head to head · open source
nnn vs burrow
nnn has 22,107 GitHub stars, 834 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. burrow has 1,674 stars, 184 forks, 58 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. nnn leads on adoption by 1,221% (22,107 vs 1,674 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; burrow is written in Swift under MIT. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, burrow 11%. burrow was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (disk-usage), 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
| nnn | burrow | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 834 | ⑂ 184 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick nnn if
- You weight community size — 22K stars and counting
- You want the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches C
- 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 nnn
nnn Supercharge your productivity! [ Features ] $ $ [ Quickstart ] $ $ [ Plugins ] $ $ [ Wiki ] nnn ( n³ ) is a full featured terminal file manager. It's tiny ( 150 KiB), nearly 0 config and incredibly fast. It is designed to be unobtrusive with smart workflows to match the trains of thought. nnn can analyze disk usage, batch rename, launch apps and pick files. The plugin repository has tons of plugins to extend the capabilities further e.g. live previews, (un)mount disks, find & list, file/dir diff, upload files. A patch framework hosts sizable user submitted patches which are subjective in nature. Independent…
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 nnn or burrow more popular?
nnn has 22,107 GitHub stars and burrow has 1,674. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and burrow free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and burrow under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and burrow?
nnn is written in C 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, nnn or burrow?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (22,107 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose burrow if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.