head to head · open source
nnn vs squirreldisk
nnn has 22,020 GitHub stars, 823 forks, 1 open issues and last shipped yesterday. squirreldisk has 1,840 stars, 82 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. nnn leads on adoption by 1,097% (22,020 vs 1,840 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 4%. 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 | ★ 1.8K |
| License | BSD-2-Clause | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-28 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 823 | ⑂ 82 |
| 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 (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 squirreldisk
SquirrelDisk is a free, open source disk usage analyzer for macOS, Windows and Linux that shows what fills a disk, a server reached over SSH or cloud storage in an animated sunburst or treemap, for anyone who needs to find and clear that space.
read the full squirreldisk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is nnn or squirreldisk more popular?
nnn has 22,020 GitHub stars and squirreldisk has 1,840. 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 (22,020 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.