nnn vs superfile
nnn
github.comsuperfile
superfile.devSide by side
| Figure | nnn | superfile |
|---|---|---|
| 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) | 8.5 (#9) |
| Spec score · Terminal File Managers | 8.5 (#7) | 8.1 (#18) |
| 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 copying, moving, deleting, renaming, fuzzy search, bulk operations, and image preview. |
| Installation | The project offers a statically linked binary and packages, and can also be compiled from source. | Official installation methods include shell scripts for Linux and macOS, PowerShell, Winget, Scoop, Homebrew, Arch, NixOS, Pixi, and X-CMD. |
| License | The GitHub repository identifies the project license as BSD-2-Clause. | The project describes itself as open source and MIT licensed. |
| Linux support | Yes | Yes |
| macOS support | Yes | Yes |
| Plugins | Language-agnostic plugins can add capabilities such as live previews, disk mounting, file comparison, and uploads. | Community plugins extend superfile with Git status integration, system monitoring, custom commands, and other functions. |
| Preview pane | Yes | Yes |
| Product | nnn is a full-featured terminal file manager designed to be small, fast, and nearly zero-configuration. | superfile is a modern terminal file manager built with Go and Bubble Tea. |
| Support | The project invites users to discuss new ideas or enhancement requests in GitHub Discussions. | The project invites users to join its Discord community and use GitHub issues and discussions for bugs, ideas, and help. |
| 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.
superfile
superfile is a free, open-source terminal file manager built with Go and Bubble Tea, aimed at developers who work in the terminal. It supports copying, moving, deleting, renaming, fuzzy search, bulk operations, and image preview, alongside archive support. Users can split the view into multiple directory panes and copy or paste between them. Hotkeys are remappable, and themes, borders, and colors can be adjusted. The project lists more than 20 built-in themes and community plugins for functions such as Git status, system monitoring, custom commands, metadata, MD5 checksums, and smart directory jumping. Official support covers Linux, macOS, and Windows, though the project notes that Windows is not fully supported yet. Installation options include shell scripts for Linux and macOS, PowerShell, Winget, Scoop, Homebrew, Arch, NixOS, Pixi, and X-CMD. The installation guide recommends a Nerd Font, but superfile works without one. Its stated focus is lightweight file and directory tasks, rather than the full feature set of some other terminal file managers. The project is MIT licensed and self-installed.