head to head · open source
nnn vs squirreldisk
nnn has 22,122 GitHub stars, 832 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. squirreldisk has 2,249 stars, 110 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped 27 days ago. nnn leads on adoption by 884% (22,122 vs 2,249 stars). nnn is written in C under BSD-2-Clause; squirreldisk is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. nnn has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, squirreldisk 5%. nnn 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 | squirreldisk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 22K | ★ 2.2K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 832 | ⑂ 110 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nnn or squirreldisk more popular?
nnn has 22,122 GitHub stars and squirreldisk has 2,249. nnn has the larger community by that measure.
Are nnn and squirreldisk free?
Both are open source. nnn is licensed under BSD-2-Clause and squirreldisk under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between nnn and squirreldisk?
nnn is written in C 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, nnn or squirreldisk?
Choose nnn if you want the larger community (22,122 stars) or its BSD-2-Clause licence terms. Choose squirreldisk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.