Comparison
Fileship vs XBackBone: a self-hosted XBackBone alternative
XBackBone is a lightweight PHP file manager for ShareX. Fileship accepts the same uploads and adds nested folders, notes, short links, passwords, expiry and view limits, plus a Windows app and a browser extension.
Side by side
Checked against XBackBone 3.8 in October 2026.
| Fileship | XBackBone | |
|---|---|---|
| ShareX and other uploaders | ||
| Desktop app for capture and recording | Windows | |
| Your files in File Explorer | Harbor | |
| Browser extension | ||
| AI search, captions, OCR | on your server | |
| Folders | nested, shared | tags |
| Passwords, expiry and view limits | ||
| Storage | Local, S3, SFTP, FTP | Local, S3, FTP, +2 |
| Passkeys and two-factor | ||
| Single sign-on | OIDC | LDAP |
| Webhooks | Discord, Slack, JSON | |
| Scheduled, restorable backups | export | |
| Updates from the dashboard | zero downtime | with downtime |
| Languages | 12 | 31, some partial |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
What Fileship adds
A native Windows app
Capture a region across every monitor, annotate it, copy text with OCR or record a video or GIF. The link lands on your clipboard.
Your files in File Explorer
Fileship Harbor shows your files and folders in File Explorer, online-only until you open them, and syncs renames, moves and deletes.
AI search on your server
Find files by describing them, with captions, OCR and sensitive content detection. Every model runs on your own hardware, and all of it is optional.
Updates without downtime
A blue/green updater starts the new version next to the old one and switches over once it is healthy, and the database upgrades itself.
Sharing with limits
Passwords, expiry and view limits on every file and link, folders shared with other users as viewers or editors, and Discord previews you design.
Backups and a trash
Scheduled account backups you can restore, a trash that keeps deleted files for a while, and webhooks for Discord, Slack or signed JSON.
Where XBackBone is ahead
XBackBone runs on plain PHP hosting without Docker, offers more storage backends and signs in with LDAP, which Fileship does not support.
Moving from XBackBone
Fileship imports an XBackBone 3 SQLite database with its storage folder: users with their email addresses, and files with their names, link names and dates. Users set a new password, because XBackBone hashes passwords with bcrypt.
Read the migration guideQuestions
- Is Fileship free?
- Yes. Fileship is open source under AGPL-3.0, and you run it on your own server.
- Does Fileship work with ShareX like XBackBone?
- Yes. Fileship takes uploads from ShareX, Flameshot, curl, iOS Shortcuts and other uploaders, and has its own Windows app and browser extension.
- Can I move my data from XBackBone?
- Fileship imports an XBackBone 3 SQLite database with its storage folder: users with their email addresses, and files with their names, link names and dates. Users set a new password, because XBackBone hashes passwords with bcrypt.
- What do I need to run Fileship?
- Docker with Compose, 2 CPU cores and 2 GB of RAM, or 4 GB or more with AI.