Examples disclosed herein provide systems, methods, and software for avoiding data replication using sparse files. In one example, a method of using a sparse file to manage modifications to read-only files includes identifying an open file request on a computing system for a read-only file, and generating the sparse file corresponding to the read-only file. The method further includes identifying a modification to the read-only file and, responsive to identifying the modification, initiate a write to the sparse file based on the modification and identifying the write in a region map.