syq
Ranked 14 of 17 file transfer apps by recommenders
Free tool for fast file copying between machines, with no superuser access or setup flags needed. Critics say its speed claims against rsync lack benchmarks.
Free tool for fast file copying between machines, with no superuser access or setup flags needed. Critics say its speed claims against rsync lack benchmarks.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 7
- approval share
- 46%
Recommended in 1 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.8 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 1 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Faster file copying than alternatives
“Syq was sometimes much faster and never more than a few percent slower.”
Comment from 12 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” “the most important benefit is speed of copying”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” “I'm seeing 5x speedups on my real workloads”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” No root access or config needed
“No special flags to set, zero config. It just works, optimally, every time.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” “You don't need superuser access for anything.”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Rsync comparison and benchmarks unconvincing
“if you're claiming to be faster than rsync, you should demonstrate why front-and-center”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” “Seems like you shouldn’t compare it with rsync (yet, if doing delta merges is planned)”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” “Really serious benchmarks never contain any information about network characteristics”
Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)” - Comment from 10 Sep 2026 in “Show HN: Syq – copy files between machines fast (better than rsync)”
Other file transfer apps people recommend
The four most recommended other file transfer apps, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LocalSend | 81 | 25 | 76% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Magic Wormhole | 21 | 6 | 78% | 8 | — | Approved |
| Kermit | 15 | 4 | 79% | 2 | — | — |
| croc | 13 | 3 | 81% | 5 | — | Approved |
| syqThis page | 6 | 7 | 46% | 1 | — | — |
What people said
18 of the 20 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“Syq was sometimes much faster and never more than a few percent slower.”
“Really serious benchmarks never contain any information about network characteristics”
“No special flags to set, zero config. It just works, optimally, every time.”
“syq will still avoid copying most of the image if changing the config file just modifies a small number of locations”
“Yeah, I kind of regret writing "better than rsync" in the tagline.”
“it solves some frustrations with rsync”
“since the syq client is always talking to the same receiver on the server, we can save a few round trips that ControlMaster still needs, so syq persist feels faster”
“Seems like you shouldn’t compare it with rsync (yet, if doing delta merges is planned)”
“if you're claiming to be faster than rsync, you should demonstrate why front-and-center”
“rsync already supports this via OpenSSH's ControlMaster directive.”
“your tool looks interesting and promising, thanks for sharing it”
“You don't need superuser access for anything.”
“I'm seeing 5x speedups on my real workloads”
“I work with clusters where I do not have superuser access, so this is a no go for me.”
“a new half-baked tool that no one uses for a tiny speed improvement”
“you are never relying on whatever version of syq happens to be installed on a server”
“tells you to pipe curl into bash to execute a shell script”
“the most important benefit is speed of copying”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.