Ant Renamer vs 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.

File Renamer is a free desktop application for batch renaming files on Linux and Windows. It is described as Free, Libre, Open Source Software under the GPL-3.0 license, with a free plan priced at free. Its documented workflow covers listing files, previewing changes, and viewing renamed files. The project wiki provides portable installation instructions for Linux and Windows and says this method needs no root or administrator permission. It also documents installation through pip with `pip install io.github.flossapps.file-renamer`, followed by the `file-renamer` command to start the app. Portable installation is reported as tested with Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop, Ubuntu Desktop, and Windows 11. Ubuntu 24.04.4 LTS requires `libxcb-cursor0`. Other desktop systems, including macOS, may work through pip but are untested.