nnn vs Rat Commander
nnn
github.com
Rat Commander
rat-commander.comSide by side
| Figure | nnn | Rat Commander |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · File managers | 8.7 (#4) | 8.8 (#2) |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.5 (#7) | 8.3 (#12) |
| Archive support | Yes | Yes |
| 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. | It supports file copy, move, delete, permissions, ownership, symlinks, and directory creation. |
| Installation | The project offers a statically linked binary and packages, and can also be compiled from source. | Nothing else is required to install |
| License | The GitHub repository identifies the project license as BSD-2-Clause. | The project is licensed under GNU General Public License version 2, GPL-2.0-only. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Platforms | The project says nnn runs on Linux, macOS, Android through Termux, Cygwin, and WSL, among other environments. | The maker lists Linux, macOS, and Windows; its README notes that Windows lacks Drive Manager and Network Connections. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Product | nnn is a full-featured terminal file manager designed to be small, fast, and nearly zero-configuration. | Rat Commander is a self-contained, two-panel terminal file manager written in Rust with Ratatui. |
| Remote file access | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The project invites users to discuss new ideas or enhancement requests in GitHub Discussions. | The project links to GitHub Issues for reporting issues. |
| Windows support | No | Yes |
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.
Rat Commander
Rat Commander is a free, two-panel terminal file manager for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It brings file browsing and media viewing together with editing, archives, Git, remote filesystems, and system tools. Panels can show files as lists, trees, thumbnail grids, or interactive 3D views, and can be split vertically or horizontally. The built-in viewer and editor support syntax highlighting, search and replace, Markdown, tables, images, and in-place hex editing. Git tools cover tasks including staging, commits, branches, diffs, and history. Remote connections over SFTP, SCP, FTP, and FTPS let users work with remote filesystems in a local-disk-like way. ZIP, TAR variants, 7z, and other archives can be browsed and edited; RAR is read-only. QR codes support sending and receiving files over a local network. Linux disk tools can mount, format, flash, and image disks and USB devices. On Windows, Drive Manager and Network Connections are unavailable. Rat Commander is written in Rust with Ratatui and is licensed under GNU GPL-2.0-only.