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SPECIFICTION
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elio vs Zeta

elio

elio-fm.github.io

Zeta

tzero86.github.io

Side by side

FigureelioZeta
Price fromFreeFree
Free planYesYes
Free trial——
Open source——
WindowsYesYes
macOSYesYes
LinuxYesYes
Self-hostedYes—
Plans published11
Spec score · Terminal File Managers8.5 (#5)7.8 (#22)
Spec score · File managers8.2 (#13)8.4 (#11)
Archive supportYesYes
Dual-pane layoutNoYes
Linux supportYesYes
macOS supportYesYes
Preview paneYesYes
Remote file accessYesYes
Windows supportYesYes

Plans

elio

  • elioFree

elio pricing →

Zeta

  • ZetaFree

Zeta pricing →

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.

Visit elio-fm.github.io

Zeta

Zeta has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.

Visit tzero86.github.io