- DockBird
- Compare
- Cyberduck
DockBird vs Cyberduck
Cyberduck is free, open source and supports almost every storage service on earth. DockBird is a paid, native, two-pane client that does a narrower job with more polish. Different tools, different priorities.
| DockBird | Cyberduck |
|---|
| Native macOS app | Yes, Swift and SwiftUI | Cocoa interface with a bundled Java runtime |
| Two-pane layout | Yes | No, single browser window |
| Drag and drop with Finder | Yes | Yes |
| Quick Look for remote files | Yes | Yes |
| SFTP | Yes | Yes |
| FTP / FTPS | Yes | Yes |
| WebDAV / Nextcloud | Yes | Yes |
| Amazon S3 and compatible | Yes, 9 presets plus custom endpoints | Yes |
| Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive | No | Yes |
| Sync / mirror folders | No | Yes, via Mountain Duck (separate product) |
| Pricing | One-time purchase after a 7-day trial | Free and open source; paid on the Mac App Store |
| Analytics or telemetry | Two anonymous signals, off with one switch | See Cyberduck’s privacy policy |
Cyberduck details are taken from public product information as of September 2026 and may change. Cyberduck is a product of iterate GmbH, which is not affiliated with DockBird. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
Pick Cyberduck if
- You need Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Azure or OpenStack Swift
- You want an open-source client you can audit and build yourself
- You need client-side encryption with Cryptomator vaults
Pick DockBird if
- You want two panes and a local folder next to the server, not a separate Finder window
- You want a small Swift app with no Java runtime and fast launch
- You work mainly with SFTP, S3-compatible storage, WebDAV or Nextcloud
Cyberduck earns its popularity: it is free, it is open source, and its protocol list is remarkable. It is also a single-pane browser that leans on Finder for the local side, and it ships its own Java runtime, which shows in launch time and memory.
DockBird keeps the local folder and the server side by side in one window, so a transfer is a drag across a divider rather than between two apps. It is written in Swift, sandboxed, and about 39 MB. It supports far fewer services than Cyberduck, on purpose.
If you need a consumer cloud drive or Cryptomator, Cyberduck is the right answer. If you spend your time on servers and buckets and want the transfer app to feel like part of macOS, try DockBird for a week.
