head to head · open source
Mole vs dua-cli
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars, 2,382 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. dua-cli has 6,277 stars, 170 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. Mole leads on adoption by 979% (67,731 vs 6,277 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 | ★ 68K | ★ 6.3K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Shell | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-12 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 170 |
| 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 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 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 dua-cli
dua cli is a terminal based, parallel disk usage analyzer written in Rust that reports how much space a directory consumes and optionally deletes unwanted data, built for developers, system administrators, and anyone cleaning up storage from a shell rather than a graphical desktop application.
read the full dua-cli overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or dua-cli more popular?
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars and dua-cli has 6,277. 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 (67,731 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.