When comparing Far Manager vs One Commander, the Slant community recommends Far Manager for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Far Manager is ranked 7th while One Commander is ranked 9th. The most important reason people chose Far Manager is:
Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Keyboard-oriented
Far Manager's interface encourages keyboard operation - all actions are easily accessible with keyboard shortcuts, you can quickly record macros for any repeatable action, there are no screen redraws if it is not necessary and that makes everything faster.
Pro Open source
Released under BSD license.
Pro Two-panel interface
Pro Many plugins
There are may of them, and you can write them in any languages, including Python.
Pro Editor with syntax highlighting
Every Far feature is also true for its editor. You can setup an external editor if you like, but the included editor works really well and features syntax highlighting.
Pro Easily recorded macros
Hit "Ctrl-." and start recording your boring sequence. Hit "Ctrl-." again to assign it a key. You can use Lua if you need more advanced macros.
Pro Numeric sorting option
E.g. readme-9.txt before readme-10.txt
Pro Extremely fast
Pro Offline context help
Just press F1 when you need it. No internet connection or browser is required.
Pro Themeable
Fully themeable, allowing you to change the colors of every part of the interface.
Pro Scrippting support via LUA
Pro Free
Free for non commercial use.
Pro Simple and fast
Fast search and filter.
Pro Miller columns
Like Finder from macOS.
Pro Multi tab support
Pro Themes
Light, dark and customizable themes/colours.
Pro Default file manager setup
Can make it the default file manager such that windows explorer stays out of the way for most of the work.
Pro File previews
Pro File / folder filters
Pro Folder views can be saved and applied
Cons
Con Blocking operations
Operations such as copy, move, delete, etc are blocking, and you have to wait for them to complete before you can continue.
Though you can cancel the operation with the escape key.
Con Only for Windows
Con Always uses monospace font
Which makes long file names look extremely wide
Con Does not support scrolling with mouse
With plugin
Con Text-based interface
Far Manager does not use a GUI like most windows applications nowadays. This may prove difficult to use for people who are not familiar with text-based user interfaces.
Con Folder shortcuts not available in Alt+F1/F2 menus
Con Folders cannot be sorted by size
Con Cannot access Android device connected by USB
Con Cannot access Android device by FTP
And can never will as this is clarified by developer that this feature will never be added.
Con It doesn't have UNDO function
Very important. When you work with valuable data files, this function can't be ommited.
Con Navigating folders by Ctrl+Tab has considerable delay
Con Browsing Recycle Bin is very slow
Navigating away from Recycle Bin tab and coming back to it reload the Recycle Bin which is very slow as mentioned. Program has an option to open recycle bin in Windows File Explorer, which suggests that developer is aware that opening Recycle Bin is problematic.
Con Confusing
Con Context menu only based on icons
No longer with Onecommander 3.6.43