Comparison
Swarmfile vs. Resilio
Resilio Active Everywhere is the go-to P2P sync engine for M&E studios that need to move files between sites fast. They do one thing (P2P file transfer) and do it well. Here's where a streamed, version-controlled drive differs from a sync tool. Last reviewed August 2026.
IncludedPartial or with conditionsNot offeredA highlighted row marks where one side clearly leads.
Architecture & performance
Capability
Swarmfile
Resilio
Native drive mount (macOS / Windows / Linux)
✓
◐Selective sync with dehydrated placeholders (on-demand access) + an SMB/NFS Global File System gateway. No native FUSE/WinFsp drive engine.
Browse-without-download for huge files
✓
◐Progressive hydration lets playback start before a file fully downloads; general random-access browsing without hydration isn't offered.
LAN performance for co-located teams
✓P2P mesh on every plan. Streaming from peers at byte-range granularity.
✓P2P block protocol with file streaming: transfers only the chunks needed for instant access to large files.
Zero-stall writes
✓Saves return immediately; durable background upload queue with resume.
◐Writes are local-first, but no cloud durability until the next sync job runs.
Cloud backend
✓Zero-egress cloud object storage, erasure-coded, with version history. A durable copy off your machines. Keep an independent backup for critical data.
-No Resilio-hosted storage; it gateways to your S3/Azure/etc. object storage. You supply the backend.
Storage footprint per workstation
✓LRU block cache (default 10 GiB). A 200 GB project uses zero local disk until you open files.
◐Classic sync jobs keep a full copy per peer; GFS/Caching Gateway deployments dehydrate cold files on an access-time eviction policy, similar to an LRU cache.
File-type-aware chunking
✓
◐Generic block-level sync. No file-format awareness.
Collaboration & locking
Capability
Swarmfile
Resilio
Cooperative file locks
✓
◐Distributed File Locking: exclusive access across agents, with admin override (Active Everywhere 6.0).
Per-mount branching + merge
✓Each mount works a branch independently, then merges whole-file changes, with conflict detection, back into main or any parent branch. Merge Requests add a review-and-approve gate, and protected branches can require a configurable number of approvals before a merge lands.
-P2P sync jobs don't have a branch/mount-isolation concept.
Revit / SolidWorks worksharing (file locking)
✓No plugin, on Windows: the mount reads the exclusive lock Revit or SolidWorks takes on open and turns it into a hub-enforced claim, so a second Windows machine's open gets a sharing violation, across offices. Cooperative Swarmfile locks work on macOS, Windows and Linux; a byte-range lock API is there for building finer-grained integrations.
-
Versioning + point-in-time rollback
✓1-3650-day per-user retention. Per-user trash + restore.
◐Built-in Archive retains prior and deleted versions (configurable retention). No point-in-time project rollback.
Disconnect-and-resync (Pack & Go)
✓Pinned folders, checkout locks, offline writes, explicit conflict resolution on reconnect.
◐Can sync a folder to local disk and work offline. No lock semantics; conflicts possible.
Full-text search (names & metadata)
✓
-
Runner / headless CI on a branch
✓A headless engine watches a branch and runs a job on every matching commit or tag, streaming only the files the job touches instead of a full checkout.
-Pure file transfer; job automation is left to your own scripts and CI.
Outbound webhooks (signed events)
✓HMAC-SHA256-signed, SSRF-guarded webhooks for file/branch/merge/ACL/membership events (wire to Slack, Zapier, or a SIEM), plus a personal webhook channel.
-No outbound event/webhook API; the sync engine emits no events to subscribe to.
Identity & access
Capability
Swarmfile
Resilio
OIDC SSO + SCIM
✓Included on Pro.
◐SSO via Microsoft Entra ID, Okta, and custom OIDC; SCIM not clearly documented.
SAML SSO
✓On Enterprise, via an adapter.
-Not supported.
Folder & file-level ACLs
✓Allow / deny / inherit with recursive resolution.
◐Job/folder-level RBAC; standard NTFS allow/deny/inherit ACLs apply through the SMB gateway.
Windows DACL projection
✓
-
Security & compliance
Capability
Swarmfile
Resilio
AES-256 encryption (at rest + in flight)
✓
✓AES-256 in transit and at rest (built-in).
Erasure coding (Reed-Solomon 10+4)
✓
-
Ransomware detection
✓
-
Block-level integrity verification
✓BLAKE3 per block.
✓Block-level SHA2/xxHash128 hashing, plus a full-file hash on assembly.
SOC 2 / TPN / formal compliance
-SOC 2 Type I not started (planned).
✓TPN Blue Shield certified; SOC 2 Type 1 complete (Type 2 in progress).
Audit log / activity feed
✓Per-tenant, plus a unified activity feed with CSV export (shipped).
◐Management Console shows sync history and job status; no unified user-activity audit feed or export.
EU/US data residency
✓Self-serve region pinning (EU or US) at no extra cost on every paid plan from Starter up, chosen at signup.
◐BYO-storage: residency is wherever you place your own S3/Azure buckets: DIY, with no Resilio-managed region setting.
Pricing
Capability
Swarmfile
Resilio
Model
Per-seat SaaS with cloud storage included.
Per-server license + per-agent. No cloud storage; you provide the infrastructure.
Entry tier
$5/seat/mo Starter, 100 GiB/seat, no seat minimum or maximum. A no-card Free plan covers public projects.
No free tier. Free Sync Home for personal use.
Cloud egress costs
✓$0: unlimited egress, free on every plan.
No cloud component. But you pay for your own WAN/VPN bandwidth.
Where Swarmfile is stronger today
- Cloud-streamed, not synced. Files appear as a local drive but consume zero disk until you open them. A 5 TB project doesn't need 5 TB per workstation. That's not a Resilio limitation; it's inherent to the sync model.
- Built-in cloud durability. Every block is stored in cloud object storage with erasure coding, version history, and recovery tooling. For critical data, keep a separate backup under your control.
- Locking, versioning, ACLs, and search built in. Resilio is a pipe. Swarmfile is a platform. The moment you need `who changed this file` or `undo that delete` or `only give the client read access to the footage folder`, you hit Resilio's ceiling.
- Per-mount branching with automatic merge. Diverge on a branch, keep working, then merge back into main with conflict detection. No manual folder copies. Resilio syncs one tree; there's no branch primitive to diverge from it.
- Zero-stall writes with cloud durability. Saves return immediately, upload in the background with resume. Resilio writes to local disk fast too, but durability only arrives when the next sync job runs.
- Erasure coding + ransomware detection + block-level integrity. Three layers of data protection that don't exist in a P2P sync tool.
- Multi-vertical from day one. Software, games, M&E, geospatial and AEC. Resilio is M&E-first; we're built for any team that works with large files in native desktop apps.
Pick the shape that matches your team.
If Resilio already fits how you work, keep it. If you want a mounted drive with version control, locking, and LAN delivery in one place, start a trial.