head to head · open source
nnn vs dua-cli
nnn has 22,107 GitHub stars, 834 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dua-cli has 6,407 stars, 181 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nnn leads on adoption by 245% (22,107 vs 6,407 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; dua-cli is written in Rust under MIT. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, dua-cli 3%. dua-cli was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (disk-usage), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nnn | dua-cli | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 6.4K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 834 | ⑂ 181 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nnn if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- 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 nnn
nnn Supercharge your productivity! [ Features ] $ $ [ Quickstart ] $ $ [ Plugins ] $ $ [ Wiki ] nnn ( n³ ) is a full featured terminal file manager. It's tiny ( 150 KiB), nearly 0 config and incredibly fast. It is designed to be unobtrusive with smart workflows to match the trains of thought. nnn can analyze disk usage, batch rename, launch apps and pick files. The plugin repository has tons of plugins to extend the capabilities further e.g. live previews, (un)mount disks, find & list, file/dir diff, upload files. A patch framework hosts sizable user submitted patches which are subjective in nature. Independent…
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 →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More System Cleanup & Optimization projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the System Cleanup & Optimization field.
Frequently asked questions
Is nnn or dua-cli more popular?
nnn has 22,107 GitHub stars and dua-cli has 6,407. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and dua-cli free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and dua-cli under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and dua-cli?
nnn is written in C 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, nnn or dua-cli?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (22,107 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose dua-cli if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.