When comparing Marta vs Vifm, the Slant community recommends Marta for most people. In the question“What are the best Total Commander alternatives for Linux and OSX?” Marta is ranked 9th while Vifm is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Marta is:
`Shift+Cmd+P` – command palette – as in Sublime Text / Atom / VSCode `Cmd+P` – quick look-up – this is better implemented in [fman](https://www.slant.co/options/21593/~fman-review).
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Pros
Pro Keyboard-centric
Shift+Cmd+P
– command palette – as in Sublime Text / Atom / VSCode
Cmd+P
– quick look-up – this is better implemented in fman.
Pro Highly configurable (via a JSON file)
Similar configuration files to Sublime Text/Atom.
Pro Integrated terminal
Pro Allows you to stay in the terminal
Since it runs in a terminal, it may live within ssh sessions, tmux/screen sessions, etc.
Pro Nice Themes for a terminal app
Vifm has a lot of good themes that you can easily grab from the main site and use with the :colorscheme command.
Pro Great integration with vim
The vifm.vim plugin allows you to use vifm as a powerful filepicker for vim.
Pro Configurable
You can easily configure almost all aspects of vifm by just editing the dotfile which is pretty easy is you are comfortable with configuring apps.
Pro Default key mappings will be comfortable to vim users
Vifm uses vim-esque key mappings. Makes for extremely efficient and---perhaps more importantly---intuitive interactions. The key mappings can be changed.
Pro Dual pane
The dual pane nature of vifm makes copy paste and moving files from one folder to another super easy.
Cons
Con No multi-rename tool
Con Useless for non-vi users
Even to quit one has to use ":q".
Con Very high learning curve for newbies
Con Can only be used in terminal
Vifm lacks a standalone GUI option.