head to head · open source
Spacedrive vs ranger
Spacedrive has 39,404 GitHub stars, 1,374 forks, 57 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. ranger has 17,448 stars, 940 forks, 896 open issues and last shipped 2 months ago. Spacedrive leads on adoption by 126% (39,404 vs 17,448 stars). Spacedrive is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; ranger is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Spacedrive has attracted 3% as many forks as stars, ranger 5%. Spacedrive was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (file-manager), 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
| Spacedrive | ranger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 39K | ★ 17K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 940 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Spacedrive if
- You weight community size — 39K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick ranger if
- You want the ranger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ranger fits your workflow better
About Spacedrive
Spacedrive One file manager for all your devices and clouds. Powered by a Virtual Distributed File System, complete with apps for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android v2.spacedrive.com • Discord • Getting Started What is Spacedrive? Spacedrive is a cross device data platform. Index files, emails, notes, and external sources. Search everything. Sync via P2P. Keep AI agents safe with built in screening. Content identity — every file gets a BLAKE3 content hash. Same file on two devices produces the same hash. Spacedrive tracks redundancy and deduplication across all your machines. Cross device — see all…
read the full Spacedrive overview →
About ranger
Ranger 1.9.4 ============ Ranger is a console file manager with VI key bindings. It provides a minimalistic and nice curses interface with a view on the directory hierarchy. It ships with rifle , a file launcher that is good at automatically finding out which program to use for what file type. For mc aficionados there's also the multi pane viewmode. This file describes ranger and how to get it to run. For instructions on the usage, please read the man page ( man ranger in a terminal). See HACKING.md for development specific information. For configuration, check the files in ranger/config/ or copy the default…
read the full ranger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Spacedrive or ranger more popular?
Spacedrive has 39,404 GitHub stars and ranger has 17,448. Spacedrive has the larger community by that measure.
Are Spacedrive and ranger free?
Both are open source. Spacedrive is licensed under Apache-2.0 and ranger under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Spacedrive and ranger?
Spacedrive is written in Rust and ranger in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Spacedrive or ranger?
Choose Spacedrive if you want the larger community (39,404 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose ranger if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.