Direct comparison
Figshare vs Dryad — Data Repository Comparison
Compare Figshare and Dryad: curation model, cost/DPC fees, storage limits, certification, and which fits your DMP and dataset type.
Side-by-side comparison
| Dimension | Figshare | Dryad |
|---|---|---|
| Operator | Developed and commercially backed by Digital Science (since a January 2012 relaunch) | Non-profit, partnered with the California Digital Library |
| Founded | 2011 | Originated in the late 2000s as an academic project; operates today as the Dryad non-profit |
| Curation before publication | No mandatory review on the free tier; Figshare+ adds expert curatorial review | Mandatory curation team review (file readability, metadata completeness) before publication |
| Scope of deposit | Nearly any research output — datasets, code, posters, presentations, figures, supplementary files | Datasets underlying a specific published or in-review research article |
| Cost to depositor | Free on figshare.com (20GB/file, 20GB private storage); institutional/Figshare+ tiers are contract- or submission-priced | Tiered Data Publishing Charge, from $150 for datasets up to 5GB (May 2025 rates), often covered by institutional/publisher membership; fee waivers available |
| Storage / size limits | 20GB/file free; up to 5TB/file under Figshare for Institutions | Fee scales with dataset size; large-data surcharges above 10GB via partner submission |
| Certification | ISO/IEC 27001 (info security); not itself CoreTrustSeal-certified as a platform — provides template support for institutional customers pursuing their own certification | Preservation copy stored in Merritt (California Digital Library), which is CoreTrustSeal-certified; Dryad itself is not the certified layer |
| Journal integration | White-label institutional and journal-branded instances common | 'Submit to Dryad' integration at manuscript submission with many partner journals/publishers |
| Identifiers / metadata | Mints DataCite DOIs; exposes Dublin Core, DataCite, Schema.org metadata | Mints DataCite DOIs; DataCite-schema metadata |
| Licensing | CC-BY default, CC0 available on figshare.com; broader CC suite on institutional/Figshare+ instances | CC0 for deposited data (standard for the platform) |
| Best fit | Institutional catch-all repository; broad output types; free/large-scale storage needs | Publication-tied datasets where mandatory independent curation is required or preferred |
Common questions
FAQ
Can I use Figshare and Dryad for the same project?+
Yes — some labs deposit supplementary materials, code, or posters on Figshare while publishing the core dataset underlying a specific paper on Dryad to satisfy a journal's data-availability requirement. They are not mutually exclusive.
Which one is CoreTrustSeal certified?+
Neither platform is itself the certified entity, but Dryad's preservation copy lives in Merritt (California Digital Library), which is CoreTrustSeal-certified. Figshare provides template support for institutional customers to pursue their own certification rather than the shared platform holding one.
Does Dryad always charge a fee?+
Unsponsored individual authors are charged a tiered Data Publishing Charge starting at $150 for datasets up to 5GB (May 2025 rates). Many institutions and publishers hold memberships that cover this for their authors, and a general fee-waiver application exists for those without sponsorship (not available above 10GB).
Is Figshare free?+
The core figshare.com platform is free for individual researchers, with 20GB per file and 20GB of private storage. Figshare for Institutions and Figshare+ are separate paid tiers scoped to institutional contracts or large publication-tied submissions.
