CloudMounter vs Mountain Duck (2026): which should you pick?

Pick CloudMounter if

• Fits if you want cloud files to appear in Finder or Explorer without a sync folder
• Works for people who have several Dropbox or Google accounts to open side by side

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want one license for both systems, as Mac and Windows are separate
• Tight if you want to try the Mac app for long: it has a 7-day trial tied to the yearly plan
• Too light for offline work on Windows, which is listed as coming soon
• Watch out: the Team license for Mac and the one for Windows cannot be shared across both
• Pricey if you want the Mac app for good, since lifetime is $74 against a $29 yearly plan

Pick Mountain Duck if

• Fits if you work on files in S3 or an SFTP server from ordinary desktop apps
• Works for teams who would rather buy licences once than pay a subscription

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you run Linux, as only macOS and Windows are listed
• Pricey if you need it for several people: each seat needs its own licence, $49 each
• Watch out: a licence covers one major version, so a version 6 would need an upgrade
• Watch out: the trial length isn't stated on the pages we read
• Not for you if you only want cloud storage in Finder for free, since ExpanDrive's free plan covers that

CloudMounter

• The Mac free trial is tied to the yearly subscription; the lifetime license has none.
• Offline work is listed as supported on macOS and coming soon on Windows.
• Mac and Windows licenses are separate, and a Team license cannot be shared across both.
• Supported services differ between the Mac and Windows versions.

Mountain Duck

• Runs on macOS 13 or later and Windows 10 or later only; no Linux version is listed.
• A licence is valid for one major version, so a future version 6 would need an upgrade purchase.
• The buy page shows the price only after the form loads; it is per seat, so each user needs a licence.
• Free to download as a trial, but the trial length is not stated on the pages we read.

CloudMounter

Mount clouds as drives

Cloud accounts and servers appear in Finder or Explorer and can be browsed like local folders.

Many services

Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, Amazon S3, WebDAV, SFTP and FTP, plus Box, MEGA and others on some platforms.

Transfers between clouds

Drag files from one cloud to another without downloading them to the computer first.

Encryption

The Mac purchase page lists AES-256 encryption for cloud files.

Multiple accounts

Connect as many cloud accounts as you need, including several from the same provider.

Mountain Duck

Integrated connect mode

Version 5 syncs through the File Provider API on macOS and Cloud Files on Windows, so no device driver or network mount is installed.

Smart synchronization

All remote files are listed, and each is downloaded to the local disk only when opened. Chosen folders can be kept offline.

Broad protocol and cloud support

Connects over FTP, SFTP, WebDAV and SMB, and to Amazon S3, Google Storage, Azure, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, SharePoint, Box and others.

Cryptomator vaults

Client-side encryption using Cryptomator-compatible vaults, so data at rest is unreadable to the server or cloud provider.

Team features

File locking for Office documents on WebDAV servers, version history on versioned S3 buckets, and custom versioning on the server.

Sharing and search

Create expiring share links from the context menu on supported storage, and search remote files with Spotlight or Windows Search.

CloudMounter

• Windows Free$0

  After the trial, full access to one account each for Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive.

• Mac Personal, yearly$29

  per year for 1 Mac

  Personal use only; free upgrades during the license period.

• Windows Personal$29.99

  one-time, for 1 PC

  One-time purchase for a single Windows PC.

• Mac Personal, lifetime$74

  one-time, for 1 Mac

  Shown as $74, down from $99; personal use only, no end date stated for the discount.

• Mac Team, yearly$99

  per year for 5 Macs

  Business and personal use; a lifetime Team license is $249, down from $299.

• Windows Team$99.99

  one-time, for 5 PCs

  Five Windows PCs; larger company licenses are quoted by sales.

Mountain Duck

• Single user$49

  per user, one-time, for version 5

  Per-seat licence, usable on any number of computers by the same user. Discounted upgrades for later major versions.

• 5 users$193

  for 5 users, one-time, for version 5

  Volume price for five seats, below five single licences. The buy page also offers 10, 20 and 50 users, and a custom quote.

• 10 users$348

  for 10 users, one-time, for version 5

  Volume price for ten seats. Larger teams and white-label deployments are handled as custom quotes.

CloudMounter

No public discounts listed.

Mountain Duck

• Education

  30% academic discount

  Mountain Duck offers a 30% discount coupon for academic use, requested by ticket from an institutional email address.

• Other savings

  30% switcher or Cyberduck discount

  A 30% discount is offered to owners of a Cyberduck key, or of a Transmit Disk, ExpanDrive or NetDrive licence, on request.