Broot vs Rat Commander
Broot
dystroy.org
Rat Commander
rat-commander.comSide by side
| Figure | Broot | Rat Commander |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.6 (#2) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Spec score · File managers | 8.3 (#12) | 8.8 (#2) |
| Archive support | No | Yes |
| Dual-pane layout | Yes | Yes |
| File operations | Move, copy, remove, and mkdir operations are built in, and users can add shortcuts. | It supports file copy, move, delete, permissions, ownership, symlinks, and directory creation. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Git integration | Git status views show file states, branch name, upstream divergence, and change statistics. | Supports Git status, commits, pushes, pulls, diffs, branches, history, and blame |
| License | The repository is released under the MIT License, with permission to use, copy, modify, publish, distribute, sublicense, and sell the software subject to the license conditions. | The project is licensed under GNU General Public License version 2, GPL-2.0-only. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Panels | Multiple panels can be opened for navigation and copying or moving elements between panels, with customizable colors. | The file manager provides two panels with full, brief, details, tree, 3D, and thumbnail-grid views, plus vertical or horizontal splits and multi-file selection. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The maker provides contact by email and invites users to chat through Miaou. | The project links to GitHub Issues for reporting issues. |
| Windows support | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
Broot
Broot is a directory navigator for finding files, browsing folders, and launching commands. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, with a dual-pane layout and synchronized preview panels. Directory overviews respect .gitignore and .ignore files. Search supports relevance ranking, regular expressions, file contents, and logical operators. Users can select a directory and return to the shell with that location active. Built-in file operations include move, copy, remove, and mkdir, and users can add shortcuts. Multiple panels support navigation and moving or copying items between locations, with customizable colors. Preview options include PDF and Office documents through transformers and high-resolution images through Kitty's graphics protocol in Kitty and WezTerm. A staging area lets users run commands across several files. For space analysis, sorting by size or date and whale-spotting mode help locate large items; sizes, dates, and file counts are calculated in the background. Git views show file states, branch, upstream divergence, and change statistics. Client-server mode uses Unix sockets and is available only on Unix-like systems. Broot is free under the MIT License, with source and precompiled binaries available.
Rat Commander
Rat Commander is a free, two-panel terminal file manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It brings file browsing and media viewing together with editing, archives, Git, remote filesystems, and system tools. Panels can show files as lists, trees, thumbnail grids, or interactive 3D views, and can be split vertically or horizontally. The built-in viewer and editor support syntax highlighting, search and replace, Markdown, tables, images, and in-place hex editing. Git tools cover tasks including staging, commits, branches, diffs, and history. Remote connections over SFTP, SCP, FTP, and FTPS let users work with remote filesystems in a local-disk-like way. ZIP, TAR variants, 7z, and other archives can be browsed and edited; RAR is read-only. QR codes support sending and receiving files over a local network. Linux disk tools can mount, format, flash, and image disks and USB devices. On Windows, Drive Manager and Network Connections are unavailable. Rat Commander is written in Rust with Ratatui and is licensed under GNU GPL-2.0-only.