head to head · open source
Mole vs parallel-disk-usage
Mole has 68,042 GitHub stars, 2,393 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped yesterday. parallel-disk-usage has 731 stars, 25 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Mole leads on adoption by 9,208% (68,042 vs 731 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; parallel-disk-usage is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, parallel-disk-usage 3%. Mole was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | parallel-disk-usage | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 68K | ★ 731 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-14 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.4K | ⑂ 25 |
| 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 parallel-disk-usage if
- You want the parallel-disk-usage feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and parallel-disk-usage 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 parallel-disk-usage
parallel disk usage (pdu) is a highly parallelized directory tree analyzer written in Rust that renders a graphical chart of file and directory sizes directly in the terminal, and it is aimed at developers and system administrators who need to find out where disk space has gone without leaving the command line.
read the full parallel-disk-usage overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or parallel-disk-usage more popular?
Mole has 68,042 GitHub stars and parallel-disk-usage has 731. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and parallel-disk-usage free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and parallel-disk-usage under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and parallel-disk-usage?
Mole is written in Shell and parallel-disk-usage 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 parallel-disk-usage?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (68,042 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose parallel-disk-usage if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.