When comparing Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings vs Krusader, the Slant community recommends Krusader for most people. In the question“What are the best GUI file managers for UNIX-like systems?” Krusader is ranked 7th while Ranger NCurses file manager with Vim bindings is ranked 14th.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Great two-pane interface
Pro Folder synchronization
Pro Handles most archives. There is little difference in behaviour between an archive file and a regular folder.
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.
Pro All common operations can be done with keyboard efficiently
In addition, shortcuts can be easily renamed.
Unlike Dolphin and many others.
Pro SFTP support
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.
Pro Can view and edit many files
Even editing a file inside a .zip file.
Has hexadecimal viewer embedded for binary files.
Pro Filename association and instant console availability
Pro Multi-rename tool
Pro Searching capabilities and copying/deleting/moving in background
Pro Custom commands can be added to the menu easily
And they can use the current folder, the selected files....
Cons
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.
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.
Con KDE dependencies
If you don't use KDE, you'll be forced to install quite a large amount of KDE libraries.
Con New releases are infrequent
It can be seen in https://quickgit.kde.org/?p=krusader.git that maintenance work is done in a continous fashion, but no new releases are provided.
Even though it is perhaps the more feature-rich file manager.