Version control for 3D artists, animators, game studios, Unity teams and design teams.
KuraDrive keeps every save of every file, stores only what changed, and puts the whole project in Windows Explorer without filling the disk. Lock a scene before you sculpt it, pin your art to a Git commit, and share folders with exactly the people who need them. Run it on one machine, on your own server, or let us run it for you.
The web app. The desktop app shows the same drive in Windows Explorer, and WebDAV shows it to everything else.
Works with what you already save
and every other file. KuraDrive never asks a program to change: files open from Explorer under their real names, and each save becomes a version.
Naming things
One file under one name, with every save kept behind it: each a click from coming back, and each stored as only what changed.
Who it's for
One artist, one machine, no server
Artists sharing one drive
Code in Git, art in KuraDrive
.kdpin file in Git names the art each commit was built with.How it stores
KuraDrive cuts each file where its content says, not every so many bytes, so an edit in the middle of a two-gigabyte scene moves only the chunks around it. Each chunk is named by its BLAKE3 hash, compressed with zstd and stored once, shared by every file and every version that holds it. A hundred versions cost what changed between them.
Measured on real work
2.4×smaller on disk
4%of a file sent per re-save
Before building the store, we measured it. The chunker ran over 523 GiB sampled from a studio's working Nextcloud, which held 20.5 TiB of live projects and 7 TiB of old versions. Deduplicating whole files saved 3%. Chunks of 1 MiB, compressed with zstd, held the same sample in 215 GiB.
kuradrive-estimateWhat it does
Every save is a new version, and a version never changes once written. Restore one, download one, or see what each added to the store. Name the state of a whole folder as a snapshot and bring it back later; the trash keeps what was deleted until someone empties it.
Binary files never merge. When two people work on the same scene, the best a sync tool can do is keep both copies, and one of them has lost days. Take a lock before you start: everyone who can see the file sees your name and your note, and every other save is refused until you let go.
harbour.blend is locked by Meera since Monday 10:12: “retopology, back Friday”.
The desktop app puts the whole drive in Windows Explorer under its real file names, taking no disk space until a file is opened. Programs open them like any other file; free up space and they go back to the server. Edits upload as new versions.
KuraDrive.exe, or the installer; no runtime to ship beside itkuradrive-sync, a command-line client for scripts and serversKeep a Unity project's code in Git and its art in a KuraDrive folder beside it. A small .kdpin file, committed with the code, names the snapshot of the art that commit was built with. Check out last month's commit and your art folder follows it, without moving anyone else's.
key = value lines that Git diffs like codeVersions, snapshots and online-only files also work on one machine, with no server and no account. The desktop app keeps a working folder's history in a repository on a second disk or a NAS share, chunked and compressed the same way. When a team forms, link the repository to a server and push; work still lands locally first.
Viewer, editor, manager and owner, given to people or groups on any folder. Roles flow down to everything inside, and the highest one wins.
Share a file or folder with people and groups from its details panel. It shows up under Shared with me, with the role you gave.
Every method, locks included, behind the same permission checks as the web. rclone and the tools that speak WebDAV connect directly.
The browser cuts files into chunks exactly as the desktop app does and sends only the ones the server lacks. A dropped upload resumes where it stopped.
OpenID Connect with your identity provider, or passwords with rate-limited sign-in. Disabling a person ends their sessions at once.
Every action from the web, WebDAV and the desktop app, failed sign-ins included, with a viewer and filters.
The database and the chunks new since last time, to a disk, SFTP or S3, on a schedule with retention. Restore from the same page.
By name, across everything you can see and nothing you can't.
A quota per person, and an overview of what deduplication and compression saved, for each file and in total.
Coming from Nextcloud
The importer reads a Nextcloud's database and data folder directly and brings across people with the passwords they already use, groups, files with their versions, shares and Group Folders. It plans first, a read-only count with a note for anything it can't carry, and then imports beside the running server. Once moved, the studio's 19 TB took 4.9 TB on the NAS that runs KuraDrive.
Plans
One artist, no server
[Price]
The desktop app with a local repository: every version, snapshots and online-only files, on disks you already own.
A team, on our servers
[Price per person, per month]
app.kuradrive.com, run by CognitoBit. We look after the server, the database and the upgrades; your team signs in and installs the desktop app.
A studio, on its own hardware
[Licence terms and price]
One container beside PostgreSQL, behind your reverse proxy or the Caddy setup that comes with it. The files stay on your disks or in your bucket.
Questions
Any file, because KuraDrive never asks a program to change. The desktop app shows the drive in Windows Explorer under real names, so Blender, Maya, ZBrush, Substance, Photoshop and Unity open and save files as they always have. Every save becomes a version whatever the format; how much space that saves depends on the format, and the measurements above show which gain most.
Not on the solo plan: the repository sits on your own disks. With a server, the desktop app keeps working offline and catches up when the connection returns; an online-only file needs the server the first time it is opened.
If one of them holds a lock, the other's save is refused with the holder's name and note. Without a lock, KuraDrive keeps both, the second as a copy beside the first, so nobody's work is lost.
The desktop app is for Windows 10 and 11 today. On a Mac or a Linux machine, use the web app, or connect over WebDAV.
Self-hosted, on your own disk or S3-compatible bucket, with the metadata in your own PostgreSQL. Managed, in Cloudflare R2 with the server in Mumbai. Either way people see only what their roles allow, and every action, failed sign-ins included, goes to the audit log.
From Nextcloud, yes, with people, passwords, history and shares. From anything else, copy the files in with the desktop app, or with rclone over WebDAV; history starts from that first copy.
From the admin page: the database and the chunks added since the last run, to a disk, an SFTP server or an S3 bucket, on a schedule with retention. Restore runs from the same page and takes a safety copy of the database first.
No. KuraDrive is made and licensed by CognitoBit. The self-hosted plan gives you the server to run on your own hardware under a written licence.
What it leaves out
KuraDrive is a file platform and nothing else. No calendar, chat, mail or office suite: other software does those well. Leaving them out keeps it to one server, one database and your storage, small enough to understand and steady enough to hold everything an organization keeps.
Write to us for a trial on one machine, on our servers or on yours, a licence, or a move from Nextcloud. Say roughly how many people and how many terabytes, and we'll answer with what it takes.
Ask for a trial