head to head · open source
yazi vs nova
yazi has 42,683 GitHub stars, 1,041 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nova has 1,198 stars, 52 forks, 21 open issues and last shipped yesterday. yazi leads on adoption by 3,463% (42,683 vs 1,198 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; nova is written in Rust under Apache-2.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, nova 4%. nova was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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 | nova | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 1.2K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-10-05 | 2026-10-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 52 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick yazi if
- You weight community size — 43K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nova if
- You want the nova feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and nova 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 nova
Yazelix Nova is a Nix packaged terminal workspace for developers who want a batteries included development environment built from focused, first party components rather than assembling their own.
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or nova more popular?
yazi has 42,683 GitHub stars and nova has 1,198. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and nova free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and nova under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and nova?
yazi is written in Rust and nova 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 nova?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,683 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nova if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.