nnn vs Rascal
nnn
github.com
Rascal
tryrascal.orgSide by side
| Figure | nnn | Rascal |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · File Manager Software | 8.7 (#6) | 7.7 (#60) |
| Dual-pane layout | No | Yes |
| File operations | It can analyze disk usage, batch rename, launch apps, pick files, and copy, move, delete, archive, and link selections. | File tools include cut and paste, undo, batch rename with regex and a live preview, Quick Look, and Finder tags. |
| Integrations | Remote mounts can use sshfs or rclone, and nnn supports desktop openers, shell integration, and FreeDesktop-compliant trash utilities. | The guide describes an inline terminal, SFTP, and connections to servers or network shares that users initiate. |
| Platforms | The project says nnn runs on Linux, macOS, Android through Termux, Cygwin, and WSL, among other environments. | macOS 13 or later |
| Privacy | The project describes nnn as privacy-aware, with no unconfirmed user data collection. | The maker says Rascal collects no analytics or telemetry, has no account or cloud sync, and keeps app data on the Mac. |
| Product | nnn is a full-featured terminal file manager designed to be small, fast, and nearly zero-configuration. | Rascal is a keyboard-first Finder replacement for macOS. |
| Support | The project invites users to discuss new ideas or enhancement requests in GitHub Discussions. | The privacy policy directs privacy questions to an issue on GitHub. |
Plans
In their own words
nnn
nnn is a terminal file manager designed to be small, fast and nearly zero-configuration. It handles copying, moving, deleting, archiving and linking selections, alongside batch renaming, disk-usage analysis, app launching and file picking. Navigation includes contexts, sessions, bookmarks and directory marks, while search options include instant filtering, fuzzy matching, regular expressions and string filters. It provides directory and text previews, and can create, list, extract and mount archives. Plugins can add functions such as live previews, disk mounting, file comparison and uploads. Remote mounts require optional sshfs or rclone dependencies. The project says nnn typically needs less than 3.5 MB of resident memory; it has no configuration file and uses defaults, with optional environment-variable settings. It is free and open source under the BSD-2-Clause license, and is listed for Android, Linux, macOS and Windows. The project offers packages and a statically linked binary, or users can compile it from source.