head to head · open source
nnn vs pomatez
nnn has 21,895 GitHub stars, 817 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. pomatez has 4,892 stars, 210 forks, 167 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. nnn leads on adoption by 348% (21,895 vs 4,892 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; pomatez is written in TypeScript under MIT. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, pomatez 4%. 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| nnn | pomatez | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 4.9K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | MIT |
| Written in | C | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-16 | 2026-05-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 817 | ⑂ 210 |
| 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 pomatez if
- You want the pomatez feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and pomatez 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 pomatez
Pomatez is a free, open source Pomodoro timer desktop application written in TypeScript and released under the MIT licence, built for Windows, macOS, and Linux users who want structured work and break cycles running locally on their own machine.
read the full pomatez 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 nnn or pomatez more popular?
nnn has 21,895 GitHub stars and pomatez has 4,892. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and pomatez free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and pomatez under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and pomatez?
nnn is written in C and pomatez in TypeScript. 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 pomatez?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (21,895 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose pomatez if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.