head to head · open source
Mole vs burrow
Mole has 67,748 GitHub stars, 2,383 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped today. burrow has 1,429 stars, 176 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mole leads on adoption by 4,641% (67,748 vs 1,429 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; burrow is written in Swift under MIT. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, burrow 12%. Mole was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cleaner, macos), 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 | burrow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 1.4K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 176 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mole if
- You weight community size — 68K 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 burrow if
- You want the burrow feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- You evaluated both and burrow fits your workflow better
About Mole
Mole is an open source macOS utility that combines system cleanup, application management, and live monitoring into a single native app and CLI tool. It runs on macOS 12+ for both Intel and Apple Silicon, offering a unified interface for reclaiming disk space, uninstalling apps thoroughly, visualizing storage, and tracking real time system health. Built in Shell and licensed under GPL 3.0, it aggregates functionality found across several paid tools—CleanMyMac, AppCleaner, DaisyDisk, and iStat Menus—into one binary.
About burrow
Burrow is a free, open source (MIT), native macOS app that combines junk cleanup, app management, maintenance, disk analysis, and live system status in one window, with a built in MCP server so AI agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and Cursor can query and care for the same machine.
read the full burrow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or burrow more popular?
Mole has 67,748 GitHub stars and burrow has 1,429. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and burrow free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and burrow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and burrow?
Mole is written in Shell and burrow in Swift. 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 burrow?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (67,748 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose burrow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.