head to head · open source
Mole vs squirreldisk
Mole has 74,949 GitHub stars, 2,699 forks, 6 open issues and last shipped today. squirreldisk has 2,249 stars, 110 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. Mole leads on adoption by 3,233% (74,949 vs 2,249 stars). Mole is written in Shell under GPL-3.0; squirreldisk is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Mole has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, squirreldisk 5%. 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Mole | squirreldisk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 75K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Shell | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-14 | 2026-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.7K | ⑂ 110 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Mole if
- You weight community size — 75K 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 squirreldisk if
- You want the squirreldisk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and squirreldisk 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 squirreldisk
SquirrelDisk See what's using your disk space, and clean it up safely. For macOS, Windows and Linux. Free. [!NOTE] SquirrelDisk 2 is here. After a few quiet years, SquirrelDisk is back, rebuilt from the ground up by its original author in native Rust: faster, better looking, and with many long standing bugs fixed on every platform. Completely free, and actively maintained here in this repository. Download All builds are on the releases page. SquirrelDisk updates itself when a new version comes out. macOS says the app can't be opened SquirrelDisk is distributed outside the App Store, so macOS asks for…
read the full squirreldisk overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More System Cleanup & Optimization projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the System Cleanup & Optimization field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mole or squirreldisk more popular?
Mole has 74,949 GitHub stars and squirreldisk has 2,249. Mole has the larger community by that measure.
Are Mole and squirreldisk free?
Both are open source. Mole is licensed under GPL-3.0 and squirreldisk under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Mole and squirreldisk?
Mole is written in Shell and squirreldisk 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 squirreldisk?
Choose Mole if you want the larger community (74,949 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose squirreldisk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.