When comparing OI File Manager vs ES File Explorer, the Slant community recommends OI File Manager for most people. In the question“What are the best file explorers on Android?” OI File Manager is ranked 9th while ES File Explorer is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose OI File Manager is:
It asks only for Storage permissions. No other things are required.
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Pros
Pro Few permissions
It asks only for Storage permissions. No other things are required.
Pro Lightweight
The app takes only a few seconds to download, as its size is only about 1.5 MB to download and installed (on MIUI) takes only ~6 MB full size.
Pro Open Source
OI File Manager is available for free under the Apache License 2.0.
Pro ZIP file extraction support
OI File Manager supports extracting ZIP files.
Pro Supports SMB
ES File Explorer supports a local Samba connection to browse files on other area connected devices.
Pro Built-in ZIP and RAR support
ES File Explorer supports the .zip and .rar compression formats.
Pro Browse FTP
Pro Builtin audio player
Pro Cleaner
Cleaning cache, temp, junk files.
Pro Image viewer
Pro Inbuilt video player
Pro Root explorer
Explore root files if the phone is rooted.
Pro SFTP client
Access SFTP network shares.
Pro Encrypt files
Encrypt private or sensitive files and folders, set password.
Pro Can set custom ftp server folder location
Pro Builtin text editor with code highlight
Can set text encoding, find and replace, text highlighting for various programming and scripting language.
Pro Install plugins
For additional features.
Pro Share, send and receive files via WiFi
Like shareit.
Pro Create FTP server
Browse files from PC or mobile.
Pro Mediafire
Pro Box Cloud Integration
Pro Sugar Sync
Pro Amazon S3
Pro GoogleDrive file browse
Pro OneDrive file browse
Pro Dropbox file browse
Pro Recycle bin
Pro Download manager
Pro Space analyzer
Pro Integrates with a wide variety of services
The app supports Dropbox, Box.net, Sugarsync, Google Drive, SkyDrive, Amazon S3, Yandex and more.
Cons
Con No additional features (suite)
No other features such as networking connections, junk flies cleaner, built-in media player/viewer/editor. But that might be a pro, since nothing else is asked for this app permission.
Con Outdated
At this moment I'm writing, it was updated last in 2017.
Con Ugly UI
The GUI is old and deprecated. But what would you expect for such a small app?
Con Network delete unreliable
Deleting files from network shares is not always reliable, especially when the file is first in the directory list.
Con Click fraud
Removed from Play store after being caught engaged in click fraud.
Con Ugly
Interface is kind of crappy.
Con Connects to an IP in China
For some reason ES File Explorer installs a folder called Baidu of which any app that installs this folder connects to an IP in China for some reason. Sadly it is still not known at this time for what or why.
Con Smart charger is enabled by default
It is annoying, after installing the app, suddenly you see your phone has changed.
Con News feature is enabled by default
Also it is not related to file browser.
Con ES Swipe is enabled by default
It is disturbing.
Con You have to install another app to add plugin/feature
Con Constant notifications
It is always running in the background and monitoring for possible issues. It always pops up with notifications about new files and suggested files for deletion. There is no way to turn it off.
Con Bought by another company and bundled with adware
Con Loads at start up and constantly runs in background
Takes up resources by always running. Performs monitoring you cannot turn off.
Con Changes features often
Features are changed very frequently, with most of the additions/changes being unnecessary.
Con Adds possible malware
This issue appears after the update of Aug, 1, 2016 ver 4.1.2.4.
Con Closed source (proprietary)
The source code for ES File Explorer is closed source.