Corkscrew vs HFW Mod Manager

Corkscrew is a free, open-source mod manager for Linux and macOS. It supports Skyrim and lists Fallout 4 support; Starfield is described as coming soon. Its built-in mod source access includes Nexus Mods downloads using OAuth 2.0 with PKCE, NXM links and Nexus SSO. Users can install Nexus mods with one click, add archives, run FOMOD wizards and reorder mods by dragging. Profiles let users switch between vanilla, lightly modded and large-plugin setups. Plugin tools include LOOT sorting, master validation, conflict detection and dependency views. Corkscrew also supports Wabbajack modlists through a seven-phase installation pipeline. Custom SSE Engine Fixes patches cover more than 60 crash sites and deploy automatically. The project requires no account and uses no telemetry. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, and its page lists a 17 MB download. Support links include GitHub, Issues and Support on Ko-fi.

HFW Mod Manager is a free graphical tool for managing and packing mods for supported Decima-engine games. The listed games are Horizon Forbidden West, Death Stranding 2, and Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered, which is marked as a work in progress. Users can add mod folders or ZIP files by drag and drop, choose variations, preview them with metadata, and pack enabled mods. Named presets save mod lists, and packing follows list order so later entries can override earlier ones. The manager can detect a known game directory and check game-version compatibility. Supported archive formats include .zip, .rar, .7z, .gaia, .forbidden, and .hfwz. Other features include hair patching, batch hair patching, and experimental face-shading fixes for custom face meshes. The Cauldron tab offers asset export, streaming-file building, and animation conversion; some functions require HFW Tools or DS2 Tools. The app is built natively for Windows. Windows users extract the ZIP into its own folder and launch HFW_MM.exe; it is not installed locally. Linux use requires adding it to Steam and running it with Proton 10.0-4 or newer.