I tested 4 WebDAV clients against rclone mount on Windows. Here's the speed, the quirks, and which one I'd actually use.
TL;DR
If you want native drive letters and don't mind a paid license, a native client like ScsDriver or RaiDrive is faster than rclone mount. rclone wins on cost (free) and Linux support. Cyberduck is fine for one-off drag-drops, not for daily driver use.
Test setup
- Server: Synology DS220+ at home, WebDAV over HTTPS, port 5006
- Client: Windows 11 24H2, Ryzen 7 5800X, Samsung 980 Pro NVMe
- File set: 4 GB mixed (500 photos + 50 PDFs + 1 ISO + many small .txt)
- Network: 1 Gbps wired LAN
| Client | Type | Price | Native drive letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScsDriver | WebDAV native | $9.99 lifetime | Yes |
| RaiDrive | WebDAV native | $24/year (free tier with ads) | Yes |
| rclone mount | FUSE | Free | Yes (via WinFsp) |
| Cyberduck | GUI client | Free | No (volume mount only) |
Sequential read test (4 GB mixed)
| Client | Throughput | CPU | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| ScsDriver | 112 MB/s | 7% | Sustained |
| RaiDrive (paid) | 108 MB/s | 9% | Sustained |
| rclone mount | 95 MB/s | 14% | First-read slower due to VFS cache warmup |
| Cyberduck | 89 MB/s | 6% | Drag-drop only, no real streaming |
Numbers taken with dd and Stopwatch over 3 runs. Variance ±3%.
Many-small-files test
Mounting 50,000 .txt files (each 1 KB) is where things diverge:
| Client | Time to mount+list | Time to copy all out |
|---|---|---|
| ScsDriver | 0.8 s | 11 min |
| RaiDrive | 1.1 s | 14 min |
| rclone mount | 3.5 s (VFS fill) | 22 min |
| Cyberduck | N/A (drag-drop only) | 31 min |
Native clients index the directory server-side; rclone's VFS has to cache. For "open 50K thumbnails" workloads the native clients win by 2-3x.
CPU / battery on laptop
This is where paid clients earn their keep. rclone mount with --vfs-cache-mode full is comfortable but burns CPU. On battery I saw:
- rclone mount: 18% CPU average, ~2.1 W extra draw
- ScsDriver: 5% CPU average, ~0.6 W extra draw
- RaiDrive: 6% CPU average, ~0.7 W extra draw
If you're on a laptop and care about battery, rclone mount is a real cost.
Failure modes
- rclone mount disconnects on laptop sleep. You have to remount. Annoying if you don't notice.
- RaiDrive free tier shows a nag banner. The free tier also rate-limits to ~5 MB/s sustained.
- Cyberduck loses the session after 30 min idle and re-prompts for password.
- ScsDriver reconnects automatically after sleep/wake. No nag, no rate limit on the paid tier.
Pick by use case
| Use case | Best pick |
|---|---|
| Windows + native drive + low overhead | ScsDriver or RaiDrive |
| Cross-platform + free + Linux server | rclone mount |
| Quick drag-drop, no mounting needed | Cyberduck |
| macOS / Linux desktop | rclone mount (or native GVFS/KIO) |
| Encrypt + WebDAV (E2EE) | rclone crypt → rclone mount |
For me — I run a small dev workstation on Windows, value battery life, and need real-time drive-letter behavior. ScsDriver wins on that combo, $9.99 lifetime over $24/year for RaiDrive. rclone is my fallback for Linux boxes.
What I'd want next
- A native macOS / Linux equivalent of ScsDriver (GVFS works but no per-mount config UI)
- rclone to fix the sleep/wake disconnect (or document a workaround that actually works)
- Better E2EE on top of WebDAV without needing rclone crypt (Cryptomator works but per-folder setup is tedious)
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