head to head · open source
nnn vs disky
nnn has 22,108 GitHub stars, 834 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. disky has 972 stars, 39 forks, 11 open issues and last shipped 5 months ago. nnn leads on adoption by 2,174% (22,108 vs 972 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; disky is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, disky 4%. nnn was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (android, disk-usage, filesystem), 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 | disky | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 972 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-05-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 834 | ⑂ 39 |
| 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 disky if
- You want the disky feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and disky 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 disky
disky Find your biggest diskspace thieves! A filesystem analyzer that can show you the usage of your storage! Screenshots Features Fast Even larger devices can be scanned in mere seconds! Multi Storage All your local filesystems are supported! Material You Fits your device's theme! Installation Grab the latest version of the signed APK and install it on your phone. Developing You should first make sure you have cloned this repository: You can then build the app normally from Android Studio or from CLI by running: Contributing See CONTRIBUTING Anyone is welcome to contribute and help out. However, hate…
read the full disky overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nnn or disky more popular?
nnn has 22,108 GitHub stars and disky has 972. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and disky free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and disky under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and disky?
nnn is written in C and disky in Kotlin. 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 disky?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (22,108 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose disky if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.