head to head · open source
yazi vs MaterialFiles
yazi has 42,344 GitHub stars, 1,022 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. MaterialFiles has 9,022 stars, 738 forks, 611 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. yazi leads on adoption by 369% (42,344 vs 9,022 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; MaterialFiles is written in Kotlin under GPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, MaterialFiles 8%. yazi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (android, 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 | MaterialFiles | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 9.0K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Kotlin |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-20 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 738 |
| 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 MaterialFiles if
- You want the MaterialFiles feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Kotlin
- You evaluated both and MaterialFiles 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 MaterialFiles
Material Files is a free, open source Material Design file manager for Android 5.0 and later, aimed at Android users who want to browse, manage and modify files — including files that require root access — without handing full device access to a closed source app.
read the full MaterialFiles overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or MaterialFiles more popular?
yazi has 42,344 GitHub stars and MaterialFiles has 9,022. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and MaterialFiles free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and MaterialFiles under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and MaterialFiles?
yazi is written in Rust and MaterialFiles in Kotlin. 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 MaterialFiles?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,344 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose MaterialFiles if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.