What are the best GUI Linux file managers?

Question

22

Options
Considered

595

User
Recs.

May 30, 2023

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

20 Options Considered

Best GUI Linux file managers	Price	License	Platforms
89 PCManFM	-	-	-
79 Thunar	-	-	-
78 Nemo	-	-	-
76 Dolphin	-	-	-
-- Double Commander	-	GPL-2.0-only	Windows, macOS, Linux

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score 155 · Answer 1

PCManFM

Top Pro

Simple

PCManFM is a very lightweight and simple file manager. See More

Top Con

Some operations are slow

Because it tries to be as lightweight as possible and tries to use very little RAM. This can unfortunately lead to it being slow sometimes. See More

WiseAlpheus's Experience

fast and efficient See More

Top Pro

Uses tabs

Tabs can practically be managed just as in a browser, so you don't end up with windows open all over your desktop. See More

Top Con

Can't extend with scripts

Unlike Nautilus and Caja, this can't extend with scripts. If script extension is added it can become a really good FM. See More

ResponsiveKuaFu's Experience

fast on bootup in bodhi See More

Top Pro

Fastest starup

PCmanFM is the fastest GUI file manager to start. See More

Top Con

Uses a bit more RAM than thunar

Thunar uses less RAM but you pay in slower startup and stability. See More

Top Pro

Can open folder as root

PCManFM can open different folders as root, this way you don't have to use the terminal to move around files for which you need root permission. See More

Top Con

Depends on GNOME

depends on gnome toolkits an libraries See More

Top Pro

Lightweight

General use, and most operations, are snappy and responsive. See More

Top Con

Right-click option choice limitation

You can only choose one option in the right-click menu instead of being able to select multiple at once. See More

Top Pro

Can use tabs instead of new windows

Use tabs to open fewer windows. New tabs automatically start in the same location. See More

Top Con

No Wayland support

There is no Wayland support yet which is a big con. See More

Top Pro

More RAM is available for other processes, and the system uses less swap

Overall, the system becomes faster. See More

Top Con

Cannot start with 2 panels mode by default

You have to always touch F3 or use "view" to have it. Also there is no typical shortcuts / buttons well knows with other 2-panel file managers like F8 copy... See More

Top Pro

Full Flexible Options and Split Screen respected

Top Pro

2 panels mode

Touch F3 and you have 2 panels side by side (but every panel is on it's own tab). See More

Top Pro

Auto mounts drives

PCmanFM automatically detects and mounts available drives. See More

Top Pro

Lots of configuration options

For example, you can choose your terminal application and "open in terminal" always works. "Send to" list is also configurable (but little less). See More

Top Pro

Lots of languages available

Top Pro

Clear application design

Easy to use minimalistic interface. See More

Top Pro

Supports "quick-directory" typing

While in a PCManFM window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the location bar, allows for tab completion, and pressing Enter goes straight to the typed directory. See More

Top Pro

Uses tabs instead of new windows

Tabs can practically be managed just as in a browser, so you don't end up with windows open all over your desktop. New tabs automatically start in the same location. See More

See All

score 33 · Answer 2

Thunar

Top Pro

Minimal dependencies

Unlike Nautilus, which requires the whole GNOME desktop, thunar just depends on some XFCE utilities & GTK. See More

Top Con

Doesn't have a preview field to the right of the open file dialog

FunnyAhti's Experience

Thunar is soldi, attractive, quick. Never had any issues See More

Top Pro

Supports Wayland

Just ensure the environment variables are set correctly. See More

Top Con

Unstable

not true.. never had problems with it, been using it for 2 years See More

RationalEhecatl's Experience

Oldukça kibar ve kullanışlı. See More

Top Pro

Can assign custom shortcuts to scripts in XFCE

Thunar can use the editable accelerator feature of XFCE. Run xfce4-appearance-settings in terminal, go to settings tab, check "enable editable accelerator". Now open any command in Thunar menu, hover to a command, i.e. your custom "places" or your custom command, then press any combination to assign a shortcut to it. be careful tho, cause it will also remove the shortcut from other command. See More

Top Con

Hidden files/folders at top

Thunar lists all the hidden files and folders first, meaning that you have to scroll right down to get to what you really want. See More

SincereHelios's Experience

Smooth and very extensible. Also supports wayland See More

Top Pro

does the job

but just the job... See More

Top Con

Tree sidepane missing features

When the sidepane is in Tree mode, it does not show Places (Favorites). It also doesn't collapse folders (like Windows Explorer), adding to clutter. See More

Top Pro

Select by Pattern

Select multiple files in the current folder using a wildcard pattern. See More

Top Con

No usable image view mode

Setting view to "icons" doesn't satisfy. The icons are too small to see the image. See More

Top Pro

Custom actions are easy to set up

Use Custom Actions to add right-click options to do things like Open as Root, Open Git GUI, etc. You can filter the file types and filename patterns that the actions will show up for. To add an "Open as Root" action, go to Edit, Configure custom actions. Assign a name and a description. Set Command as "gksudo xdg-open %f" (you'll need to install gksudo since pkexec won't work). Pick an icon (I prefer "changes-allow"). Under Appearance Conditions, select Directories, Text Files, and Other Files. See More

Top Con

No Split View without a patch, which can be a deal breaker

This limitation can be quite annoying indeed.. thanks for the heads up! See More

Top Pro

Supports "quick-directory" typing

While in a Thunar window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the "address-bar" and pressing enter goes straight to the typed directory. See More

Top Con

Simplified action bar

The action bar on Thunar is very simple and doesn't have as many features and buttons as other file managers. It only has a back, forward, up, and home buttons as well as the folder path. See More

Top Pro

Keypress to search in folder

While in a Thunar window, typing either a "~" or a "/" will automatically start typing into the "address-bar" and pressing enter goes straight to the typed directory. See More

Top Con

Actions not on right-click menu

Actions that (in a lot of OTHER file managers) you would expect to find on the right-click menu are ACTUALLY on the File menu ... strange! See More

Top Pro

Backspace to go up a dir

In Thunar you can easily press the backspace to go up a directory. See More

Top Pro

Organized and intuitive interface

The interface is clean/uncluttered and very intuitive to navigate. It's easy to rearrange shortcuts and temporarily hide items to keep the interface from becoming cluttered. See More

Top Pro

Non-recursive find

In a thunar window, any non-directory typing will search in the current directory for the filename that you type (non-recursive, unlike Nautilus). See More

Top Pro

Supports renaming files in bulk

With also predefined functions as insert (date, numbering,...), search/replace, etc. See More

Top Pro

Lists hidden folders first

Which makes it easier to find what you need, especially if it's in a hidden folder at the end of the aplhabet - /.steam, /.wine, etc. See More

Top Pro

Tabs

Use tabs to open fewer windows. New tabs automatically start in the same location. Tabs can be detached. See More

Top Pro

The bookmarks menu

Add frequently used locations to the bookmarks menu. See More

Top Pro

Supports forward/back mouse buttons

Supports the M4 and M5 mouse buttons for forward/back, similarly to most browsers. See More

Top Pro

Depends on GNOME

depends on gnome toolkits an libraries See More

Top Pro

Single click option

See All

score 55 · Answer 3

Nemo

Top Pro

Elegant

The most stylish among all FMs. See More

Top Con

GUI looks a few generations behind

The GUI is not as sleek as some other File Managers, and is a bit reminiscent of Windows XP. See More

Phillip Smith's Experience

It is a nice looking File manager, but I like functionally, must do what I want with no bother, Nemo delivers with no issues. Opening in Root with right click menu is very handy See More

Top Pro

Extendable

Nemo can be extended to have additional features through third party plugins. See More

Top Con

Changing the background color or font type for customization is not practical

You have to do it with finding and editing the relevant CSS files. No buttons, menus or sliders for such customization. See More

cubethethird's Experience

I switched to Nemo from Nautilus (the default with Gnome Shell) and doubt I'll ever look back. This one is very feature complete on its own, starts up fast, and doesn't make me feel like I'm compromising just to enjoy using it. See More

Top Pro

Easily open as root

Option to open folder as root from within the right click menu. See More

Top Con

Incomplete mimetypes

Like all nautilus forks it allows you to run svg-files due some incomplete mimetype coverage. See More

Ajay Kumar Rawani's Experience

Awesome ! See More

Top Pro

Easily open file location in terminal

Option to open a folder in terminal, which can help executing commands such as bash. See More

Top Con

Depends on GNOME

Depends on gnome toolkits an libraries. See More

ImmaculateArges's Experience

the best and versatile file-manager i know...stylish and functional with many useful options! See More

Top Pro

Has dual pane functionality

This functionality was removed in Nautilus and Dolphin at least in Ubuntu-Gnome, but Nemo kept this option, making the obvious functionality of cut, copy and paste much easier. See More

Top Pro

Double pane and search by name capabilities

Top Pro

Supports bookmarking

You can bookmark folders that you open often, this way you can easily access them from anywhere while using Nemo. See More

Top Pro

Good networking options

Supports ftp, ssh and samba connections. See More

Top Pro

Queues file operations

See All

score 61 · Answer 4

Dolphin

Top Pro

Fast at opening graphics folders

Pictures with or without previews is optional and selectable at the touch of a button. See More

Top Con

May be a little slow on startup

Dolphin can be a little slow on startup (depending on distro, hardware etc...). Startup time can vary from a couple of seconds to up to a minute. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Of the pre-packaged file managers that come standard with the major Linux desktop environments, Dolphin is far and away my favorite. It's responsive and puts all the features I need in easy reach and includes the de facto KNewStuff add-on manager that most KDE projects have to give access to a bunch of ingenious extra services. The Network Browser makes quick work of accessing Samba or NFS shares and surprises you with built-in Google Drive browsing as well. There's tabbed browsing and two-pane file mode for when you're sifting piles of files into a more orderly scheme, archives opened like folders, file previews and a directory tree to round out the experience. Overall, a quality piece of software worth installing. See More

Top Pro

Immenseley configurable

As with any KDE app, Dolphin, allows adding or modifying toolbar buttons and keyboard shortcuts. See More

Top Con

Can hang on remote file systems

It doesn't cope well with remote file system nicely like sshfs or any samba, like when network is not responding/very slow. It just hangs. See More

Phillip Smith's Experience

Simple easy to use file manager, I put this one on my wife's computer, doesn't support root actions, this is good for helpping keeping her "accidentally" screwing up her system See More

Top Pro

Can split views

Dolphin supports splitting the view in two navigational areas, this way you can navigate two different directories at the same time. See More

Top Con

"Type" column too verbose

Despite having a large enough monitor, if you keep the size of the browser window small, the "Type" column (in "Details" view mode) insists on including the complete multipart MIME string, making the column so wide that trying to limit its width makes the column useless. Sorting by "Type" renders the list into an incomprehensible mess. See More

LogicalYmir's Experience

Complete! See More

Top Pro

Integrated terminal

Pressing F4 with any opened folder on a mounted path opens a console within dolphin. See More

Top Con

Poor optimization on later versions

Kajika's Experience

The hidden file toggle is a must have for me on the menu bar and dolphin let you customize that. See More

Top Pro

Also has a refresh option

Dolphin is without a doubt the best fully functional and easy to use and multitask with. Dolphin also has a refresh button which no other File manager has. It's great for tracking a large files transfer; that's what file managers are for - good common sense. See More

Top Con

Too simple

Feels weird on KDE because it has less customizing options Konqueror and any other KDE app have. See More

PleasantCeres's Experience

seriously the best there is See More

Top Pro

Auto mounts flash drives

Dolphin automatically identifies and mounts external flash drives. See More

Top Con

Can't perform ROOT actions

Developers set a constraint in Dolphin that deny Dolphin to run with root permissions. Hence, if you want to perform an action that require root permissions, such as rename a file in /etc/ folder, you are forced to use terminal or switch to another file manager. See More

Top Pro

Easy to extend with plugins

Dolphin follows KDE's philosophy of being extendable and configurable. It can easily be configured and customized through plugins. See More

Top Pro

Fully supports HiDPI

Supports HiDPI displays. See More

Top Pro

Does not use third party libraries

Unlike all those GTK-based file managers it does not have to rely on external written software for its functionality because KF5 is KDE SOftware and developed alongside. See More

Top Pro

Keeps its state

It starts with last opened folders. See More

Top Pro

Automatically centers items

In icons view mode, the space between files gets stretched so that there is never and annoying empty space at the right side of the window. See More

Top Pro

Supports different protocols through KIO (sftp, fish, ssh etc...)

Like other KDE applications, Dolphin makes use of KIO which gives Dolphin access to other APIs and services. For example, it allows Dolphin to manage files stored remotely the same way you can manage local files through FTP. See More

See All

score 31 · Answer 5

Double Commander

Top Pro

Multi-platform (Linux, Windows, MacOS X)

You can use same tool in all desktop OS environments. See More

Top Con

Apparently only one developer

Specs

License:GPL-2.0-only

Platforms:Windows, macOS, Linux

User Interface:GUI

Top Pro

Configurable

Lots of options allow you to configure DC the way it suits you best: Tools, Fonts, Colors, Hotkeys, Mouse, Fileviews, Plugins, Layout, Toolbars, Tabs, Icons etc. See More

Top Con

Much slower on Linux and Mac than on Windows

Top Pro

Multi-platform

Can be used on Windows, Mac and Linux. See More

Top Con

Can't edit files on remote FTP servers

Double commander cannot edit files that are hosted on remote FTP servers. See More

Top Pro

Directory Hotlist

Save shortcuts to folders. Organize them in a treeview with submenus. Define a name and sorting for each entry. See More

Top Con

Doesn't support themes

Can't easily switch to dark/bright color scheme, but it usually adopts current system settings. See More

Top Pro

The handling and look is almost exactly like in Total Commander

If you switch between Total Commander in Windows and Double Commander, you get the same shortcuts and GUI elements, which is absolutely consistent and well-done. See More

Top Con

Source code written in Pascal language

But this does not affect users negatively. It's just programmers problem See More

Top Pro

Useful batch file renamer

Top Pro

Source code is available (true free software)

If the developer loses interest there is at least the possibility that someone else will pick up the torch. See More

Top Pro

It's compatible with most of Total Commander plugins

Double Commander uses the same plugin API as Total Commander, so their plugins are compatible. See More

See All

score 25 · Answer 6

SpaceFM

Top Pro

Tab and panel support

SpaceFM supports up to 4 individually customizable panels as well as multi-tabbed file management. See More

Top Con

Ugly

TolerantTapio's Experience

SpaceFM has tab persistence over different sessions. This way, you can continue to work in those directories where you left before turning off your computer. This is very handy and an efficient way of working! See More

Top Pro

Incredibly customizable

Just right click on any menu or menu option (including the context menu itself) and you'll be allowed to customize it. This lets you add support or integration for features you find missing. See More

Top Con

Some operations are slow

Because it tries to be as lightweight as possible and tries to use very little RAM. This can unfortunately lead to it being slow sometimes. See More

Top Pro

Minimal dependencies

It only needss gtk, udev, desktop-file-util and shared-mime-info which is available in most systems. See More

Top Pro

Easily open folder as root

Can open different folders as root, this way you don't have to use the terminal to move around files for which you need root permission. See More

Top Pro

Highly extensible

Functionalities can be extended by user scripts as plugins. Some scripts can also be downloaded from https://github.com/IgnorantGuru/spacefm-plugins/wiki. Plugins can be exported too. See More

Top Pro

Has a Tree View option.

Pretty weird that this is even worth mentioning, but quite a few Linux file managers don't have that. See More

Top Pro

Very customizable

You can add your own plug-ins/scripts to the menu. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive and extendable through plug-ins

Great UI, easy to use and configure, several plug-ins available to make everyday tasks even easier. See More

Top Pro

Gtk-2 and 3 support

Available in gtk2 and gtk3 See More

Top Pro

GTK2 and GTK3 available

Top Pro

Fast

Top Pro

Desktop management support

Can be used to set wallpaper and desktop icons with high configuration support. See More

Top Pro

No back seat driver

Does not obstruct professional work by engrossing root warnings. See More

Top Pro

GNOME dependencies

depends on gnome toolkits an libraries See More

See All

score 12 · Answer 7

Caja

Top Pro

Open or run as administrator in the right-click-menu of the mouse.

Top Con

GNOME Dependencies

depends on gnome toolkits an libraries See More

ResoluteMnemosyne's Experience

I enjoy MATE as a desktop and it comes with Caja. Caja has so many add ins and plugins available to make it do anything you need. I've really got used to it and it's functionality. It's hard for me not to have it available now if I use another OS. See More

Top Pro

Easy to configure

Top Con

slow thumbnailing

It takes ages to load the thumbnails of a folder with plenty of images. See More

Top Pro

Allows you to access remote or local locations

You can click the Files entry in the panel to access a specific location (remote or local), connect to a certain server (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc.), access your bookmarks, open a new window, as well as to change its default functionality. See More

Top Con

Frequently very slow to transfer multiple small files

Folders move fine, but it chokes on files, where other browsers take seconds. See More

Top Pro

Caja script extension makes it more useful

Caja script extension adds your script in script menu, then passes the file name as a parameter. This allows you to run operation which is not included in Caja. See More

Top Pro

It has a reasonable set of features, out of the box

Not too much cluttered, but enough customizable. See More

Top Pro

Plenty of plugins and extensions

it has many extensions you can use. See More

See All

score 13 · Answer 8

Krusader

Top Pro

Folder synchronization

Top Con

Interface can be overwhelming

Ganton's Experience

It does its duty every day, it allows using keyboard in a way that you work very fast. See More

Top Pro

Handles most archives

. There is little difference in behaviour between an archive file and a regular folder. See More

Top Con

KDE dependencies

If you don't use KDE, you'll be forced to install quite a large amount of KDE libraries. See More

Top Pro

Great two-pane interface

Top Con

New releases are infrequent

It can be seen in https://quickgit.kde.org/?p=krusader.git that maintenance work is done in a continuous fashion, but no new releases are provided, even though it is perhaps the more feature-rich file manager. See More

Top Pro

Multi-tab

Top Pro

VFS (SSH, SMB, FTP, ...) support

Top Pro

Virtual file systems

Search results as example saved into virtual folder and can be accessed later. All file operations may be performed on items in search results as if they were files in single folder. See More

Top Pro

Can view and edit many files

Even editing a file inside a .zip file. Has hexadecimal viewer embedded for binary files. See More

Top Pro

twin panel

Top Pro

Multi-rename tool

Top Pro

Filename association and instant console availability

Top Pro

Searching capabilities and copying/deleting/moving in background

Top Pro

All common operations can be done with keyboard efficiently

In addition, shortcuts can be easily renamed. Unlike Dolphin and many others. See More

Top Pro

Custom commands can be added to the menu easily

And they can use the current folder, the selected files. See More

Top Pro

Many operations like copying and moving files can be queued

Long running operations can be queued. There is no point in doing them in a parallel way, as speed decreases dramatically. See More

Top Pro

Handles most archives

There is little difference in behaviour between an archive file and a regular folder. See More

Top Pro

SFTP support

See All

score 8 · Answer 9

Polo

Top Con

Freemium model

Many of the best features mentioned as pros are only available after a one-time donation of USD$10 or more. Until then you just have a fast, good-looking and otherwise forgettable file manager. See More

Top Pro

Purposeful layout choices

Polo wants people to get the file manager they want, but it's not awash with granular layout options that take ages to understand. First select whether you want one, two, or four panes, and then select a format for each pane of either List, Icon, Tiled, or Media. That's it, you're done. See More

Peter J. Mello's Experience

Polo isn't perfect, but it's easily the most robust file manager I've used in Linux. Resizing jpegs from the file manager itself and mounting ISOs as loop devices without typing away at a command prompt are quickly seductive workflow improvements, and it just looks great! I've never been able to say that about a file manager on any platform before, a reminder of its status as a very progressive attempt to reinvent a key part of computing. See More

Specs

License:GNU LGPL

Platforms:Linux

Cross Platform:No

Developement Status:Discontinued

Top Con

Lengthy beta cycle

Polo has been in the beta stage of development for longer than hoped for, and while mostly stable, isn't yet ready to be promoted as a rock-solid replacement for file managers such as Dolphin and Nautilus. See More

Top Pro

Built in terminal

Includes a built in terminal you can toggle with a click. See More

Top Con

Browsing Network is inconvenient

All other file managers I've tried can discover shared folders via some dedicated space like "Browse Network" or "Other locations". Polo is more powerful and you can connect to Samba, SSH and FTP, but you have to manually enter the details. When you do, it will mount the share and take you to a new path as well as add it to "Places" (with seemingly no way to remove it). So if you enter ex "smb://192.168.0.99/mystuff/" it will add that to "Places", and take you to something like "/run/user/1000/gvfs/smb-share:server=192.168.0.99,share=mystuff". See More

Top Pro

Cloud storage support

Includes its own rclone macros for adding cloud storage access to the list of browsable locations that just works, a welcome relief in the sea of hacks which provide those features elsewhere in Linux. Currently supported: Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive, Amazon Cloud Drive / Amazon S3, Openstack Swift (Rackspace Cloud Files, Memset Memstore, OVH), Hubic, Backblaze B2, Yandex Disk. See More

Top Con

No drag and drop

You can't drag from one view to another. See More

Top Pro

Image file actions

Rotate, resize, optimize, convert formats, save for the web and many other handy features all right in the context menu. See More

Top Con

Load loop

Slow opening with annoying 'load loop' dialog. See More

Top Pro

ISO file tools

Mount ISO files to loop devices with just two clicks, or spin them up as a QEMU KVM instance, and for portability there's also an option to write them to USB flash drives using a GUI dialog. See More

Top Pro

Advanced PDF file controls

Perform Merge and Split operations on PDF files without needing another file handler all from the context menu. Rotate and Password Protection settings are also expressed there. See More

Top Pro

Archive browsing and creation

Browse archive files as though they were just another folder, dragging and dropping files in and out of them at will while the backend uses the appropriate tools to manage the archive file itself. Archive creation includes a rich assortment of controls over compression formats and structure. See More

Top Pro

Youtube-dl integration

Just paste a YouTube URL into a folder and Polo will download the best quality format of it and save it in that folder. See More

Top Pro

Device management

Quickly mount and unmount devices from the sidebar, including support for locking and unlocking LUKS encrypted devices. See More

Top Pro

Launchpad PPA available

Debian-based distributions can leverage the apt package management system to keep Polo updated by adding the approved PPA to their apt sources, simplifying installation as well. See More

Top Pro

Installs smoothly on Debian, Redhat and Arch based distributions

File managers in Linux have a nasty propensity for being closely tied to the distribution family from which they arose. Using Polo allows you to have an identical file management experience when shifting between machines from different branches of the Linux tree. See More

See All

score 28 · Answer 10

Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files)

Top Pro

Allows you to access remote or local locations

On recent versions of GNOME, you can click the Files entry in the panel to access the a specific location (remote or local), connect to a certain server (FTP, SFTP, SAMBA, etc.), access your bookmarks, open a new window, as well as to change its default functionality. See More

Top Con

Mostly unconfigurable

There are not many ways to configure Nautilus to fit your needs. Besides what can be seen in the settings button you can't configure it further. See More

ImmaculateArges's Experience

it is not useful anymore - most options are stripped out and there are only rudimental functions left See More

Top Pro

Widely supported

The program is distributed as a single source archive, which can be configured, compiled and installed on almost any Linux flavor. There are no binary files for a specific Linux distribution, but you can install it directly from the default software channels of your operating system. See More

Top Con

Gradually losing its features

Unlike most software, where new features are added over time, Nautilus (along with other Gnome applications) tends to lose features, and for unclear reasons. See More

Kajika's Experience

Didn't have a great time using it. Icons are obscure, options are sparse and the while UI feels cumbersome. It is usable but there are far better solutions. See More

Top Pro

Google drive integration

Top Con

Doesn't support "open as root"

wolfsnase's Experience

For a long time, this was one of my favourite file managers. Even with the ton of dependencies, that came with nautilus. Then they dropped the Tree View option. Since that happened, this file manager is unusable for me. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use and familiar user interface for Ubuntu users

The user interface of Files is very familiar to Ubuntu users, most probably because Canonical still uses Nautilus (an old version of it) as the default file manager for its world’s most popular free operating system, Ubuntu Linux. It split into two parts, a sidebar and the main file viewer. While you already know what the latter can do for you, the sidebar offers quick access to Places, Devices and Network locations, as well as any other bookmarks that you can add whenever you want. See More

Top Con

No Tree View option any more

This is a crucial feature for my daily work with a file manager and without a Tree View option a file manager seems pointless to me. The reason for dropping this feature is weird. Quoted from here: "It is the list view after all. Tree models don't work well on touch and it isn't consistent with the file chooser." See More

cubethethird's Experience

I never realized how much I disliked Nautilus until I tried something else (Nemo in my case). While Nautilus isn't by any means awful, it has minor annoyances (several in my opinion) that I've discovered are found in other options. One of which is that it's difficult to actually copy the path to the currently opened directory. Another is that, while you can Open a Terminal window within it, this option is only exposed in certain contexts. The turning point for me is when they replaced "typing to select a file/folder" to "typing opens the search", which is much slower. See More

Top Pro

Convenient file moving progress

Nautilus shows the progress of file move operations in the top right. This doesn't get in your way. You can keep using the window while the operation is progressing. See More

Top Con

Slow

Seems to be one of few file managers that can take several seconds to open. See More

Top Pro

Fully supports DPI

Top Con

Comes with a ton of dependencies

See All

score 10 · Answer 11

Xfe

Top Pro

Fast

Top Con

Trouble accessing davs:// shares

craig brown's Experience

Fast alternative to Double Commander or some other heavier program. Lacks some comfort features but good for most tasks. See More

See All

score 10 · Answer 12

Deepin File Manager

Top Con

There is no option to cut / paste into a selected folder without entering the folder

If we cut a file and then select a directory and click with the right mouse button to paste into the folder, the option "paste" does not appear. It only appears if we enter the directory. We are unable to paste into a directory selected from the outside. See More

Top Pro

Supports natural sorting of file names

The only other file manager that supports this is Dolphin. See More

Top Pro

Has tabs support

Top Pro

Has bookmark support

Top Pro

Written in Qt

Top Pro

Beautiful UI

See All

score 8 · Answer 13

Worker

Top Pro

Configuration GUI

Worker has a built-in configuration GUI. See More

Top Con

Fixed font wasted horizontal space

ClassyBran's Experience

earlier I was using DirectoryOpus4, worker is originally made with dopus sourcecode, then evolved adding much options. See More

Top Pro

Remote access

Worker supports access to remote machines through various ways (ssh, ftp, rsh, http and webdav). See More

Top Con

Outdated look

Top Pro

Innumerable button-click file ops are integrated

Rename files, move to other directories and extracting archives are of course a given...BUT THERE'S MORE! Convert media formats, make symlinks, CHMOD, change graphic formats, integrated GPG, filename UPPER/lowercase adjustments and more with just one button click! See More

Top Pro

Low system requirements

The system requirements for Worker are pretty low, making it a great option for lower-end machines. The reason why they are pretty low is because Worker is basically made of just X11 libraries. See More

Top Pro

Specialised apps can be made with it

There are many config options, multiple configs can be stored and selected at startup, so a specialised app can be made with it. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 14

Enlightenment File Manager

Top Pro

No Feature Creep

It is designed as a simple file manager and does only that. See More

Top Con

No tabs support

Top Pro

Wayland support

See All

score 11 · Answer 15

Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings

Top Pro

Fast response

This is a NCurses GUI so it is a command line program with a user interface of shortcut keys which allows for a fast response. See More

Top Con

Steep learning curve for people who are not used to Vim

Since it uses many of vim's keybindings, it may be hard for someone who does not use vim or does not know how to use vim to learn how to work with this file manager. See More

Top Pro

Detailed previews

The program will give previews in the terminal with detailed information concerning the file. See More

Top Con

Extremly minimal GUI interface

Almost everything is a shortcut key. Using ? is essential to learning this program. To show hidden files it is z-h. See More

Top Pro

Bookmark system

Makes it easy to jump to any specific folder locations you work with. See More

Top Pro

Extremly minimal GUI interface

See All

score 5 · Answer 16

Insight

Top Pro

Full ZFS support

It has full ZFS support including snapshots. See More

Holo Deck's Experience

This is one of the best file managers I have ever used because it is simple and it uses the default unix tools. Its something I would really love to see from other file managers - I mean how often are other filemanagers broken just because some of their dependencies changed? The GNOME-guys decided to change their way of doing things in GIO? Mr. Poetter created a new awesome way to handle mount points? With this FIle manager I don't care anymore !!! See More

Top Pro

BSD 3-Clause

Its written under a real open license without copyleft. See More

Top Pro

No toolkits

It does not use freedesktop toolkits like polkit or dbus. It also does not use toolkits from other desktops like GNOME(GTK, ATK, GLIB, GIO etc.) or KDE(KF5/KIO). See More

Top Pro

Based on Qt

As Qt is a real multi-platform toolkit that is not developed for one desktop and platform. See More

See All

score 3 · Answer 17

Konquerer

Top Pro

KIO-slaves

Specs

License:OpenSource

Browser Engine:Qt WebEngine (Blink)

Default Search Engine:Google

Top Pro

Customizing

Unlike Dolphin you can drag any element to any place you want it to. See More

Top Pro

Old but reliable

Still a really useful file manager with many addons. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 18

FTP Synchronizer

PrincipledNuYing's Experience

I don't care how good it is at what it does, I ain't paying FIFTY DOLLARS for it. Kind of insulting to ask, considering the amazing work others do FOR FREE. Shameful even. See More

score 8 · Answer 19

Pantheon Files

Top Pro

Very stylish UI

The eOS team puts in a lot of effort refining the UI in all of their apps. You will definitely notice the nice touches here. For instance, contrast levels are clear enough to read but not overdone to give "pop" which takes away from usability. See More

Top Con

Unclear and Buggy

Sometimes can't display the content of a folder. Additional its unclear in which pane the focus is See More

DebonairMithra's Experience

It works with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS with Gnome. I also used gksu and just edited 2 conf files to have pantheon-files able to handle 'open as root' options. Pantheon Files handling both Miller columns (handled by too few alas) and 'open as root' becomes very interesting then. (See http://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2015/02/open-as-root-elementary-os-freya/ for how to add 'open as root) See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

Pantheon files (like the Pantheon IDE) is very stylish and minimal. It's minimal and very easy to use. The most useful commands are there in plain sight, on the toolbar or the sidebar. See More

Top Con

Not very advanced

Pantheon files (like Elementary OS itself) does not offer many advanced features since it's mostly aimed at beginners. See More

Dhaval Patel's Experience

I usually do my work on the command line but if I need to quickly browser or do simple tasks, this works really well for the things I have tried to do. See More

Top Pro

Nice Stlye Options

Easy to use and the ability to switch fast between the views. There is also a nice MacOS like vertical view See More

Top Con

Buggy

Was missing basic network connect features when Loki launched. See More

ImmaculateArges's Experience

i like the column-view like in finder on OSX See More

KnowledgeableChiminigagua's Experience

1 - it uses the GTk libraries and the eOS extensions 2 - it's a nice place to be if you jump out of command line 3 - it seems to use the default themes pretty well and mostly adheres to the HIG (Human Interface Guidelines) 4 - the eOS guys did it so i know it's a work in progress that will only get better with time 5 - it's not windows See More

InsightfulSosamshin's Experience

Probably good for basic needs, but even for those it's incomplete. There is no settings view (perhaps this is part of Elementary OS), so you have to change settings in Dconf. See More

See All

score 6 · Answer 20

Rox (rox-filer)

TrustingShivini's Experience

Nice, simple yet powerful File manager I keep coming back to. See More

20 Options Considered

My Recommendation for PCManFM

My Recommendation for PCManFM

Simple

Some operations are slow

Uses tabs

Can't extend with scripts

Fastest starup

Uses a bit more RAM than thunar

Can open folder as root

Depends on GNOME

Lightweight

Right-click option choice limitation

Can use tabs instead of new windows

No Wayland support

More RAM is available for other processes, and the system uses less swap

Cannot start with 2 panels mode by default

Full Flexible Options and Split Screen respected

2 panels mode

Auto mounts drives

Lots of configuration options

Lots of languages available

Clear application design

Supports "quick-directory" typing

Uses tabs instead of new windows

My Recommendation for Thunar

My Recommendation for Thunar

Minimal dependencies

Doesn't have a preview field to the right of the open file dialog

Supports Wayland

Unstable

Can assign custom shortcuts to scripts in XFCE

Hidden files/folders at top

does the job

Tree sidepane missing features

Select by Pattern

No usable image view mode

Custom actions are easy to set up

No Split View without a patch, which can be a deal breaker

Supports "quick-directory" typing

Simplified action bar

Keypress to search in folder

Actions not on right-click menu

Backspace to go up a dir

Organized and intuitive interface

Non-recursive find

Supports renaming files in bulk

Lists hidden folders first

Tabs

The bookmarks menu

Supports forward/back mouse buttons

Depends on GNOME

Single click option

My Recommendation for Nemo

My Recommendation for Nemo

Elegant

GUI looks a few generations behind

Extendable

Changing the background color or font type for customization is not practical

Easily open as root

Incomplete mimetypes

Easily open file location in terminal

Depends on GNOME

Has dual pane functionality

Double pane and search by name capabilities

Supports bookmarking

Good networking options

Queues file operations

My Recommendation for Dolphin

My Recommendation for Dolphin

Fast at opening graphics folders

May be a little slow on startup

Immenseley configurable

Can hang on remote file systems

Can split views

"Type" column too verbose

Integrated terminal

Poor optimization on later versions

Also has a refresh option

Too simple