Newt vs pointer
Newt
newt-fm.orgpointer
github.comSide by side
| Figure | Newt | pointer |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · File managers | 8.9 (#1) | 8.5 (#8) |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.4 (#9) | 8.3 (#11) |
| Archive support | Yes | Yes |
| Dual-pane layout | Yes | Yes |
| File operations | Users can view, copy, delete, move, edit, pack, or reveal files from the interface. | It supports asynchronous copy and move operations and undo for delete, move, rename, copy, symlink, permissions, and bulk rename. |
| Integrations | The page names S3, SFTP, SSH, Docker, Podman, Kubernetes exec, WSL, and custom transports. | The README lists fzf, navi, locate, git, bat, ImageMagick, pdftotext, xclip, and curl as integrations or optional runtime dependencies. |
| Open source license | Newt source code is available under the GNU GPL v3. | The project is released under the Unlicense, described on the page as public domain. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Remote file access | Yes | Yes |
| Windows support | Yes | No |
Plans
In their own words
Newt
Newt is a free, open-source file manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows. Its two-pane interface handles local and remote filesystems, connecting through SSH, containers, Kubernetes pods, and WSL distributions. Remote sessions can run file operations, searches, terminals, and mounts on the remote host. Users can view, copy, move, delete, or edit files, and pack or reveal them. ZIP, TAR, compressed TAR, and CPIO archives can be browsed as directories, including nested and encrypted archives; ISO 9660 and UDF images can be browsed without extraction. S3 filesystems can be mounted, with range reads for large images. Recursive filename and content searches stream results into a pane linked to the files. Common actions have direct key controls, with configurable bindings and mouse controls also available. The backend uses Rust, while the interface uses React and TypeScript and packaging uses Tauri. Source code is available under the GNU GPL v3. No free-tier limits are stated.
pointer
Pointer is a free, open-source terminal file manager for Linux and macOS. It presents files in a two-pane layout with configurable width ratios and border styles, plus previews with syntax highlighting for more than 20 languages and inline image display through kitty, sixel, or w3m protocols. Archives including zip, tar, gz, bz2, xz, rar, and 7z can be browsed and edited as virtual directories. File operations include asynchronous copying and moving, undo for several actions, and deletion with a flag-then-purge process and default confirmation. Pointer supports SSH/SFTP remote browsing, filename and content search, extension or regex filters, bookmarks, tabs, and file-picker mode. JSON-manifest plugins bind external commands to keys. The README describes OpenAI integration and Claude-powered descriptions and sessions. Linux and macOS binaries are listed for x86_64 and aarch64.