head to head · open source
Mole vs dua-cli
Mole has 73,641 GitHub stars, 2,611 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. dua-cli has 6,407 stars, 181 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mole leads on adoption by 1,049% (73,641 vs 6,407 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; dua-cli is written in Rust under MIT. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, dua-cli 3%. Mole was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cleaner), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Mole | dua-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 74K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 181 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mole if
- You weight community size — 74K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Shell
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick dua-cli if
- You want the dua-cli feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and dua-cli fits your workflow better
About Mole
Mole 🐹 Clean, uninstall, analyze, optimize, and monitor your Mac. Free open source CLI, plus a native Mac app. 💡 Prefer a native app? Mole for Mac brings cleanup, app management, maintenance, disk maps, and live status into one lightweight, VoiceOver ready app. One license covers 2 Macs with lifetime updates and a 14 day refund. The CLI stays free and open source. Features All in one toolkit : Combines CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus in a single binary Deep cleaning : Removes caches, logs, leftovers, and orphaned app data to reclaim gigabytes of space Smart uninstaller : Removes apps plus…
About dua-cli
dua ( Disk Usage Analyzer ) is a tool to conveniently learn about the usage of disk space of a given directory. It's parallel by default and will max out your SSD, providing relevant information as fast as possible. Optionally delete superfluous data, and do so more quickly than rm . Run dua i to launch the interactive mode for exploring and deleting files. Installation Binary Release MacOS MacOS via MacPorts: MacOS via Homebrew Linux Linux requires the target to be specified explicitly to obtain the MUSL build. Windows via Scoop Windows via WinGet Pre built Binaries See the [releases section][releases] for…
read the full dua-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or dua-cli more popular?
Mole has 73,641 GitHub stars and dua-cli has 6,407. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and dua-cli free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and dua-cli under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and dua-cli?
Mole is written in Shell and dua-cli in Rust. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Mole or dua-cli?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (73,641 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose dua-cli if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.