head to head · open source
yazi vs syncthing-macos
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. syncthing-macos has 3,937 stars, 202 forks, 45 open issues and last shipped 6 days ago. yazi leads on adoption by 976% (42,367 vs 3,937 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; syncthing-macos is written in Objective-C under MIT. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, syncthing-macos 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 (macos), 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| yazi | syncthing-macos | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 3.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 202 |
| 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 syncthing-macos if
- You want the syncthing-macos feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and syncthing-macos 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 syncthing-macos
Syncthing for macOS is the official frugal, native macOS tray application bundle for Syncthing, aimed at Mac users who want peer to peer file synchronisation to behave like a native application instead of a command line utility with a web browser interface.
read the full syncthing-macos overview →
More in Productivity & Utilities
Related comparisons
More File Management & Sync projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the File Management & Sync field.
Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or syncthing-macos more popular?
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars and syncthing-macos has 3,937. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and syncthing-macos free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and syncthing-macos under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and syncthing-macos?
yazi is written in Rust and syncthing-macos in Objective-C. 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 syncthing-macos?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,367 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose syncthing-macos if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.