Files360

Files360

Self-hosted image and file API. Upload once, get optimized CDN URLs, keep everything on your own bucket.

Built and maintained by Dot360

Docs · Install · API · Compare · Roadmap

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In one minute

The problem. Every app needs to accept images and documents, resize them, store them somewhere fast and hand back URLs. Hosted services do it well, but they bill per GB and per transformation, keep your files in their account and put their domain in every URL.

Files360 is that pipeline as one container you run yourself:

flowchart LR
    A["Your app"] -- "POST /v1/files" --> F["Files360"]
    F -- "WebP / AVIF sizes<br>documents as uploaded" --> B[("Your S3 bucket")]
    F -- "JSON with URLs" --> A
    B --> C["Your CDN"] --> U["Browsers"]

1. Your backend uploads an image, PDF, Office file, CSV or ZIP to one endpoint.
2. Files360 processes it. Images become every size you configured. Documents are stored untouched, with a preview.
3. Files land in your bucket (Hetzner, R2, B2, AWS, MinIO, and others). You get the URLs back as JSON.
4. Browsers load files straight from your bucket or CDN. Files360 is never in the read path.

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Try it in 30 seconds

curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/dot360io/Files360/main/docker-compose.yml
docker compose up -d
docker compose logs files360 | grep setup     # open the link it prints

A setup wizard asks for four things: database (SQLite by default, nothing to install), admin account, storage bucket and first app. Then upload:

curl -X POST https://files.example.com/v1/files \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FILES360_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@photo.jpg" -F "folder=products"

{
  "id": "66f1c2a9e4b0a1d2c3f4e5a6",
  "kind": "image",
  "variants": {
    "thumb":  { "url": "https://cdn.example.com/my-shop/products/3f9a…/thumb.webp",  "width": 320,  "height": 320 },
    "medium": { "url": "https://cdn.example.com/my-shop/products/3f9a…/medium.webp", "width": 800,  "height": 600 },
    "large":  { "url": "https://cdn.example.com/my-shop/products/3f9a…/large.webp",  "width": 1600, "height": 1200 }
  },
  "srcset": "…/medium.webp 800w, …/large.webp 1600w"
}

Upload the same file again and you get the same record back with "duplicate": true, so retries are always safe.

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Who it is for

You are…	Files360 gives you…
A team paying a media SaaS every month	the same upload, resize and serve flow for the price of a small server and a bucket
An agency running many client sites	one instance, one app per client, each with its own folder, sizes, keys and bucket
Bound by data residency rules	files that stay in the region and the account you chose
Building with AI agents	an MCP server, /openapi.json and /llms.txt, so agents can upload directly
Self-hosting everything already	one container, SQLite, no telemetry, arm64 images

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How it compares

Hosted media services are excellent at some things. Here is the honest version:

	Files360	Cloudinary	imgix	Uploadcare
Monthly cost	your server + bucket	from $99	from $25	from $79
Files live in	your bucket	their storage	your bucket	their storage
Plain URLs, no vendor syntax	yes	no	no	no
Documents with previews	yes	PDFs	no	conversion
On-the-fly transforms	roadmap	yes	yes	yes
Video, AI tagging	no	yes	partly	yes
CDN and ops included	no, you run it	yes	yes	yes

Example workload: 50 GB stored, 500 GB delivered and 20k uploads a month comes to about €13/month on a small Hetzner server (CX23) and bucket, against $249/month on Cloudinary Advanced. Prices were checked on 2026-10-16, and the full comparison shows the sources and the arithmetic.

Cloudinary, imgix and Uploadcare are trademarks of their owners. Files360 is not affiliated with or endorsed by them; they are named only to compare publicly listed features and prices.

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What you get

📤 One upload endpoint	Images, PDF, Word, Excel, PowerPoint (incl. 97-2003), CSV, text, ZIP. Types are decided from the bytes, not the file name.
🖼️ Named sizes per app	Up to 8 sizes in WebP, AVIF or JPEG, with crop, fit or pad. A ready srcset. Images are never upscaled and metadata is stripped.
🪣 Any S3-compatible bucket	Presets for 8 providers plus anything with an S3 API. Each connection is checked with a real write, read and delete.
🔗 URLs that never change	Keys contain a hash of the file and its settings, so you can cache for a year and never purge.
🗂️ Media library	Folders, search, bulk delete, and previews of sheets, documents, decks and archives.
🔑 Apps and API keys	Per-app settings, keys shown once and stored hashed, rate limits, and a generated integration guide.
🛡️ Built for hostile input	SVG allowlist, pixel limits, capped hand-written parsers, SSRF-safe URL imports. Details
🧙 Setup wizard	Pick the database, create the admin, connect storage, all in the browser. Locked behind a one-time token.
🤖 Agent-ready	npx files360-mcp for Claude, Cursor and others. /openapi.json and /llms.txt on every instance.
🚚 Easy migration	npm run import-cloudinary copies an existing Cloudinary library into your folders. Guide

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What it is not

Saying this up front keeps expectations honest. These are decisions, not missing features:

• ❌ Not a video transcoder
• ❌ No AI tagging, moderation or auto alt text
• ❌ Not an object store: it writes to your bucket, it is not an S3 server
• ❌ Not a hosted service: there is no Files360 cloud, and the AGPL keeps it that way
• ❌ Not an image editor

On the roadmap: signed on-the-fly transform URLs (/t/w_800,q_80/<id>.webp), upload webhooks, multiple admin accounts, and a Docker Hub image. See PLAN.md.

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Storage providers

Provider		Regions	Per-object ACLs
Hetzner Object Storage	European buckets, low egress cost.	fsn1, nbg1, hel1	Yes
DigitalOcean Spaces	Spaces with the built-in CDN edge.	9 regions	Yes
Amazon S3	The original. Pair it with CloudFront if you want.	17 regions	Yes
Cloudflare R2	No egress fees. Needs a public r2.dev or custom domain.	auto	Bucket-wide only
Backblaze B2	Cheapest per TB, free egress through Cloudflare.	6 regions	Bucket-wide only
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage	Flat pricing, no egress charges.	12 regions	Yes
Scaleway Object Storage	French provider, S3 compatible.	fr-par, nl-ams, pl-waw	Yes
MinIO Self-hosted	Your own S3 server. Path-style URLs.	your own endpoint	Yes
Other S3-compatible	Any provider with an S3 API: Garage, SeaweedFS, Storj, iDrive e2, OVH, Linode, GCS.	your own endpoint	Yes

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FAQ

Yes. The software is AGPL-3.0 with no paid tier and no limits. You pay your server and bucket provider directly.

Yes. Connect it under Storage in the dashboard. Files360 writes under one folder per app and never touches anything else in the bucket.

No. SQLite is the default and is enough for most installs. Postgres and MySQL are there if you want them, with ready compose files.

Nothing. New settings only apply to new uploads. Existing files and URLs never change.

Yes, and you should for global traffic. Set the bucket's public URL to your CDN domain and every returned URL uses it.

You can run it, including commercially, for your own apps. If you modify Files360 and offer it to others over a network, you have to share those modifications under the same licence.

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Documentation

Install	Docker, Postgres or MySQL, from source, reverse proxy
Configure	Environment variables, apps, sizes, backups
Storage providers	Public buckets, ACLs, moving apps between buckets
API reference	Every endpoint, with examples in curl, Node.js and PHP
Security	What reaches storage, keys, the setup wizard
AI agents	MCP server, OpenAPI, llms.txt
Migrating from Cloudinary	Concept map and the import script

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Contributing

git clone https://github.com/dot360io/Files360.git && cd Files360
npm install
npm run dev     # http://127.0.0.1:4360, prints a setup link on first run
npm test        # no database server or network needed

Read CONTRIBUTING.md and ARCHITECTURE.md first. Bug reports and feature requests go to issues. Security reports go through private vulnerability reporting, never a public issue.

Licence

AGPL-3.0 © Dot360

Files360 is built and maintained by Dot360, a custom software studio. It started as the upload service behind our own products. Need help running it or building on it? Get in touch.

If Files360 saves you a monthly bill, a ⭐ helps other people find it.