FileBrowser Alternatives for Mobile: A Self-Hoster's Comparison Guide

The Problem If you self-host FileBrowser , you know the desktop experience is solid. But open it on your phone and you'll hit: Tiny touch targets — buttons designed for mouse precision Hover-dependent menus — nonexistent on touchscreens Preview-second design — it's a file manager , not a file viewer For mobile, you want the opposite: preview-first , big tap areas, minimal navigation depth. I tested the major alternatives. Here's the comparison. Quick Comparison Tool Primary Use Mobile UX Self-Host Effort Customizable License Filestash File browsing + preview ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Docker 1-liner Yes (Vue/JS) AGPL-3 AList Multi-storage aggregator ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Docker 1-liner Limited (Go) AGPL-3 Dufs Minimal HTTP file server ⭐⭐⭐ Single binary No MIT FileBrowser File management ⭐⭐ Docker 1-liner Limited (Vue) Apache-2 Nextcloud Full cloud platform ⭐⭐ Complex stack Yes (PHP) AGPL-3 Cockpit Server admin panel ⭐ apt install No LGPL code-server Remote VS Code ⭐ Docker Yes MIT Tier 1: Filestash Best for: Read-only brows