head to head · open source
nnn vs git-sync
nnn has 21,929 GitHub stars, 817 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. git-sync has 705 stars, 36 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped 17 days ago. nnn leads on adoption by 3,010% (21,929 vs 705 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; git-sync is written in Go under MIT. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, git-sync 5%. nnn 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
| nnn | git-sync | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 705 |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-09-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 817 | ⑂ 36 |
| 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 git-sync if
- You want the git-sync feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and git-sync fits your workflow better
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.
About git-sync
git sync is an MIT licensed command line tool written in Go that backs up and syncs git repositories from GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gitea and Forgejo into a local directory, aimed at developers and teams who want a self controlled copy of their code.
read the full git-sync overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nnn or git-sync more popular?
nnn has 21,929 GitHub stars and git-sync has 705. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and git-sync free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and git-sync under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and git-sync?
nnn is written in C and git-sync in Go. 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 git-sync?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (21,929 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose git-sync if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.