A technology correspondent recently documented a significant performance disparity when synchronizing large sets of project files between a network storage volume and a local NVMe SSD, finding that rclone achieved speeds roughly four times greater than rsync. The test involved moving approximately 59 GiB of data, comprising hundreds of files, across a 10 Gigabit Ethernet connection.
Using the standard rsync command with archival flags, the transfer process took over eight minutes, with the transfer rate frequently capping around 350 MB/sec, according to the report published on jeffgeerling.com. The correspondent noted that rsync operates in a single-threaded, serial manner, which limits throughput even when underlying hardware, such as the Thunderbolt 5 SSD and the 10 Gbps network, possess higher aggregate capacity.
To address this bottleneck, the correspondent implemented rclone, specifically utilizing the --multi-thread-streams option set to 32 to enable parallel data transfers. This configuration allowed the transfer to fully saturate the 10 Gbps link, completing the identical synchronization task in just over two minutes.
The analysis confirmed that while the initial metadata scanning phase remained comparable between the two utilities—taking approximately 18 seconds for both—the efficiency gain was entirely attributable to rclone's ability to handle multiple file transfers concurrently.
This finding suggests that for environments dealing with numerous medium-to-large files over high-speed local area networks, the architectural difference between rsync's sequential processing and rclone's parallel execution yields substantial time savings.
While rclone is often categorized for cloud storage operations, this demonstration highlights its utility for high-volume, local infrastructure management and data mobility tasks.
The correspondent successfully mirrored the necessary archival flags from rsync to rclone, managing specific exclusions for system files like those generated by Final Cut Pro, ensuring data integrity during the accelerated transfer.
