtual bash shell for navigating files with familiar commands like ls, cd, find, cat, and grep. It can search inside images and PDFs by transcribing them into searchable text. Teams can be invited with role-based access controls. Files can be shared via links with optional passwords and expiration dates.

Who it is for

Locker targets teams and individuals who want to move away from cloud storage vendors. It appeals particularly to power users comfortable with self-hosting and developers who need programmatic file access. The project emphasizes appeal to engineering teams and startups looking to reduce costs and maintain data control.

Pricing

The site does not show prices.

How it stands out

The core differentiator is the "bring your own bucket" model. Locker supports multiple storage backends—local filesystem, AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, and Vercel Blob—switchable via a single environment variable. Users attach their existing storage infrastructure rather than paying for hosted storage. The platform offers multi-store replication, allowing teams to designate a primary storage backend with writable replicas for redundancy and read-only sources for ingestion. It exposes a full type-safe API built with tRPC. Being fully open-source with no vendor lock-in is presented as a key advantage.

What a founder should check

First, verify the switching costs for existing Google Drive and Dropbox users. How difficult is data migration, and how long does it actually take? The homepage claims one team moved 4TB in a weekend, but this may not reflect typical complexity. Second, understand the moat around storage provider support. If Locker's main advantage is cost through BYOB, competitors could replicate this approach. Does the virtual filesystem abstraction, search capabilities, or team features create stickiness beyond storage backend flexibility? Third, examine pricing pressure. The business model assumes self-hosting is attractive enough to users that they will manage their own servers. As cloud providers improve egress pricing and managed storage becomes cheaper, the cost advantage may narrow. What prevents major vendors from launching similar self-hosted options?

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