head to head · open source
yazi vs Firefiles
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Firefiles has 371 stars, 57 forks, 14 open issues and last shipped 11 months ago. yazi leads on adoption by 11,302% (42,303 vs 371 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; Firefiles is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, Firefiles 15%. yazi 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.
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Side by side
| yazi | Firefiles | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 371 |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2025-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 57 |
| 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 Firefiles if
- You want the Firefiles feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Firefiles 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 Firefiles
Firefiles is an open source, self hosted alternative to Dropbox: a TypeScript and Next.js web application that turns your own cloud storage buckets — such as AWS S3, Backblaze, or Firebase Cloud Storage — into a single browser based drive with a familiar file system interface, built for people who want Dropbox style file management while keeping their files in storage they already own.
read the full Firefiles overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or Firefiles more popular?
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars and Firefiles has 371. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and Firefiles free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and Firefiles under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and Firefiles?
yazi is written in Rust and Firefiles in TypeScript. 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 Firefiles?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,303 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Firefiles if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.