Czkawka vs fclones
Czkawka
github.comfclones
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Czkawka | fclones |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Duplicate File Finders | 8.9 (#1) | 7.5 (#19) |
| Caching | Scan metadata is cached so later scans can be substantially faster. | Optional persistent hash caching can speed up repeated grouping and resume interrupted work. |
| Integrations | The reusable czkawka_core library is used by the project’s frontends, and Python bindings are available. | The project says it integrates with Unix utilities such as find and speaks JSON. |
| Performance | Its maintainers attribute fast scans to multithreading and efficient algorithms. | The Rust implementation parallelizes I/O and CPU-heavy stages and automatically tunes processing for SSDs and HDDs. |
| Purpose | Czkawka finds duplicates, empty folders, similar images, and other unnecessary files. | fclones identifies groups of identical files and removes unwanted copies. |
| Support | The maintainer invites users to create issues for bugs and pull requests for fixes; GTK-specific issues and feature requests are generally to be closed. | The project provides GitHub Issues and Discussions for community support. |
Plans
In their own words
Czkawka
Czkawka is a free tool for locating duplicate and unnecessary files, empty folders, similar images, and related items. Its tools can find duplicate and empty files, temporary and large files, similar videos, and duplicate music. Scans can target user-selected directories and files, with matches determined by file name, size, full-file hash, or a combination of size and name. Features include file preview, automatic selection, folder exclusions, and moving items to the Recycle Bin or Trash. The project provides graphical and command-line frontends, an Android frontend, a reusable core library, and Python bindings. It says the software uses multithreading and caching to help scans and later rescans, and that it has no internet access and collects no user information or statistics. Czkawka is listed for Android, Linux, macOS, and Windows. GTK 12.0 is the final release for that frontend, and no more GTK binaries are planned. Krokiet prebuilt binaries have no mandatory runtime dependencies, although its similar-videos tool requires ffmpeg at runtime.
fclones
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.