head to head · open source
yazi vs PairDrop
yazi has 43,192 GitHub stars, 1,055 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. PairDrop has 11,740 stars, 720 forks, 111 open issues and last shipped 7 months ago. yazi leads on adoption by 268% (43,192 vs 11,740 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; PairDrop is written in JavaScript under GPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, PairDrop 6%. yazi 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
| yazi | PairDrop | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 12K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-04-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 720 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick yazi if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick PairDrop if
- You want the PairDrop feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and PairDrop fits your workflow better
About yazi
Special thanks to: Yazi ⚡️ Blazing Fast Terminal File Manager Yazi (means "duck") is a terminal file manager written in Rust, based on non blocking async I/O. It aims to provide an efficient, user friendly, and customizable file management experience. 💡 A new article explaining its internal workings: Why is Yazi Fast? 🚀 Full Asynchronous Support : All I/O operations are asynchronous, CPU tasks are spread across multiple threads, making the most of available resources. 💪 Powerful Async Task Scheduling and Management : Provides real time progress updates, task cancellation, and internal task priority…
About PairDrop
Send it , with PairDrop Local file sharing in your web browser . Inspired by Apple's AirDrop. Fork of Snapdrop. Report a bug Request feature Features File sharing on your local network that works on all platforms. A multi platform AirDrop like solution that works. Send images, documents or text via peer to peer connection to devices on the same local network. Internet transfers Join temporary public rooms to transfer files easily over the Internet. Web app Works on all devices with a modern web browser. Send a file from your phone to your laptop? Share photos in original quality with friends using Android and…
read the full PairDrop overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or PairDrop more popular?
yazi has 43,192 GitHub stars and PairDrop has 11,740. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and PairDrop free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and PairDrop under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and PairDrop?
yazi is written in Rust and PairDrop in JavaScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, yazi or PairDrop?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (43,192 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose PairDrop if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.