head to head · open source
yazi vs hfs
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. hfs has 3,915 stars, 371 forks, 17 open issues and last shipped yesterday. yazi leads on adoption by 982% (42,367 vs 3,915 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; hfs is written in TypeScript under GPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, hfs 9%. hfs 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 | hfs | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-22 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 371 |
| 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 hfs if
- You want the hfs feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and hfs 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 hfs
HFS is a TypeScript web file server under the GPL 3.0 licence that turns a computer running Windows, Linux, macOS, FreeBSD or Android into a file sharing server whose folders and individual files are reachable from any browser.
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or hfs more popular?
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars and hfs has 3,915. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and hfs free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and hfs under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and hfs?
yazi is written in Rust and hfs 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 hfs?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,367 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose hfs if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.