When comparing Vifm vs Nemo, the Slant community recommends Nemo for most people. In the question“What are the best file managers for UNIX-like systems?” Nemo is ranked 7th while Vifm is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Nemo is:
The most stylish among all FMs.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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 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 Great integration with vim
The vifm.vim plugin allows you to use vifm as a powerful filepicker for vim.
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.
Pro Elegant
The most stylish among all FMs.
Pro Extendable
Nemo can be extended to have additional features through third party plugins.
Pro Easily open as root
Option to open folder as root from within the right click menu.
Pro Easily open file location in terminal
Option to open a folder in terminal, which can help executing commands such as bash.
Pro Has dual pane functionality
This functionality was removed in Nautilus and Dolphin at least in Ubuntu-Gnome, but Nemo kept this option, making the obvious functionality of cut, copy and paste much easier.
Pro Double pane and search by name capabilities
Pro Supports bookmarking
You can bookmark folders that you open often, this way you can easily access them from anywhere while using Nemo.
Pro Good networking options
Supports ftp, ssh and samba connections.
Pro Queues file operations
Cons
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.
Con Changing the background color or font type for customization is not practical
You have to do it with finding and editing the relevant CSS files. No buttons, menus or sliders for such customization.
Con Incomplete mimetypes
Like all nautilus forks it allows you to run svg-files due some incomplete mimetype coverage.
Con Depends on GNOME
Depends on gnome toolkits an libraries.