head to head · open source
yazi vs psitransfer
yazi has 42,521 GitHub stars, 1,034 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. psitransfer has 1,953 stars, 247 forks, 109 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. yazi leads on adoption by 2,077% (42,521 vs 1,953 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; psitransfer is written in JavaScript under BSD-2-Clause. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, psitransfer 13%. 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 | psitransfer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 43K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | BSD-2-Clause |
| Written in | Rust | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-30 | 2026-06-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 247 |
| 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 psitransfer if
- You want the psitransfer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-2-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and psitransfer 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 psitransfer
PsiTransfer is a simple, open source, self hosted file sharing service written in JavaScript under the BSD 2 Clause licence, intended for individuals and teams that want to send large files without accounts, logins or a paid provider.
read the full psitransfer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or psitransfer more popular?
yazi has 42,521 GitHub stars and psitransfer has 1,953. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and psitransfer free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and psitransfer under BSD-2-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and psitransfer?
yazi is written in Rust and psitransfer in JavaScript. 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 psitransfer?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,521 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose psitransfer if its feature set, stack or BSD-2-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.