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 Version Date Version Date Altap Salamander Altap 1997-08-15 Windows Commander One Eltima Software 2015-08-04 macOS Directory Opus Jonathan PotterGPSoftware 1 1990-01-03 AmigaOS 4.16 2001-07-04 AmigaOS 5.91 2015-08-30 rowspan="3" AROS MorphOS 6 2001-06-18 Windows 12.27 2022-03-21 Dired Integral part of Emacs.Part of the GNU project. ~1976 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 Win32 v3.90 2025 Win64 v3.91 Double Commander 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 2024-01-28 Far Manager Eugene RoshalFar Group 1996 Windows (Linux, Mac, BSD via far2l) 2026-03-24 File Explorer Microsoft 1995-08-24 Windows 2015-07-29 File Manager MicrosoftIan 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 2025-10-28 GeoManager Berkeley SoftworksBreadbox 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 IcazaGNU 1994-05 muCommander Maxence Bernard 2002-02-17 Windows, Linux, macOS 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 ComputingSymantec 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 NurickBrittain 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 Samsung My Files Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. 2010 Android 15.4.02.3 2025-01-08 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 rowspan="2" 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 Xandros File Manager Xandros Corporation 4.2 2007-07-26 Xfe Roland Baudin 2002 Xfm Simon MarlowAlbert GräfTill StraumannRobert VogelgesangJuan 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 28.40.0100 2026-09-24 ZTreeWin Kim Henkel 1996 Windows 2.4.217 2023-11-23 Name Developer Initial release Platform Latest release License 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 Dolphin 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 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 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) Tab-bar mode can be activated to show the tab-bar (else it will be hidden). Dolphin Navigational GUI Double Commander Orthodox GUI DOS Navigator Orthodox Text emelFM2 Orthodox GUI FAR Manager Orthodox Text With ConEmu Far Manager plugin conemu-maximus5 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 FISH/SSH 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 FISH/SSH
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 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. File selection filter Paste clipboard as file File and folder reports ACL (Access control list) Mass rename 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. Run executable files Altap Salamander , multiple 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. 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. Commander One Directory Opus Dired 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. Dolphin Double Commander emelFM2 FAR Manager With plug-ins, or this can be implemented as a macros File Manager Files (Apple) Files by Google Finder ForkLift GNOME Commander Konqueror Konqueror can undo, not redo. Krusader Midnight Commander Create new file with desired name, then paste contents. GNOME Files (Nautilus) Only text which is dragged from another program and dropped into a folder in GNOME Files (Nautilus) can be pasted as a new file. Removed in version 3.29. Nemo ? ? ? ? Nomad.NET Path Finder Path Finder apparently integrates with Knox , an encryption utility. PCManFM ROX-Filer With helper applications STDU Explorer Thunar (via plugin) (via plugin) Total Commander Windows Explorer Supported up to Windows XP only. Document scraps are not supported in Windows Vista and later. Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only. Must be enabled manually in Windows versions prior to Server 2003. Worker Xandros File Manager Xfe Xfm xplorer² Via system File Properties dialog, NTFS-only. XYplorer ZTreeWin Encryption is supported for Zip and Rar, other formats depend on the editable ARCHIVER.BB2 file 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