Cisdem Duplicate Finder vs fclones

Cisdem Duplicate Finder detects duplicate files and visually similar photos on macOS and Windows. It compares file contents rather than filenames, covering images, documents, songs, videos, archives, and duplicate folders. For photos, it can identify burst shots, edited or resized versions, and pictures taken from different angles or in different lighting. The maker says this photo analysis runs entirely on the device without uploading files to a cloud or server. Results can be previewed in three modes, then sorted, searched, and filtered. Users can remove duplicates permanently, move them to Recycle Bin or Trash, or place them in a selected folder. Supported locations and services include external drives and SD cards, iTunes and Apple Music, Mac Photos, OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, and iCloud. The trial can scan, preview, locate, and hide duplicates, but cannot delete all selected duplicates with one click. One-time individual licenses cost $39.99 as a one-time purchase for one Mac or one PC; one-year subscriptions cost $19.99 a year. Business licenses cost $54.99 as a one-time purchase for one computer.

fclones is a free command-line utility for locating groups of identical files and handling redundant copies. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, and can scan multiple directory roots, standard-input file lists, and mounted or removable devices. Search controls include recursion limits, glob and regular-expression filters, and minimum or maximum file sizes. It can compare files using size, inode or file identifiers, prefix and suffix hashes, and full-content hashes. Results are available as text, fdupes-compatible output, CSV, or JSON. Once duplicates are identified, fclones can remove or move them, or replace them with soft or hard links. On supported file systems, it can deduplicate file data with native copy-on-write reflinks, a capability unavailable on Windows. Users can inspect and alter duplicate lists before removal, and dry-run mode reports changes without executing them. The Rust implementation parallelizes I/O and CPU-heavy work and adjusts processing for SSDs and HDDs. Optional persistent hash caching can help repeated scans and resumed work; the project is released under the MIT license.