elio vs RTFM
elio
elio-fm.github.ioRTFM
github.comSide by side
| Figure | elio | RTFM |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.5 (#5) | 8.2 (#13) |
| Spec score · File managers | 8.2 (#13) | 8.6 (#6) |
| Archive support | Yes | Yes |
| Dual-pane layout | No | Yes |
| File operations | It supports creating and extracting common archive formats, duplicate finding, and trashing, restoring, or permanently deleting files. | It supports bulk file operations, pattern-based bulk rename, optional trash with restore, and undo for common operations. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | elio is a terminal file manager with rich previews, inline images, bulk actions, and trash support. | RTFM is a feature-rich terminal file manager written in pure Ruby. |
| Remote file access | Yes | Yes |
Plans
In their own words
elio
elio is a free, open-source terminal file manager for Linux, macOS, Windows, and self-hosted use. Its Places, Files, and Preview panes offer grid and list views, with keyboard and mouse navigation. It previews text, code, documents, archives, media, and other file types; supported terminals can display images inline. File operations include creating and extracting common archives, finding duplicates, and trashing, restoring, or permanently deleting items. Remote file access is supported. Shell wrappers for bash, zsh, fish, and Nushell can return the shell to the browsed directory when elio closes, and an optional zoxide integration opens a picker using recorded directory history. It works without extra preview tools; optional Poppler, FFmpeg, resvg, and 7-Zip tools add preview and archive capabilities. Installation methods are listed for several Linux distributions, macOS through Homebrew, FreeBSD, and Cargo. elio can be configured as a file chooser on Linux and FreeBSD.