head to head · open source
Pearcleaner vs squirreldisk
Pearcleaner has 14,760 GitHub stars, 385 forks, 84 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. squirreldisk has 1,840 stars, 82 forks, 18 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Pearcleaner leads on adoption by 702% (14,760 vs 1,840 stars). Pearcleaner is written in Swift under a custom or non-standard licence; squirreldisk is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0. Pearcleaner has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, squirreldisk 4%. squirreldisk 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 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Pearcleaner | squirreldisk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Swift | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-06-22 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 385 | ⑂ 82 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Pearcleaner if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Swift
- 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 Pearcleaner
Pearcleaner is a free, source available, fair code licensed macOS application written in Swift and listed under Productivity & Utilities / System Cleanup & Optimization. It is described as a Mac app cleaner inspired by Freemacsoft's AppCleaner and by Sun Knudsen's Privacy Guides post about an app cleaner script. The project's homepage is hosted at itsalin.com, and the repository states that this is the only legitimate website owned by the author.
read the full Pearcleaner overview →
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 →
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 Pearcleaner or squirreldisk more popular?
Pearcleaner has 14,760 GitHub stars and squirreldisk has 1,840. Pearcleaner has the larger community by that measure.
Are Pearcleaner and squirreldisk free?
Both are open source. Pearcleaner has no licence declared in this registry, and squirreldisk is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Pearcleaner and squirreldisk?
Pearcleaner is written in Swift 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, Pearcleaner or squirreldisk?
Choose Pearcleaner if you want the larger community (14,760 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose squirreldisk if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.