When comparing Altap Salamander vs ExplorerMax, 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 ExplorerMax is ranked 37th.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Fast search and organized results
When you search for anything, you can get what you want soon. And your target files are grouped into different categories.
Pro Tabs and bookmarks
Like browsing via Chrome, I can browse my files with tabbing window and collect my favorites. Easy and simple.
Pro Dark and light mode
I've never seen a file manager can match with windows so great like ExplorerMax., especilaly the dark mode.
Pro Stylish design
Everything here is organized and fancy.
Pro Timeline
This fuction can help you track the file history and bulk buttons enables you to clear them selectively.
Pro Adaptive UI
It alters the default Explore a little. But yet very Functional. It also comes with other themes. Dark theme included
Cons
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.
Con Resources Usage
The nice UI comes under the expenses of resources. It can severely slow your PC
Con Need more functions
So far, they have released many updates and more surprises are needed.