head to head · open source
yazi vs ffsend
yazi has 42,286 GitHub stars, 1,022 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ffsend has 7,413 stars, 205 forks, 33 open issues and last shipped 10 months ago. yazi leads on adoption by 470% (42,286 vs 7,413 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; ffsend is written in Rust under GPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, ffsend 3%. yazi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (cli), 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 | ffsend | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 7.4K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-18 | 2025-11-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 205 |
| 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 ffsend if
- You want the ffsend feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and ffsend 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 ffsend
ffsend is a command line client for the Send file sharing service that uploads and downloads encrypted files and directories through a single terminal command, built for developers, system administrators and anyone who prefers a scriptable, privacy respecting alternative to a web upload form.
read the full ffsend overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or ffsend more popular?
yazi has 42,286 GitHub stars and ffsend has 7,413. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and ffsend free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and ffsend under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and ffsend?
yazi is written in Rust and ffsend 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 ffsend?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,286 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ffsend if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.