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Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) vs Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings

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When comparing Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) vs Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings, the Slant community recommends Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) for most people. In the question“What are the best GUI file managers for UNIX-like systems?” Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) is ranked 9th while Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings is ranked 14th. The most important reason people chose Nautilus (AKA Gnome Files) is:

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.

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Common Questions

What are the best GUI file managers for UNIX-like systems?

Pros

Pro
Allows you to access remote or local locations

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.

Pro
Google drive integration

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.

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.

Pro
Fully supports DPI

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.

Pro
Detailed previews

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

Pro
Bookmark system

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

Pro
Extremly minimal GUI interface

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Cons

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.

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.

Con
Doesn't support "open as root"

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."

Con
Slow

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

Con
Comes with a ton of dependencies

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.