head to head · open source
Mole vs burrow
Mole has 73,641 GitHub stars, 2,611 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. burrow has 1,674 stars, 184 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Mole leads on adoption by 4,299% (73,641 vs 1,674 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 11%. 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 | ★ 74K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.6K | ⑂ 184 |
| 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 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 🐹 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 burrow
Burrow is an independent open source (MIT) app. It bundles its own engine — burrow engine , a single source available binary under the Functional Source License (FSL 1.1 ALv2) whose command surface is modelled on the Mole ( mo ) CLI by tw93 — and is not affiliated with or endorsed by mole.fit (the official Mole for Mac app by mo 's author); its own name, mark, palette, and copy are original. If you like Mole and want to fund mo 's development — buy mole.fit ($19) . burrow 🐹 The open source system companion for your Mac — clean, uninstall, analyze, optimize, and monitor, built for you and your AI agents. Burrow…
read the full burrow overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or burrow more popular?
Mole has 73,641 GitHub stars and burrow has 1,674. 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 (73,641 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose burrow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.