Ant Renamer vs Batch File Renamer

Ant Renamer is a free Windows program for applying rules to large batches of file and folder names. Its actions include changing extensions, replacing or inserting text, moving or deleting characters, numbering names, and changing letter case. It can build names from MP3 ID3 v1.1 tags, modification dates and times, EXIF information, regular expressions, or names in a supplied list or file. The program changes names only, not file contents. It supports Unicode names, including Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic characters, on NT systems. The interface is available in English and numerous other languages, including French, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Tamil. Ant Renamer is free software under the GNU General Public License version 2 or, at the user’s option, a later version. Version 2.13.0 is offered as an installer and as a portable ZIP package. The project began in 2003 and is still maintained, though its maker describes it as based on old tools and not using newer Windows features. The maker points users to the included help file, online manuals, a forum, or email support.

Batch File Renamer is a free, open-source web app for preparing new names for multiple files and previewing the results. It processes files locally in the browser, does not upload them and leaves source files unchanged. Ten operations cover find and replace, prefixes and suffixes, case changes, numbering, date and time, regular expressions, cleanup and extension changes. Presets handle numbering, date prefixes, filename cleanup, music files, episode formatting, lowercase conversion and replacing spaces. Users can save reusable operation chains in browser local storage and undo or redo changes across 50 operation states. Validation flags invalid or empty names, reserved Windows device names, trailing spaces or periods, names over 255 characters and duplicate selected outputs. Export creates a ZIP archive containing selected valid files as renamed copies rather than changing originals on disk. Modern browsers support file import; folder picking is best in Chromium-based browsers, and save-picker support varies. The MIT license permits use, modification and distribution subject to its notice. The web plan costs nothing and needs no installation or registration.