The file manager you already have is fine
It really is. Explorer, Finder, Files and Dolphin all open folders and copy things, and for most of what most people do that is the whole job.
This page is about the rest of it. What you do when a copy is 400 GB and you want to know where it stopped. When a folder is a repo and you would like the file list to say so. When you cannot find the thing eating your disk. That is where we are worth switching for, and where we are not, we say so at the bottom.
Each row says what File Manager does, and then how you do the same thing today with the tool your system ships with. Nothing here claims what another tool cannot do.
Insiders means on by default if you are on the Insiders stream, and one slider away in Settings if you are on Stable. How the streams work →
Free, on every platform
Minimal is free for personal use, and it stays free. Everything in this part is in it. Open the section for the system you are on — the other three are still here.
On Windows — beside File Explorer
| What File Manager does | Today, in File Explorer | From |
|---|---|---|
| Shows you what is eating the disk, as a treemap or a sunburst you can click into | Right-click a drive for its total, or install something separate | Free |
| Opens a command palette on one keystroke and runs any action from it | Menus, the ribbon, and the shortcuts you remember | Free |
| Puts every delete in the Recycle Bin, and lets you undo the copy, the move and the rename too | Delete goes to the Recycle Bin; Ctrl+Z undoes the last action | Free |
| Searches a folder tree by name and shows results as you go | The search box, top right | Free |
| Reads and edits a file's extended attributes | Not something Explorer surfaces; fsutil on the command line | Free |
| Opens the folder you are looking at in your IDE, in one click | Right-click, “Open with”, and pick it | Free |
| Colours a folder so you can find it in a list of forty | All folders are the same colour | Free |
| Lets you choose which columns to show, and whether files and folders sort together or apart | Choose columns; folders always sort first | Free |
| Remembers your tabs, your pinned folders and your recents | Tabs, Quick Access and Recent Files | Free |
| Looks the same on your Windows machine and your Mac | Explorer is Windows | Free |
On macOS — beside Finder
| What File Manager does | Today, in Finder | From |
|---|---|---|
| Shows you what is eating the disk, as a treemap or a sunburst you can click into | About This Mac ▸ Storage, or Get Info a folder at a time | Free |
| Cuts and pastes files the way you expect, and undoes it if you change your mind | Copy, then ⌥⌘V to move; ⌘Z undoes | Free |
| Puts every delete in the Trash — the Trash on that volume, not somewhere else | Move to Trash | Free |
| Opens a command palette on one keystroke and runs any action from it | Menus and the shortcuts you remember | Free |
| Searches a folder tree by name and shows results as you go | The search field, top right | Free |
| Reads and edits a file's extended attributes | xattr in Terminal | Free |
| Opens the folder you are looking at in your IDE, in one click | Right-click, “Open With”, and pick it | Free |
| Colours a folder so you can find it in a list of forty | Coloured tags on the row | Free |
| Remembers your tabs, your pinned folders and your recents | Tabs, the sidebar and Recents | Free |
| Looks the same on your Mac and your Windows machine | Finder is macOS | Free |
On Linux — beside GNOME Files
| What File Manager does | Today, in GNOME Files | From |
|---|---|---|
| Shows you what is eating the disk, as a treemap or a sunburst you can click into | A separate disk-usage application that ships with the desktop | Free |
| Opens a command palette on one keystroke | Menus and keyboard shortcuts | Free |
| Puts every delete in the Trash and lets you undo the copy and the move as well | Move to Trash; Ctrl+Z undoes the last operation | Free |
| Looks the same here as it does on the Windows machine you also use | GNOME Files is a GNOME application | Free |
On Linux — beside KDE Dolphin
Dolphin is the closest thing to us on this list, so this table is two rows rather than ten.
| What File Manager does | Today, in Dolphin | From |
|---|---|---|
| Shows you what is eating the disk without leaving the window | A separate disk-usage application, alongside | Free |
| Is the same application on your Linux box, your Mac and your Windows machine, with your settings on each | Dolphin is a KDE application | Free |
Also free, and on today in Insiders
These belong to no add-on, so no bundle gates them. They are on today for anyone on the Insiders stream, or on Stable with the Features slider moved.
| What File Manager does | Stream |
|---|---|
| A grid of thumbnails when you would rather look than read | Insiders |
| A preview pane beside the list, so you can see a file without opening it | Insiders |
| An address bar you can click through or type a path into | Insiders |
| Groups your files by type, date or size, with the groups foldable | Insiders |
| Remembers the layout you chose, per folder | Insiders |
| New folder, new file, and a New menu of your own document templates | Insiders |
| Colour tags on files | Insiders |
| Uses the operating system's own right-click menu items alongside ours | Insiders |
The free build ships two looks — the Windows one and the macOS one — each in light and dark, and it follows whichever your system is set to.
The bundles
Every row below is in the bundle named above it. Nothing on this page is sold separately — add-ons come through a bundle. All the bundles →
Developer €20 a month
| What File Manager does | Today, on any of the four | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Opens code and configuration files with syntax highlighting, in the window, without launching an editor — C-like languages, CSS, JSON, log files, Markdown, shell config, SQL, XML and YAML | Open it in an editor | — |
| Marks every row that has uncommitted work, so you can see which of forty folders is a dirty repo without opening one | Open a terminal and run git status in each | Insiders |
| Stages and commits from the file list, and switches or creates a branch without leaving it | A separate Git application, or the command line | Insiders |
| Fetches, pulls and pushes from the same menu | The same separate application | Insiders |
| Says “Save version” instead of “commit” if you would rather it did — the same operations, ordinary words | Git speaks Git | Insiders |
| Reads and edits NTFS alternate data streams | Not something the built-in tools surface | Insiders |
Productivity €10 a month
| What File Manager does | Today, on any of the four | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Opens a zip, rar or 7z and lets you walk around inside it as though it were a folder | Extract it first, then look | Insiders |
| Creates zip and 7z archives, including a password-protected zip | Built-in zip, without a password | Insiders |
| Colour tags on files | Varies by desktop | Insiders |
Personalization €5 a month
| What File Manager does | Today, on any of the four | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Sixty-two looks, each in light and dark — editor chromes, retro desktops, and some that are just nice | An accent colour, or the desktop theme | — |
| Download any of them as an editable file, change the tokens, and load your own back in | No | — |
| Saved workspaces — a set of tabs and panes that reopens tomorrow where you left off | No | Insiders |
Creative €25 a month
| What File Manager does | Today, on any of the four | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Thumbnails and EXIF for ordinary photographs, in the grid and in the details pane | Both do this for common formats | — |
| Thumbnails for Canon and Nikon RAW files, so you can cull a shoot before importing it | Import into a photo application first | Insiders |
| Converts and compresses video in the background while you carry on | A separate encoder | Insiders |
Remote €20 a month
| What File Manager does | Today, on any of the four | Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Serves your files to a browser, so you can reach the machine from somewhere else | No | Opt-in |
Off until you switch it on, and it refuses to serve anyone without a token you created.
Coming soon Not yet
Not on any stream today, and not counted anywhere on this page. They are here so you know what is coming and, more usefully, what is not here yet.
- A terminal docked under the file listin the folder you are looking at · Developer
- A diff of a changed filein the preview pane · Developer
- Renaming two hundred files by a ruleProductivity
- Searching inside filesnot just their names · Productivity
- Browsing and filtering by tagProductivity
- MacrosProductivity
- A duplicate finderProductivity
- Folder compareProductivity
- Columns (Miller) view, and split panesFree
- Cloud storage as ordinary foldersRemote, Creative, Operations
- Backup, and FTP or SSH transfersOperations
- Assisted theme creationPersonalization
What the one you already have does better
Search
Explorer, Finder and GNOME Files all index your disk in the background, so their results are instant. Ours walks the folder tree when you ask. On a big disk you will notice.
Previews
Finder's spacebar preview handles more file types than ours does, and ours is an Insiders feature today rather than something everyone has.
Everything is already there
Explorer and Finder are running before you log in and know about every file on the machine. We are an application you install.
It is not signed yet
Our installers carry no code signature on any of the three platforms, so your computer will warn you the first time. The download page says exactly what you will see and what to do about it.
Try it on the machine you are reading this on
The free build is the whole application with the paid add-ons switched off. Nothing expires, nothing nags, and no account is needed to start.
Download File Manager Free · Stable stream · Windows, macOS and Linux