head to head · open source
yazi vs ranger
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped yesterday. ranger has 17,405 stars, 942 forks, 896 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. yazi leads on adoption by 143% (42,303 vs 17,405 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; ranger is written in Python under GPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, ranger 5%. yazi 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 | ranger | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 17K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 942 |
| 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 ranger if
- You want the ranger feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and ranger 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 ranger
Ranger is a console file manager with VI key bindings, written in Python and released under the GNU General Public License version 3, for terminal users who want to browse, preview, and manipulate files without leaving a Unix shell.
read the full ranger overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or ranger more popular?
yazi has 42,303 GitHub stars and ranger has 17,405. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and ranger free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and ranger under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and ranger?
yazi is written in Rust and ranger in Python. 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 ranger?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,303 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose ranger if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.