head to head · open source
yazi vs cryfs
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cryfs has 2,304 stars, 170 forks, 154 open issues and last shipped yesterday. yazi leads on adoption by 1,736% (42,303 vs 2,304 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; cryfs is written in Rust under LGPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, cryfs 7%. yazi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (filesystem), 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.
← all 15422 open source comparisons
Side by side
| yazi | cryfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 2.3K |
| License | MIT | LGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 170 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick yazi if
- You weight community size — 42K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick cryfs if
- You want the cryfs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the LGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and cryfs 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 cryfs
CryFS is a FUSE based cryptographic filesystem written in Rust that encrypts a vault directory so it can be stored safely in cloud services such as Dropbox, iCloud, or OneDrive, and it is intended for Linux users who want their file contents, file sizes, directory structure, and metadata hidden from the storage provider rather than encrypted one file at a time.
read the full cryfs overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More File Management & Sync projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the File Management & Sync field.
Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or cryfs more popular?
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars and cryfs has 2,304. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and cryfs free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and cryfs under LGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and cryfs?
yazi is written in Rust and cryfs 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, yazi or cryfs?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,303 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cryfs if its feature set, stack or LGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.