Filelight vs QDirStat

Filelight helps users find disk space to free by showing usage as concentric rings. It scans local, remote, or removable disks and displays details about files and folders; users can delete selected files or folders from the application. Scans can cover files and folders, including external drives, but Filelight does not show application sizes. Users can exclude chosen folders, remote filesystems, or removable media from scans. For remote filesystems such as NFS or Samba mounts, the handbook warns that scanning can generate high network traffic. Filelight integrates with the Dolphin, Konqueror, and Krusader file managers, and it supports configurable color schemes and scanning and appearance settings. It can also be launched from a command line with a folder name to scan that folder. Linux users can install it through Discover or another AppStream store, a distribution package manager, or Flathub. Filelight is free, with a free plan, and runs on Linux and Windows.

QDirStat is free graphical software for examining disk usage and cleaning selected files. It displays directory and file sizes in a tree and colored treemap, with views for file types, size histograms, file ages, and free, used, and reserved space on mounted filesystems. Users can select multiple items and run configurable cleanup actions, including moving items to the trash or deleting them. On Linux systems using dpkg, rpm, or pacman, the Packages view lists installed packages and their files; an Unpackaged Files view highlights system files outside those packages. QDirStat targets Linux, BSD, and Unix-like systems on X11 desktops. Third parties provide macOS binaries and Homebrew distribution. There is no native Windows version, although Docker is suggested for non-Linux systems. A Perl script collects headless-server directory data into a cache for desktop viewing; cleanup then occurs on the desktop. Cache files may reveal directory contents and should be protected. QDirStat is GPL V2 software.