head to head · open source
Files vs walk
Files has 45,707 GitHub stars, 2,942 forks, 458 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. walk has 3,641 stars, 107 forks, 10 open issues and last shipped 9 months ago. Files leads on adoption by 1,155% (45,707 vs 3,641 stars). Files is written in C# under MIT; walk is written in Go under MIT. Files has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, walk 3%. Files was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (file-manager), 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
| Files | walk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 46K | ★ 3.6K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | C# | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-24 | 2026-01-06 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 107 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Files if
- You weight community size — 46K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick walk if
- You want the walk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and walk fits your workflow better
About Files
Files is a modern, MIT licensed file manager for Windows, written in C and maintained by an open source community, for Windows users who want a customizable, actively developed alternative for organising files and folders.
read the full Files overview →
About walk
Walk is an MIT licensed terminal file manager written in Go that replaces the familiar pairing of cd and ls with an interactive navigator, aimed at developers and other command line users who want to move through the filesystem with arrow keys or hjkl instead of typing paths.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Files or walk more popular?
Files has 45,707 GitHub stars and walk has 3,641. Files has the larger community by that measure.
Are Files and walk free?
Both are open source. Files is licensed under MIT and walk under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Files and walk?
Files is written in C# and walk in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Files or walk?
Choose Files if you want the larger community (45,707 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose walk if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.