When comparing Multi Commander vs Altap Salamander, the Slant community recommends Altap Salamander for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for Windows?” Altap Salamander is ranked 13th while Multi Commander is ranked 17th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Separate tree for each panel
Pro Both 32 bit and 64 bit versions available
Pro Free
Pro File coloring based on filters
Including optional background coloring.
Limitation of this pro: text and background color cannot be taken from 2 different filters and thus combined but on the positive side: it provides coloring profiles, which can be switched (supposedly easily).
Pro Full of features
A hundred different options: multi-rename, convert line break of files (CR, LF, CRLF), double panel, folder tree, tabbed interface, colourized tabs, etc.
Pro Portable version available
Pro Heavily customizable
Besides many customizable on-board options and features, one can also write his/her own scripts and even full plug-ins.
Pro Written in C++
The program launches fast.
Pro Support for FTP, Registry, and OneDrive
Pro Powerful scripting system
You can easily write powerful scripts even without knowledge of programming.
Pro Looks very polished and consistent
Pro Very feature-rich
Pro Very stable, even preview versions
Pro Intuitive two-pane interface
The program features a dual-pane interface that allows you to easily move files between views.
Pro As of July 2019 now freeware
Pro Very fast
No delay is noticable in the user interface.
Pro License is good on multiple machines
Can be used at home and work.
Pro Extensive keyboard shortcut support
Pro Built-in FTP and SFTP
The program has built in support for a variety of common network protocols (such as FTP, FTPS, SCP and SFTP) for file transferring over the internet.
Pro Powerful bookmark support
Easy bookmark usage, e.g., Shift+1 selects the first directory. The bookmarked directories are also available in the usual popups to switch the left/right drive (Alt+F1/F2).
Pro Built-in archive support (zip, rar, etc)
Pro Customizable colors
Different colors can be assigned to compressed files or files with a certain name pattern.
Pro Customizable with own external tools
Pro Copy and move operations can work in background
Pro Automation plugin
Enables user to automate repetitious actions via JScript and VBScript (via windows script engines already installed). There is also support for Perl, PHP, Python and Ruby (Arton's ruby must be installed to have the Action script support)
Pro Encrypt files
Pro Built-in undelete plugin
Cons
Con Slow Right Click Response
Con Settings are a bit complicated
Con Tree cannot be displayed on the right side
Con Slow development
Rarely updates.
Con Text Viewer does not support UTF-8
Con Winscp not available for x64 version
Winscp plugin is available only for x86 version and missing @x64.
Con Hard-coded shortcuts
Shortcuts are hard-coded and therefore can't be changed by the user.
Con Image viewer is basic
Con No tabs in dual panes
There are no tabs available in the dual panes view, which can be a time-saver for some users.
Con No Unicode support
Unicode was promised many years ago, but due to slow development, still nothing.
Con Is only available for Windows
There is no full replacement for Linux or OS X.