[opensourcedex]

squirreldisk is a free, open source system cleanup & optimization project written in Rust and released under AGPL-3.0. It has 1,840 GitHub stars, 82 forks and 18 open issues, and was last pushed 14 hours ago. On this registry it ranks #10 of 21 tracked projects in System Cleanup & Optimization, with 5 head-to-head comparisons available.

What is squirreldisk?

SquirrelDisk is a free, open-source disk usage analyzer for macOS, Windows and Linux that shows what fills a disk, a server reached over SSH or cloud storage in an animated sunburst or treemap, for anyone who needs to find and clear that space.

What it is

SquirrelDisk is a cross-platform disk usage analyzer written in native Rust and released under the AGPL-3.0 licence, listed here under Productivity & Utilities / System Cleanup & Optimization. After a few quiet years, its original author rebuilt it from the ground up as SquirrelDisk 2: faster, better looking, and with many long-standing bugs fixed on every platform. The interface is built with egui, and the project's homepage is squirreldisk.com.

The problem it solves is the disk that has quietly filled up with no obvious way to see which folders are responsible. SquirrelDisk scans a volume and turns every folder into a slice of a sunburst sized by the space it occupies, building the chart live while the scan runs so the biggest offenders appear within seconds. It is positioned as an alternative to DaisyDisk, WizTree and WinDirStat, and it also reaches servers over SSH and cloud storage, reporting the space files really take on disk: files living only in iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive or OneDrive count as zero, and linked folders are counted once.

Key capabilities

  • Animated sunburst chart in which every folder becomes a slice sized by the space it takes, drawn live as the scan proceeds.
  • Treemap view, switched on in Settings, where every folder becomes a box inside its parent with names and sizes and everything else works the same way.
  • Click a slice to zoom in and the centre to go back; hovering shows what is inside, biggest first, with tiny files grouped so the chart stays readable.
  • A collector at the bottom of the window that accepts dragged slices or list rows, after which files can go to the Trash, be deleted for good, or be copied to an external drive or the cloud first.
  • Secure erase following DoD 5220.22-M, overwriting each file three times with zeros, ones and random data before removal.
  • Safeguards for system folders, the home folder and whole drives, with an extra confirmation for app and settings folders.
  • Portable mode: an empty portable folder next to the executable keeps settings, the bundled rclone and rclone.conf alongside it, and SQUIRRELDISK_CONFIG_DIR overrides that and also works on macOS.

Who uses it and how

  • Desktop users on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows 10 and 11, and Linux x86_64 who want to see what a full drive contains.
  • People who carry the tool on a USB stick, using the portable directory so settings, rclone and cloud accounts travel with the executable.
  • Anyone working across remote machines and cloud accounts: servers over SSH are covered, and RCLONE_CONFIG is honoured when it is set.

Getting started

Downloads are on the releases page: SquirrelDisk-macOS.dmg, the Windows installer (.msi) or portable .exe, and the Linux AppImage or .tar.gz archive. macOS requires a first-run approval in System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway, Windows SmartScreen requires More info → Run anyway, and the application updates itself afterwards.

How it compares

DaisyDisk, WizTree and WinDirStat are the tools SquirrelDisk is positioned against, and the differences the facts support are licence and reach: it is free and open-source under AGPL-3.0, built in native Rust from one codebase for macOS, Windows and Linux, and it covers SSH servers and cloud storage as well as local disks. It remains a desktop application distributed outside the platform stores, which is why macOS and Windows both ask for confirmation on first launch.

When to use it — and when not to

Choose SquirrelDisk when a freely licensed, self-contained analyzer fits the job and the first-run approval steps are acceptable; files deleted for good, optionally after the three-pass DoD 5220.22-M overwrite, cannot be recovered, and portable installs need a writable folder because self-update replaces the executable in place. Anyone who needs a store-distributed application should look elsewhere, and prospective users should weigh an actively maintained project that still carries 18 open issues against 1,840 stars and 82 forks.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

SquirrelDisk

See what's using your disk space, and clean it up safely.
For macOS, Windows and Linux. Free.

[!NOTE] SquirrelDisk 2 is here. After a few quiet years, SquirrelDisk is back, rebuilt from the ground up by its original author in native Rust: faster, better looking, and with many long-standing bugs fixed on every platform. Completely free, and actively maintained here in this repository.

Download

Platform Download
macOS (Apple silicon and Intel) SquirrelDisk-macOS.dmg
Windows 10 / 11 Installer (.msi) · Portable (.exe)
Linux (x86_64) AppImage · Archive (.tar.gz)

All builds are on the releases page. SquirrelDisk updates itself when a new version comes out.

macOS says the app can't be opened

SquirrelDisk is distributed outside the App Store, so macOS asks for confirmation the first time.

  1. Open SquirrelDisk once and close the warning.
  2. Go to System Settings → Privacy & Security, scroll down and click Open Anyway next to the SquirrelDisk message, then confirm.

If macOS reports the app as damaged, run this in Terminal and open it again:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/SquirrelDisk.app
Windows shows "Windows protected your PC"

Click More info, then Run anyway. For the portable .exe you can also right-click the file, choose Properties, tick Unblock and press OK.

Portable mode (Windows and Linux)

To keep everything on a USB stick or in a single folder, create an empty folder named portable next to the Windows .exe, the .AppImage file or the squirreldisk binary from the archive:

SquirrelDisk/
├── squirreldisk-x86_64-pc-windows-msvc.exe
└── portable/

SquirrelDisk then keeps its settings there instead of in your user profile, along with the rclone it installs and your cloud accounts (rclone.conf). If you set RCLONE_CONFIG yourself, that file is used instead.

Self-update replaces the executable in place, so the folder must be writable.

To use a specific folder instead, set the SQUIRRELDISK_CONFIG_DIR environment variable. It takes priority over the portable folder and works on macOS too.

Features

The whole disk at a glance. Every folder becomes a slice of a colourful sunburst, sized by the space it takes. The chart builds up live while the scan runs, so the big offenders show up in seconds.

Explore by clicking. Click a slice to zoom in, click the centre to go back. Hover any slice and the side list shows what's inside, biggest first. Tiny files are grouped so the chart stays readable, and you can open any group to see everything in it.

Sunburst or treemap. Prefer boxes to rings? Switch to the treemap in Settings: every folder becomes a box inside its parent, with names and sizes, and everything else works the same way.

Collect, then clean up. Drag slices or list rows into the collector at the bottom. When you're ready, move everything to the Trash, delete it for good, or copy it to an external drive or to the cloud first. A progress view keeps you posted, with a little celebration at the end.

Secure erase. When you delete for good, you can have every file overwritten three times with zeros, ones and random data (DoD 5220.22-M) before it's removed.

Safe by design. System folders, your home folder, whole drives and other essential locations are protected. App and settings folders ask for an extra confirmation before anything happens.

Accurate numbers. SquirrelDisk shows the space files really take on disk. Files that live only in the cloud (iCloud, Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive) count as zero, and linked folders are counted once.

Always up to date. Delete something in Finder, Explorer or your file manager and the chart updates on its own.

Servers and cloud storage too. Scan any machine you can reach over SSH, or S3 buckets, Google Drive, Dropbox, FTP and many more cloud services through rclone. No rclone yet? SquirrelDisk installs it with one click, and you can add, edit and remove your cloud accounts right from the app.

Light on your machine. The app is about 8 MB, starts instantly, and maps millions of files with a small amount of memory. It runs smoothly on older computers too.

Speaks your language. SquirrelDisk is available in 25 languages, including English, 简体中文, हिन्दी, Español, Français, العربية, Português, Русский, Deutsch, 日本語, 한국어 and Italiano. It picks your system language automatically, and you can change it in Settings.

Make it yours. Seven colour themes, optional sound effects, and an adjustable chart depth.

Screenshots

Sponsors

SquirrelDisk is free, and sponsors help keep it that way. Sponsors appear in a small banner inside the app. The banner is chosen on each user's computer, so personal data stays private.

Interested? Head to squirreldisk.com/sponsors.

Community

  • Chat with us on Discord
  • Report bugs and suggest ideas in issues

Build from source

With Rust installed:

cargo run --release

On Linux you also need the ALSA, X11 and Wayland development packages (libasound2-dev libxkbcommon-dev libwayland-dev libx11-dev on Debian and Ubuntu).

AI usage disclaimer

SquirrelDisk is designed, written and maintained by one developer. I use AI tools as an assistant in a few specific areas, and I review every change myself:

  • Translations. AI helped me translate the app into 25 languages, which I couldn't have done on my own.
  • Interface polish. Fine-tuning animations and interactions, and building parts of the website.
  • Issues and replies. Phrasing answers more clearly in English, and in some routine cases posting them automatically. Either way, every reply goes through me.
  • Chores. Small refactors, build tweaks and similar mechanical changes.

The core of SquirrelDisk 2 (the scanner, the chart and the cleanup logic) is my own from-scratch rewrite. Every release is reviewed and tested by hand on macOS, Windows and Linux before it ships.

AI-assisted contributions

Often the most useful contribution isn't code. A bug report with logs, the steps to reproduce it and an example of what you see helps more than a feature implemented without discussion. For small fixes, open an issue instead of a pull request: it's usually quicker for me to fix it directly.

Fully AI-generated pull requests are not welcome. Code written with the help of AI tools is fine, as long as you meet the same standard as everyone else:

  • Say so in the pull request if AI wrote a meaningful part of it.
  • Show your testing. Describe how you tested the change and on which systems.
  • Attach screenshots or a short recording for anything visible in the app, where possible.
  • Be ready to explain your choices. If asked, you should be able to justify the technical decisions in the code you submit.

Pull requests that haven't been tested, or whose author can't explain them, may be closed. If in doubt just open an issue.

License

AGPL-3.0

Frequently asked questions

Is squirreldisk free to use?

squirreldisk is open source under the AGPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does squirreldisk do?

Free, open-source disk usage analyzer for macOS, Windows and Linux. See what fills your disk, servers (SSH) and cloud storage in an animated sunburst or treemap

What is squirreldisk written in?

squirreldisk is primarily written in Rust. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/adileo/squirreldisk, and it has 1,840 GitHub stars.