Comparison of file managers explained

The following tables compare general and technical information for a number of notable file managers.

General information

Name	Developer	Initial release		Platform	Latest release		License	Cost
		Version	Date		Version	Date
	Altap Salamander	Altap		1997-08-15	Windows
	Commander One	Eltima Software		2015-08-04	macOS
Directory Opus	Jonathan Potter GPSoftware	1	1990-01-03	AmigaOS	4.16^[1]	2001-07-04		rowspan="4"
				AmigaOS	5.91^[2]	2015-08-30	rowspan="3"
				AROS
				MorphOS
		6	2001-06-18	Windows	12.27^[3]	2022-03-21
	Dired	Integral part of Emacs. Part of the GNU project.		~1976^[4]
Dolphin	KDE	0.5	2006-06-07	BSD			rowspan="5"
				Linux
				macOS
				Unix
				Windows
DOS Navigator	Ritlabs	0.90	1991	DOS			rowspan="3"
				OS/2
				Windows
	DOS Shell	Microsoft / IBM		1988	DOS		1998
Double Commander <	-- preview release -->	Alexander Koblov		2007	BSD			rowspan="5"
	Linux
	macOS
	Unix
	Windows
emelFM2	tooar		2003-09-06	BSD			rowspan="3"
				Linux
				Unix
	Explorer++	David Ercig		2008-01-08	Windows	1.4.0 ^[5]	2024-01-28
	Far Manager	Eugene Roshal Far Group		1996	Windows (Linux, Mac, BSD via far2l)
	File Explorer	Microsoft		1995-08-24	Windows		2015-07-29
	File Manager	Microsoft Ian Ellison-Taylor		1990	Windows
	Files (Apple)	Apple Inc.		2017-09-19	macOS
	Files by Google	Google LLC		2017-12-05	Android	1.2263.598736326.1^[6]	2024-01-21
	GeoManager	Berkeley Softworks Breadbox Ensemble		1990	GEOS		2009
	Finder	Apple Inc.		1984-01	macOS	10.10.5	2015-08-13
	ForkLift	BinaryNights		2007-06-01	macOS
	gentoo	Emil Brink
	GNOME Commander	GNOME Commander		2001-09
	GNOME Files	Eazel		2001-04-11
	Konqueror	KDE		2000-10
	Krusader	Krusader Krew		2000-07-11
	Midnight Commander	Miguel de Icaza GNU		1994-05
	muCommander	Maxence Bernard		2002-02-17
	Nemo	Linux Mint	1.0.0	2012-07
	nnn	Arun Prakash Jana		2017-04-13
	Nomad.NET	Eugene Sichkar	2.2.0.537 beta	2008-08-14		3.2.0.2890	2016-06-13
Norton Commander	Peter Norton Computing Symantec corporation		1986	DOS	5.51	1998-07-01	rowspan="2"
				Windows	2.01	1999-02-01
	Path Finder	Cocoatech		2001-04	macOS	9.1	2020-03-24
	PathMinder	Albert Nurick Brittain Fraley		1984	DOS	4.11	1988
	PCManFM	Hong Jen Yee		2006-01-09		1.3.2	2021-02-05
	PC Shell	Central Point Software		1986
ranger	Roman Zimbelmann		2010-06-09	BSD			rowspan="3"
				Linux
				macOS
	ROX-Filer	Thomas Leonard et al.		2000-03-10
	SpaceFM	IgnorantGuru	0.5.0	2012-01-13
	STDU Explorer	STDUtility		2009-03-23	Windows	1.0.465	2012-05-24
	Tabbles	Yellow blue soft UAB		2009-08-01	Windows	3.1.29	2016-08-12
	Thunar	Xfce		2006-01-22
Total Commander	Christian Ghisler	1.0	2012-05-18	Android
		1.00d	1993-09-25	Windows
	ViewMAX	Digital Research / Novell	1.0	1990	DR-DOS	3.0	1993
	Volkov Commander	Vsevolod Volkov		1992	DOS
	WinSCP	WinSCP		2000-09-30	Windows
	worker	Ralf Hoffmann	1.0.0	1999-03-06	Unix	4.12.1	2023-03-05
	Xandros File Manager	Xandros Corporation				4.2	2007-07-26
	Xfe	Roland Baudin		2002
	Xfile	Rixstep		2003-03-02	macOS	2.1.0.10	2010-02-14
	Xfm	Simon Marlow Albert Gräf Till Straumann Robert Vogelgesang Juan D. Martin		1992
	xplorer²	Nikos Bozinis		2004-06-10	Windows	5.4.0.2	2023-06-14
XTree	Jeffery C. Johnson		1985-04-01	DOS		1992	rowspan="2"
			1992	Windows		1992
	XYplorer	Donald Lessau		1997	Windows	20.80.0100	2020-02-13
	ZTreeWin	Kim Henkel		1996	Windows	2.2.19	2011-05-27
Name	Developer	Initial release		Platform	Latest release		License	Cost
		Version	Date		Version	Date

Operating system support

Cross-platform file managers

This table shows the operating systems that the file managers can run on, without emulation.

File manager	DOS	OS/2 & eCS	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	AmigaOS	OpenVMS
	Directory Opus
	Dired	^[7]	^[8]	^[9]	^[10]				^[11]	^[12]
	Dolphin				^[13]
	Double Commander
	DOS Navigator
	emelFM2
	GNOME Commander
	Konqueror
	Krusader
	Midnight Commander
	muCommander
	nnn
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)
	Nemo
	PathMinder
	PCManFM
	Ranger
	ROX-Filer
	Thunar
	Total Commander
	Volkov Commander
	worker
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfm
	Far Manager				(far2l)	(far2l)	(far2l)
	ZTreeWin
File manager	DOS	OS/2 & eCS	Windows	Mac OS X	Linux	BSD	Unix	AmigaOS	OpenVMS

Mac-only file managers

• Finder
• ForkLift
• Path Finder
• Xfile
• Commander One

• nix-only file managers

• Demos Commander
• emelFM2
• Gentoo file manager
• Konqueror
• Krusader
• nnn
• Nautilus
• Nemo
• PCMan File Manager
• Ranger
• ROX-Filer
• Thunar
• SpaceFM
• worker

Windows-only file managers

• Altap Salamander
• Directory Opus
• Explorer++
• File Manager (Windows)
• Nomad.NET
• SE-Explorer
• STDU Explorer
• Total Commander
• File Explorer
• xplorer²
• XYplorer
• ZTreeWin

iOS-only file managers

• Files (Apple)

Android-only file managers

• Files by Google
• Ghost Commander

Manager views

Information about what common file manager views are implemented natively (without third-party add-ons).

Note that the "Column View" does not refer to the Miller Columns browsing / visualization technique that can be applied to tree structures / folders.

File manager	Family	UI	Icon view	List view	Column view	Thumbnails	Details + Thumbs	Grouping	Content dependent	Twin panel	Favorites / Bookmark	Panel tabs
	Altap Salamander	Orthodox	GUI
	Commander One	Orthodox	GUI
	Demos Commander	Orthodox	Text
	Directory Opus	Orthodox	GUI
	Dired	Directory editor	Text	, on GUI			, on GUI	, on GUI			, one or more	(bookmarks)	(optional tab bar) ^[14]
	Dolphin	Navigational	GUI
	Double Commander	Orthodox	GUI
	DOS Navigator	Orthodox	Text
	emelFM2	Orthodox	GUI
	FAR Manager	Orthodox	Text				^[15]
	File Manager (Windows)	Orthodox	GUI
	Files (Apple)		GUI
	Files by Google		GUI
	Finder		GUI					, with Cover Flow
	ForkLift	Orthodox	GUI
	gentoo	Orthodox	GUI
	GNOME Commander	Orthodox	GUI
	Konqueror		GUI
	Krusader	Orthodox	GUI
	Midnight Commander	Orthodox	Text
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)		GUI
	Nemo		GUI								,press[F3]
	Nomad.NET	Orthodox	GUI							, Manual			, Shared
	Path Finder	Navigational	GUI
	PCManFM	Navigational	GUI
	ROX-Filer	Spatial	GUI
	STDU Explorer	Navigational	GUI
	Total Commander	Orthodox	GUI							In viewing
	Thunar	Navigational	GUI
	Volkov Commander	Orthodox	Text
	Windows Explorer		GUI
	worker	Orthodox	GUI
	Xandros File Manager	Navigational	GUI
	Xfe	Hybrid Navigational	GUI
	Xfm	Spatial	GUI
	xplorer²	Hybrid Navigational / Orthodox	GUI
	XYplorer	Hybrid Navigational / Orthodox	GUI
	ZTreeWin	Orthodox	Text
File manager	Family	UI	Icon view	List view	Column view	Thumbnails	Details + Thumbs	Grouping	Content dependent	Twin panel	Favorites / Bookmark	Panel tabs

Twin-panel file managers have obligatory connected panels where action in one panel results in reaction in the second. Konqueror supports multiple panels divided horizontally, vertically or both, but these panels do not act as twin panels by default (the user has to mark the panels he wants to act as twin-panels).

Network protocols

Information on what networking protocols the file managers support. Note that many of these protocols might be supported, in part or in whole, by software layers below the file manager, rather than by the file manager itself; for example, the macOS Finder doesn't implement those protocols, and the Windows Explorer doesn't implement most of them, they just make ordinary file system calls to access remote files, and Konqueror either uses ordinary file system calls or KIO slave calls to access remote files. Some functions, such as browsing for servers or shares, might be implemented in the file manager even if most functions are implemented below the file manager.

File manager	SMB/CIFS	WebDAV	NFS	AFP	FTP
	Altap Salamander
	Commander One
	Directory Opus						(SFTP & SSL)
	Dired
	Dolphin
	Double Commander
	emelFM2
	Far Manager
	File Manager
	Files (Apple)
	Files by Google
	Finder
	ForkLift
	GNOME Commander
	Konqueror
	Krusader
	muCommander
	Midnight Commander
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)
	Nemo		?	?	?
	Nomad.NET
	Path Finder					(Read Access)
	PCManFM
	ROX-Filer
	Total Commander
	Thunar
	worker
	Windows Explorer
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfm
	xplorer²
	XYplorer
	ZTreeWin
File manager	SMB/CIFS	WebDAV	NFS	AFP	FTP

File features

Information on what basic file features the file managers support.

File Manager	Undo/redo file operation	File compression	File encryption	Rename busy files	File preview	File coloring filter ^[16]	File selection filter	Paste clipboard as file	File and folder reports	ACL (Access control list)	Mass rename ^[17]	Run executable files
	Altap Salamander							, multiple ^[18]			^[19]
	Commander One
	Directory Opus
	Dired	^[20]
	Dolphin
	Double Commander
	emelFM2
	FAR Manager								^[21]
	File Manager
	Files (Apple)
	Files by Google
	Finder
	ForkLift
	GNOME Commander
	Konqueror	^[22]
	Krusader
	Midnight Commander								^[23]
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)								^[24]				^[25]
	Nemo				?			?		?	?
	Nomad.NET
	Path Finder			^[26]
	PCManFM
	ROX-Filer		With helper applications
	STDU Explorer
	Thunar		(via plugin)	(via plugin)
	Total Commander
	Windows Explorer								^[27]		^[28]
	worker
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfm
	xplorer²										^[29]
	XYplorer
	ZTreeWin			^[30]
File Manager	Undo/redo file operation	File compression	File encryption	Rename busy files	File preview	File coloring filter	File selection filter	Paste clipboard as file	File and folder reports	ACL (Access control list)	Mass rename	Run executable files

Browsing features

File manager	Symbolic links	Windows long path support	Browse compressed folders	Slideshows	Shows combined size of selected directories	Branch sizes	Directory compare	Synchronizer	Find as you type (Type-ahead find)	Embedded/integrated terminal	For directories, size column shows:
	Altap Salamander								(for remote folders)			DIR
	Commander One										, in the PRO Pack^[31]	DIR and total size including subdirectories
	Directory Opus											DIR and total size including subdirectories
	Dired				^[32]						^[33]	Literal
	DOS Navigator									^[34]		Total size including subdirectories
	Dolphin											Number of entries
	Double Commander											DIR
	emelFM2											Literal
	FAR Manager								^[35]
	Files (Apple)
	Files by Google
	Finder
	ForkLift											DIR and total size including subdirectories
	GNOME Commander
	Konqueror					(with konq-plugin)		(with kdiff3 plugin)	(with kdiff3 plugin)			Folder only size (default) selectable to file count/total size
	Krusader
	Midnight Commander			^[36]					^[37]
	muCommander	^[38]									, command execution only
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)										, With Plugin^[39] ^[40]	Number of entries
	Nemo	?		?	?	?	?	?	?	?	, with nemo-terminal extension
	Nomad.NET										, via Plugin	DIR and total size including subdirectories
	Path Finder										^[41]
	PCManFM										, but there is a fork attempt^[42]	Nothing
	ROX-Filer									, and browsing with tab completion		Nothing
	Thunar											Configurable
	Total Commander	^[43]			In plugin							DIR and total size including subdirectories
	Windows Explorer	^[44]				(in folder tooltips)
	worker
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfile										^[45]
	Xfm
	xplorer²										^[46]
	XYplorer				^[47]						^[48]	Contents including subs
	ZTreeWin											Selectable: number of entries or size (optional: including subs)
File manager	Symbolic links	Windows long path support	Browse compressed folders	Slideshows	Shows combined size of selected directories	Branch sizes	Directory compare	Synchronizer	Find as you type (Type-ahead find)	Embedded/integrated terminal	For directories, size column shows:

Search features

Information on what file searching features the file managers support. RegExp include the possibilities of nested Boolean searches, thus implicitly all file managers supporting RegExp search support also Boolean searches.

File manager	File name	File contents	Basic metadata search	All metadata search	RegExp for contents	Boolean (nesting levels)	Fuzzy logic	Save searches	Refined searches
	Altap Salamander					^[49]
	Commander One
	Directory Opus
	Dired								^[50]
	Dolphin
	Double Commander
	emelFM2
	FAR Manager
	Files (Apple)
	Files by Google
	Finder
	ForkLift
	Konqueror
	Krusader					^[51]
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)
	Nemo		?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
	Nomad.NET
	Path Finder
	PCManFM
	ROX-Filer
	Total Commander
	Windows Explorer
	worker
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfile
	Xfm
	xplorer²
	XYplorer									^[52]
	ZTreeWin					^[53]
File manager	File name	File contents	Basic metadata search	All metadata search	RegExp for contents	Boolean (nesting levels)	Fuzzy logic	Save searches	Refined searches

Column Definitions (D)Entry Notes (s)

Extensibility

Information on which parts of the application can be extended by plugins.

File manager	Filesystem support	Attribute columns	File previews	Metadata indexing	Unicode support	Visual themes
	Altap Salamander
	Commander One
	Directory Opus
	Dired
	Dolphin
	Double Commander
	emelFM2
	Far Manager
	Files (Apple)
	Files by Google
	Finder
	ForkLift
	Konqueror
	Krusader
	Midnight Commander
	GNOME Files (Nautilus)
	Nemo
	Nomad.NET
	Path Finder
	PCManFM
	ROX-Filer
	Total Commander				In search tool
	Windows Explorer				^[54]
	worker
	Xandros File Manager
	Xfe
	Xfile
	Xfm
	xplorer²
	XYplorer
	ZTreeWin
File manager	Filesystem support	Attribute columns	File previews	Metadata indexing	Unicode support	Visual themes

External links

• What's the best file manager for Ubuntu Gnome 14.04 Trusty? by Rich Lott, May 2014
• Softpanorama Orthodox File Managers page (Home of the OFM standard)
• Comparison of some "light" File Managers in GNU/Linux (in spanish)

Notes and References

1. Web site: Directory Opus 4 Research Project.
2. Web site: Dopus5.
3. Web site: Release History . 2022-07-27 . gpsoft.com.au.
4. Web site: Dating Dired . Adoption by emacs . Thomas E. Dickey . May 10, 2022.
5. Web site: Release Explorer++ 1.4.0 · derceg/explorerplusplus . 2024-03-07 . GitHub . en.
6. Web site: Files by Google - Apps on Google Play . January 25, 2024 . en.
7. Web site: Info Node: (emacs)Dired. cmu.edu.
8. Web site: Emacs 20.6 under OS/2 . Home.snafu.de . 2013-12-30.
9. Web site: Emacs FAQ for MS Windows . . 2013-08-27 . 2013-12-30.
10. Web site: Carbon Emacs Package . 2009-04-04 . https://web.archive.org/web/20060125015159/http://homepage.mac.com/zenitani/emacs-e.html . 2006-01-25 . dead .
11. Web site: Archived copy . 2009-04-04 . https://archive.today/20120715172435/http://de5.aminet.net/util/gnu/em1934src.readme . 2012-07-15 . dead .
12. Web site: AaronHawley . Emacs On VMS . EmacsWiki . 2010-05-28 . 2013-12-30.
13. Web site: The MacPorts Project - Available Ports . . 2013-12-30.
14. http://www.emacswiki.org/emacs/TabBarMode Tab-bar mode
15. With ConEmu Far Manager plugin conemu-maximus5
16. Files matching certain user defined criteria (e.g. name pattern, attributes) are displayed in another color. Example: Since Windows 2000, the UI guide requires NTFS compressed files and folders displayed in blue, whereas uncompressed ones are black.
17. Mass Rename is a feature to rename large number of files in a convenient way and including a preview, see the screenshot for an example. Common options are subdirectory inclusion, wildcards, manual mode (offering to edit names as text files in editors), counters, time related fields (e.g. "date created"), path related fields (e.g. "parent directory name"), regular expressions, etc. See also: Batch renaming.
18. Altap Salamander offers to show only selected files and hide unselected ones, also in picture viewer, etc. For selection, the usual wildcards and add/subtract/intersect with 1...N stored selections are offered.
19. ACL is dependent on the type and version of file- and operating system. Altap Salamander offers quick access to owner, auditing and permission settings in WinXP with NTFS 5.
20. Only actions operating on filesystem data (filename, path, timestamps, acls, etc.); file contents have separate and independent per-file undo/redo. Filesystem actions that modify file contents (deleting, overwriting, truncating, &c.) can be undone/redone with optional integrated use of automatic trash/backup/auto-save/version-control features.
21. With plug-ins, or this can be implemented as a macros
22. Konqueror can undo, not redo.
23. Create new file with desired name, then paste contents.
24. Only text which is dragged from another program and dropped into a folder in GNOME Files (Nautilus) can be pasted as a new file.
25. Removed in version 3.29.
26. Path Finder apparently integrates with Knox, an encryption utility.
27. Supported up to Windows XP only. Document scraps are not supported in Windows Vista and later.
28. Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only. Must be enabled manually in Windows versions prior to Server 2003.
29. Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only.
30. Encryption is supported for Zip and Rar, other formats depend on the editable ARCHIVER.BB2 file
31. Web site: Dual-pane file manager for Mac - Commander One. mac.eltima.com. 12 May 2016.
32. via image-mode, GUI only
33. Web site: Shell Commands in Dired. www.gnu.org. 12 May 2016.
34. Press and release Alt
35. Via plugins, or manual with helping of the embedded Advanced Compare.
36. Extensible via compression plugins, supported formats list depends on distribution package maintainer
37. Can be done in two steps
38. Web site: Two-pane file manager for Windows with symlink and large file support. stackexchange.com.
39. Web site: Flogisoft - Nautilus Terminal. 12 May 2016.
40. Web site: Launchpad - Nautilus Terminal. 7 September 2010 . 12 May 2016.
41. Web site: Path Finder 7 by Cocoatech. www.cocoatech.com. 12 May 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20130529085350/http://www.cocoatech.com/pathfinder/. 29 May 2013. dead.
42. Web site: LXDE.org Forum - Try PCManFM with a tabbed terminal included. forum.lxde.org. 12 May 2016.
43. Web site: Two-pane file manager for Windows with symlink and large file support. stackexchange.com. 12 May 2016.
44. Copying directory junctions across drives creates an empty directory in the target
45. Web site: Xfile: The Standard Setter - Features. rixstep.com. 12 May 2016.
46. Web site: xplorer² tour#6: external command console. zabkat.com. 12 May 2016.
47. via XYplorer script- SlideShow
48. Web site: XYplorer - 9.90 Released. www.xyplorer.com. 12 May 2016.
49. Altap Salamander Search offers RegExp for defining the file content.
50. Part of Emacs.
51. Web site: Krusader - Twin panel file management for your desktop. krusader.org. 2008-07-22. https://web.archive.org/web/20081003022657/http://www.krusader.org/text.php?t=krusader-2.0.0-beta1.changelog. 2008-10-03. dead.
52. After searching results, user can apply advanced visual filters to narrow down results.
53. ZTreeWin provides several context specific search syntaxes that are not pure regex
54. [IFilters]