SpaceFS (the product is called Space) is a cloud filesystem for Mac and Linux. Your files live in Space's cloud and show up as a normal drive in Finder, and apps like Premiere open them by streaming only the parts they read, so a 50GB file takes zero bytes on your disk until you use it. It costs $15 a month for 1TB on the Individual plan, according to spacefs.com in October 2026.
The alternatives depend on which part of that you want. If you want cloud files that open like local ones, look at LucidLink, Dropbox's online-only files, or a mounting app like Mountain Duck on your own bucket. If what you're after is getting files off your Mac without losing track of them, and you'd rather keep them on drives you own, that's what Tusk does.
TL;DR: Space (spacefs.com) streams cloud files into Finder as a mounted drive: $15/month for 1TB (Individual), $30 per member/month on Teams, Mac and Linux, 7-day trial. Alternatives: LucidLink (team-oriented streaming filesystem, from $7 per member/month with 100GB), Dropbox or Google Drive online-only files (sync plus placeholders, about $10-12/month for 2TB), Mountain Duck (mounts your own S3 or B2 bucket, one-time license), and Tusk (keeps files on your own drives and cloud, verified and tracked while drives are unplugged, $49 for the first 100 licenses, $79 after, one-time).
What Is SpaceFS?
Space is made by Space Computer, Inc., a San Francisco startup that raised a $2.4M pre-seed round led by a16z Speedrun in 2026. The product mounts a drive on your Mac whose contents are stored in Space's cloud. When an app reads a file, Space fetches the byte ranges it asks for, so video and design apps can open large files without a full download first.
From its own site, the main features are:
- Streaming, not syncing. Files open without being downloaded in full.
- Changes show up on every device. Save on one Mac and the change appears on your other connected machines.
- Versions. Space says every change is kept as a version.
- Drive forks. You can copy a whole drive instantly without copying the data.
- Search across your Mac and every Space drive, which Space describes as 10x faster than Spotlight.
- AI agents that read and write the same files you do, plus an SDK.
It runs on macOS and Linux, with Windows listed as coming soon.
What Does Space Cost?
| Plan | Price | Storage | Extra storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | $15/month, or $180/year | 1TB, 1 seat | $6/month per 500GB |
| Teams | $30 per member/month, or $360/year | 1TB pooled per member | $12/month per 500GB |
| Enterprise | Custom | Your own cloud or S3-compatible storage | Custom |
Prices from spacefs.com, October 2026. Individual and Teams include a 7-day trial; there's no free plan.
At those prices, 4TB on the Individual plan is $15 plus six 500GB add-ons, $51 a month. For comparison, a 4TB external hard drive costs about $100-150 once (see our cheapest storage per GB breakdown).
Why Look for a SpaceFS Alternative?
The reasons come down to where your files live:
- Your archive is bigger than a few TB. Video and RAW libraries grow by terabytes a year, and per-TB monthly pricing adds up.
- You want the files on drives you own. If Space's service is down, or you stop paying, your files are in their cloud. Space's Enterprise plan can run on your own S3-compatible storage; the Individual and Teams plans can't.
- Your internet connection is the bottleneck. Streaming works well on fast fiber. On hotel Wi-Fi or a slow upload, editing from a streamed drive is harder.
- You need Windows today. Space lists Windows as coming soon.
- You mostly wanted search. If the appeal was finding files across drives, a disk cataloging app does that without moving anything to a new cloud.
SpaceFS Alternatives
LucidLink: the closest match for teams
LucidLink is a streaming filesystem too, and it's been around longer. It's built for teams: editors in different cities working on the same project, with files streamed on demand. Its published prices start at $7 per member per month with 100GB included (Starter), and $27 per member per month with 400GB included (Business), with extra storage per 100GB. There's a 30-day trial.
Choose it over Space if you're a team, need Windows today, or want a tool many post-production facilities already use. For a solo creator with several TB, per-GB pricing gets expensive.
Dropbox or Google Drive with online-only files: the cheapest per TB
Dropbox and Google Drive for desktop can both keep files in the cloud and show them in Finder as placeholders that download when opened. That's sync with on-demand downloads, not byte-range streaming, so opening a large video downloads the whole file first. Dropbox Plus is about $11.99 a month for 2TB, and Google's 2TB plan is about $9.99 a month.
This works best for documents and photos, especially if you already pay for one of them and rarely open huge files away from your desk. Keep in mind that a synced folder is not a backup: deleting a file on your Mac deletes it in the cloud too.
Mountain Duck: mount your own bucket
Mountain Duck mounts cloud storage you already have (Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, Google Drive, Dropbox, SFTP servers, and more) as a drive in Finder, with an option to keep files online until opened. It's sold as a one-time, per-user license for each major version.
It gives you Space's "files appear as a drive" model with the storage bill coming from a provider you pick. Backblaze B2 storage is $6.95 per TB per month (see our B2 vs Wasabi vs R2 comparison).
Tusk: keep files on your own drives, know where everything is
Tusk is a Mac app that automatically backs up your project folders to multiple locations and tracks where every file lives — even when your drives aren't connected.
Tusk takes the opposite approach to Space. Your files stay on drives and cloud storage you already own, and Tusk keeps track of them. You create a project for a folder, add backup destinations (external drives, an S3-compatible bucket, Google Drive, Dropbox), and Tusk copies each file to each one and checks the copy with a BLAKE3 checksum. When you need the space back, Delete local removes the files from your Mac only after confirming every file exists on every connected destination.
After that, the files are "Not local" in Tusk, and Tusk still shows which drive or bucket holds each one, including drives sitting unplugged in a drawer. You can't open a file straight from the cloud the way Space allows. You Restore the project to your Mac first, from whichever copy is fastest to reach.
Tusk fits when your archive lives on external drives, you'd rather pay once than per TB, and the question you keep asking is "which drive is this on, and is it backed up?" Tusk is Mac only and costs $49 for the first 100 licenses, $79 after, one-time, with a 14-day trial.
Space vs the Alternatives at a Glance
| Space | LucidLink | Dropbox / Google Drive | Mountain Duck | Tusk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Where files live | Space's cloud | LucidLink's cloud (or yours on Enterprise) | Their cloud | Your bucket or server | Your drives and your cloud |
| Opens files without full download | Yes, streams byte ranges | Yes, streams | No, downloads on open | Depends on the storage | No, restore first |
| Pricing model | Per month, per TB | Per member and per GB | Per month | One-time per major version | One-time |
| Platforms | Mac, Linux | Mac, Windows, Linux | Mac, Windows, mobile | Mac, Windows | Mac |
| Verifies copies with checksums | Not stated | Not stated | Not stated | No | Yes, BLAKE3 |
| Tracks files on unplugged drives | No | No | No | No | Yes |
Which One Should You Pick?
- A team editing the same projects from different places: LucidLink, or Space's Teams plan if you're on Mac and Linux.
- One person who wants cloud files to open like local files: Space Individual, if your library fits in a few TB.
- One person who already pays for Dropbox or Google Drive: online-only files, for documents and photos.
- Several TB of footage or RAWs on external drives: Tusk, with a cloud bucket as the offsite copy.
FAQ
SpaceFS (sold as Space, at spacefs.com) is a cloud filesystem for macOS and Linux. It mounts a drive in Finder whose files are stored in Space's cloud and streamed on demand, so apps open large files without downloading them first. It also offers versioning, cross-device sync of changes, search, and AI agent access. Space Computer, Inc. raised a $2.4M pre-seed round led by a16z Speedrun in 2026.
As listed in October 2026: Individual is $15 per month or $180 per year with 1TB and one seat, plus $6 per month for each extra 500GB. Teams is $30 per member per month or $360 per year, with 1TB pooled per member and $12 per month per extra 500GB. Enterprise is custom priced. Individual and Teams have a 7-day trial and there is no free plan.
Space doesn't describe itself as a backup service. It keeps versions of changes, which protects against overwriting a file, but your files have one home: Space's cloud. A backup means a second, independent copy somewhere else, such as an external drive or a separate cloud bucket.
For teams that edit shared projects remotely, LucidLink. For cheap cloud storage with files in Finder, Dropbox or Google Drive with online-only files. For mounting storage you already pay for, Mountain Duck. For keeping footage and photos on your own external drives and cloud with verified copies, and seeing which drive holds which file while drives are unplugged, Tusk.
Not yet. As of October 2026, Space's site lists macOS and Linux, with Windows coming soon. LucidLink and Dropbox both run on Windows today.