head to head · open source
yazi vs xplorer
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars, 1,023 forks, 65 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. xplorer has 5,674 stars, 379 forks, 49 open issues and last shipped 3 months ago. yazi leads on adoption by 647% (42,367 vs 5,674 stars). yazi is written in Rust under MIT; xplorer is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. yazi has attracted 2% as many forks as stars, xplorer 7%. yazi was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (cross-platform, 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 | xplorer | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 42K | ★ 5.7K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-21 | 2026-06-25 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.0K | ⑂ 379 |
| 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 xplorer if
- You want the xplorer feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and xplorer 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 xplorer
Xplorer is a cross platform, AI integrated desktop file manager built as a Tauri 2 application with a Rust backend and a React frontend, aimed at developers, researchers, students, and power users who want more from their files than the manager their operating system ships with.
read the full xplorer overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is yazi or xplorer more popular?
yazi has 42,367 GitHub stars and xplorer has 5,674. yazi has the larger community by that measure.
Are yazi and xplorer free?
Both are open source. yazi is licensed under MIT and xplorer under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between yazi and xplorer?
yazi is written in Rust and xplorer in TypeScript. 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 xplorer?
Choose yazi if you want the larger community (42,367 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose xplorer if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.