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I'm looking for a graphical file manager fro OS X, for console Midnight Commander is ok.

I need two panels, function keys operations and preferably FTP and SCP support.

Also, it would be great to be free.

sorin
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    Panels in Forklift2 act like Finder windows, so to go deeper in a directory, you'd have to do cmd+Enter – Martin Marconcini Mar 29 '11 at 12:07
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    @Martin Thanks, it looks that Apple considered that is more likely to rename a directory than browsing inside the directory :p – sorin Mar 29 '11 at 12:45
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    @Sorin Apple had a reason to do it that way, and although users coming from other platforms may find it strange, old time Apple users don't find that a problem at all. For more information about it, check: http://apple.stackexchange.com/q/6727/115 – Martin Marconcini Mar 29 '11 at 13:44
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    You can change keyboard shortcuts via Preferences window in Forklift. You can even select TotalCommander shortcuts if you're familiar with those. ForkLift2 is definitely the file manager of my choice. – Michal M Jun 08 '11 at 14:51
  • Agreed with Michal M: Forklift can do the full Orthodox keystrokes if that's what you like. – David Jun 08 '11 at 15:08
  • Duplicate: http://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/4944/are-there-any-free-alternatives-to-finder – ghoppe Jun 09 '11 at 14:43
  • See also: Also: http://superuser.com/questions/29268/alternative-file-managers-on-mac-os-x – ghoppe Jun 09 '11 at 14:44
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    This is not a duplicate, because this is specifically about orthodox file managers. Dual pane and classic OFM shortcuts. – neoneye Jun 09 '11 at 21:28
  • +1 for ForkLift -- an excellent application that's not nearly as well known as it ought to be. – calum_b Jun 10 '11 at 12:51
  • I'm new and need 10 rep to post an answer (even though I got 100 rep from being on stackoverflow too... weird). so I will add as a comment : nobody mentionned Double Commander, a free multiplatform (Windows, Linux, OSX, BSD) clone of Total Commander. It seems quite complete. But for now looks awful on retina displays. http://doublecmd.sourceforge.net/ – Pierre Henry Dec 05 '14 at 14:09
  • What does "orthodox" mean in this context? – benwiggy Sep 27 '21 at 11:50

17 Answers17

10

muCommander (free)

muCommander has classic orthodox file manager keybindings. Sadly MC is not very mac'ish and lacks multiple tabs.

sorin
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neoneye
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  • I am a longtime user of muCommander, I have made some patches to it so that it better supports polish keyboard and some osx specific shortcuts. I would live with that, I could even live with the very poor viewer which doesn't support the Find shortcut. But it's utterly slow! Going up 3 directories with a quick home+enter sequence could lead to getting back to the same directory... It was great when there was no alternative, but now depending on whether you like Finder more [Forklift2] or Total Commander [Double Commander] there are better options. – Krystian Jul 18 '17 at 11:26
8

Marta (free)

Marta file manager

Simple and fast file manager for basic tasks like copying, moving and managing files.

Key features

  • Open source
  • macOS native
  • Plugins
  • Macros
  • Dark/White themes
  • Installs from dmg/brew
  • Embedded terminal
  • Tabs

Cons

Limited functionality at the moment:

  • No file/text search
  • No remote filesystems support (aws, ftp, etc)

PS: I'm neither developer or affiliated with this software.

PatrickT
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Oleksandr
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7

Path Finder

Although not free, I have been using Path Finder for years and love it dearly. Two features I like the most from this applications are:

  1. I can have two side-by-side panels, what you are looking for. Not only that, each panel can have multiple tabs.
  2. I can go into a directory by hitting the return key, cmd+O still works.
Loïc Wolff
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Hai Vu
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    PathFinder isn't generally considered to be an Orthodox File Manager, though as it is missing several defining features. For one, it's missing the ability to copy files from one panel to another with the press of a single button. – David Jun 08 '11 at 15:29
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    What is an "Orthodox" file manager? I am not mocking, I just don't know what it is. – Hai Vu Jun 08 '11 at 16:03
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    See [this](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthodox_file_manager#Orthodox_file_managers). – David Jun 08 '11 at 16:13
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    PathFinder has many nice features, but really bad keyboard shortcuts, e.g. TAB key is not working. – neoneye Jun 08 '11 at 21:50
  • @neoneye you can't even configure it, the keyboard shortcuts editor does not work. – sorin Jun 09 '11 at 10:17
  • If I may add a comment to this ancient thread: Path Finder 6 — released about a year ago as I type this — finally added the "missing" functionality to make it a true OFM when operating in dual-pane mode. The default keybindings for its orthodox actions every use the function keys, as per Norton Commander and other classic OFMs. Given this, Path Finder 6 is now arguably the most fully-featured orthodox file manager for OS X. While not without its issues, its more actively maintained than Disk Order or Forklift, and unlike TotalFinder it's a standalone application and not just a Finder hack. – wjv Apr 22 '13 at 12:53
  • I had tried quite a few managers today. I am shifting from ForkLift to Path Finder after using the former heavily for three years. – vikas027 Aug 26 '17 at 06:40
6

CRAX Commander

This is a graphical, dual-panel file manager with support for operations (copy, move, delete). This software has built-in support for SSH and FTP. This is not free software but you can download a demo version from the program site.

CRAX Screenshot

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EWAS
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  • Thanks for the answers on this. Be sure to read the [promotion section](http://apple.stackexchange.com/help/behavior) on [Help Center](http://apple.stackexchange.com/help) if you recommend the same software several times. – nohillside Oct 06 '13 at 20:56
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    Crax is great. I've tried them all, and finally set my self with the Crax. I was power total commander user; and although Crax still doesnt have all the TC features, it is the most complete one. Also, the developer is very responsive. – ɹoƃı May 14 '14 at 07:38
  • I used to use Total Commander and this is the closest Mac OS X alternative I could find. – Artem Nov 06 '14 at 03:54
6

Double Commander (LGPLv2)

Double Commander is inspired by Total Commander, and is a cross-platform application that works well on OSX (I'm running on Yosemite, 10.10.5, Early 2015 Macbook).

Double Commander screenshot

It is highly configurable (in the screenshot, compared with "out of the box", I have configured the free-space display, enabled the left-sidebar tree view, added zebra-stripes, and used Linux Bionlinum as the display font). A partial feature list from the website:

  • Unicode support
  • Tabbed interface
  • Multi-rename tool
  • Custom columns
  • Built in file viewer (F3) to view files of in hex, binary or text format
  • Internal text editor (F4) with syntax hightlighting
  • Archives are handled like subdirectories. You can easily copy files to and from archives. Supported archive types: ZIP, TAR GZ, TGZ, LZMA and also BZ2, RPM, CPIO, DEB, RAR.
  • All operations working in background
  • Extended search function with full text search in any files
  • Configurable button bar to start external programs or internal menu commands
  • Total Commander WCX, WDX and WLX plug-ins support
  • + supports FTP/Network operations

It has recently (as of this posting) reached 0.7 and was noted on Webupd8 where a bit of a review plus more description can be found.

For those Mac users who like their apps "pretty", this interface will probably leave something to be desired. For those accustomed to using "commander"-like file managers on Windows or Linux, but now are on Macs ... it is a treat!

Dɑvïd
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    I used to use muCommander all the time. I even have some patches to it so that shortcut keys are better supported on OSX with polish keyboard, but it's so utterly slow and the damn viewer does not support Find using shortcut... damn! I have switched to Double Commander now, it requires some changes etc, but it's really fantastic - has all of the required options, good preview and is super fast.. – Krystian Jul 18 '17 at 11:23
  • Sadly, support for MacOS has [now been dropped](https://doublecmd.h1n.ru/viewtopic.php?p=35120#p35120). Too bad, but understandable under the circumstances. For me, Marta (see elsewhere in this thread) is now the file manager of choice on MacOS. – Dɑvïd Nov 05 '21 at 12:49
6

ForkLift (23,99 € / $29.99 / £20.99)

Definitely a winner for me. Features list on its website: binarynights.com but it pretty much has anything you'd want from an orthodox file manager and it does look nice too :)

grg
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Michal M
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6

Mover (free)

  • open/run files and apps
  • batch copy/move/delete, file/folder creation
  • Operations queue
  • search files (with wildcards and regex)
  • show/hide hidden files
  • keyboard shortcut mapping
  • move to Trash
  • customizable UI
  • listening to file system events

mover

Dɑvïd
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moooltik
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3

TotalFinder

I use http://totalfinder.binaryage.com/

Loïc Wolff
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urandom
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3

Xmander (free)

Xmander is a simple dual panel file manager with a hex file viewer. You can browse through all your system's files, including the hidden and perform the basic file operations like move, copy, trash or create directory.

neoneye
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2

Cloud Commander is orthodox web file manager for Mac OS, Windows and Linux.

Cloud Commander

  • Open Source (MIT)
  • Has Web UI
  • Has build in editor with syntax highlighting.
  • Has build in console.
coderaiser
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2

Moroshka File Manager (free)

Today I discovered another commander, the Moroshka File Manager. It has multiple tabs. Looks great. In particular the footer of the main-window is neat.

sorin
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neoneye
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2

Disk Order ($25)

Surprised I haven't seen it mentioned, Disk Order has been around since 2003. My personal choice, can do (S)FTP and all the operation expected from a dual pane file manager in a keyboard friendly way – unlike some of the Finder spin-offs.

Not free though and lately updates haven't been happening that often.

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pax
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2

Commander One FREE/$29.99 PRO

Another MacOS alternative of Total Commander that runs natively for both Intel and ARM CPUs. There are several versions of Commander One: FREE and PRO versions are distributed through the website as well as Commander One version at the Mac App Store.

Commander One interface

Major features of FREE version:

  • Classic look with dual panes and command line
  • Build-in multi-format viewer
  • Advanced search with regexp support
  • Queue for file operations
  • Local network client

PRO pack extends the functionality with:

  • FTP client
  • Terminal emulator
  • Support for lots of Cloud services
  • Mount for iOS and Android devices

Note that due to Apple sandbox restrictions, App Store versions of the software don't support some functionality.

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1

FastCommander

http://osx-fastcommander.appspot.com

Supports all file operations. Fast, stable, small, lightweight.

Can be freely downloaded and used - no restrictions, just nag screen.

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user56705
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1

Newton Commander (free + open source)

  • Each tab runs in its own process.
  • A tab can run as a different user, eg. root.
  • No beachballs since it's only the child process that is hanging and not the UI.
neoneye
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0

XCommander ($4.99)

I have recently noticed XCommander in the Mac App Store. It has classic NortonCommander keybindings, so it's already more usable than PathFinder and Transmit.

Sadly it has a long way to go to reach TotalCommander standards. No multiple tabs, no quicklook.

What I like though is that it's new and it gets the keybindings right from the start. This is promising.

neoneye
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0

Total Commander works on macOS under Wine. By far not the same experience as on a windows box, but adding this answer here for the sake of completeness.

enter image description here

The procedure is not complicated, but requires some dependencies which you might have already installed for other purposes:

  1. Install XQuartz with brew cask install xquartz
  2. Install wine with brew install wine
  3. Download the TC installer, then launch it from the terminal with wine tcmd900ax64.exe.
  4. Create an alias or launcher script which will run wine ~/.wine/drive_c/totalcmd/TOTALCMD64.EXE (if you installed under the default path).

For some reason latest versions of wine do not enable font antialiasing by default. It can be enabled with winetricks by doing brew install winetricks and then running winetricks settings fontsmooth=rgb in the terminal.

It might be possible that certain things, i.e. TC plugins might not work with the 64bit version of Wine. In that case you might want to try with the 32bit version under a 32bit version of wine.

Note: An alternative way to do this without having to type in the terminal could be https://www.playonmac.com.

oa-
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