Self-Hosted File Servers: From FTP to WebDAV to Cloud-Native

Every developer hits the same question eventually: where do I put the files? Maybe it's backup artifacts from a CI pipeline. Maybe it's a shared folder for a small team. Maybe you're tired of paying per-seat for Dropbox and want something you actually control. The self-hosted file server space has matured a lot, but the sheer number of options can be overwhelming. This article breaks down the main approaches, when each one makes sense, and for the WebDAV path, walks you through two open-source projects I maintain that cover local and cloud storage scenarios. The Landscape: How Do You Want to Serve Files? Before picking a tool, it helps to understand the categories. Self-hosted file sharing broadly falls into four buckets: 1. Traditional File Protocols (FTP/SFTP/SMB) The old guard. FTP and SFTP are battle-tested and universally supported. SMB (Samba) is the default for Windows network shares. They work, but they come with baggage: FTP sends credentials in plaintext (unless you configure