head to head · open source
yazi vs vifm
yazi has 42,653 GitHub stars, 1,039 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. vifm has 3,277 stars, 147 forks, 146 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. yazi leads on adoption by 1,202% (42,653 vs 3,277 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; vifm is written in C under GPL-2.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, vifm 4%. yazi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cross-platform, 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
| yazi | vifm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 3.3K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 147 |
| 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 vifm if
- You want the vifm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and vifm fits your workflow better
About yazi
Yazi is a terminal file manager written in Rust on non blocking async I/O, aimed at developers and command line users who want fast, customizable file browsing without leaving the terminal.
About vifm
Vifm is a curses based, Vim like file manager for the terminal that gives people who already use Vim complete keyboard control over their files without having to learn a new set of commands.
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or vifm more popular?
yazi has 42,653 GitHub stars and vifm has 3,277. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and vifm free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and vifm under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and vifm?
yazi is written in Rust and vifm in C. 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 vifm?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,653 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose vifm if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.