head to head · open source
Mole vs nnn
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars, 2,382 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nnn has 21,895 stars, 817 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Mole leads on adoption by 209% (67,731 vs 21,895 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, nnn 4%. Mole was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (command-line), 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 | nnn | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 22K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Shell | C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-16 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 817 |
| 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 nnn if
- You want the nnn feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and nnn 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 nnn
nnn (n³) is a tiny, nearly zero config terminal file manager written in C and released under the BSD 2 Clause licence, built for developers, sysadmins, and command line users who want fast filesystem browsing, disk usage analysis, batch renaming, and file picking without leaving the shell.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or nnn more popular?
Mole has 67,731 GitHub stars and nnn has 21,895. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and nnn free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and nnn under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and nnn?
Mole is written in Shell and nnn in C. 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 nnn?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (67,731 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nnn if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.