Alternatives to Far Manager
A two-pane text-mode file manager and shell for Windows, extended by plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Far Manager
A two-pane text-mode file manager and shell for Windows, extended by plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Far Manager.
Total Commander
The dual-pane Windows file manager people have been using since 1993, still updated, still shareware.
Total Commander keeps the two-pane keyboard workflow in a graphical interface with archives, FTP and a large plugin ecosystem, but it is paid and closed source.
Double Commander
A free dual-pane file manager in the Total Commander tradition, running on Linux and macOS too.
Double Commander offers a free GPL graphical two-pane manager with multi-rename and FTP that also runs on macOS and Linux, though its releases are infrequent.
Midnight Commander
Two-panel file manager for the terminal, with an editor and remote access.
Midnight Commander is a text-mode two-panel file manager with an editor and remote filesystem browsing, but on Windows it needs Cygwin or WSL.
Multi Commander
Free multi-tab, multi-pane Windows file manager aimed at power users.
Multi Commander swaps text mode for a free graphical multi-pane interface with a scripting engine, but it is closed source rather than BSD licensed.
FreeCommander
Free dual-pane Windows file manager with tabs, search and archive handling.
FreeCommander provides a graphical dual-pane Windows interface with tabs and folder synchronisation, but it is closed source and extra features sit in a paid donor edition.
Directory Opus
Professional Windows file manager with tabs, dual pane, scripting and FTP.
Directory Opus provides a graphical dual pane with scripting, FTP and archive handling, but it requires a paid closed-source licence and has many options to learn.
xplorer²
A paid tabbed dual-pane file manager for Windows that replaces File Explorer.
xplorer² is a paid graphical dual-pane Windows manager with tabs, Miller columns, folder sync and macros.
muCommander
An open-source, cross-platform dual-pane file manager with remote filesystem, cloud storage and archive support.
muCommander is a free open-source Java dual-pane manager across Windows, macOS and Linux with SFTP, SMB and cloud storage.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Far Manager as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
Altap Salamander
A two-panel file manager for Windows with built-in viewers, archive support and FTP/SFTP clients.
Far Manager is an open-source text-mode two-pane manager for Windows, relying on plugins for archives and FTP, and it is actively developed with x64 and ARM64 builds.
EF Commander
A two-panel Windows file manager with an archiver, viewer, hex editor and FTP/SFTP client.
Far Manager is free and open source under BSD-3-Clause, a text-mode two-pane manager using plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing.
far2l
A port of the Far Manager v2 dual-panel console file manager to Linux and macOS.
Far Manager is the original Windows program far2l ports, open source under BSD-3-Clause, with x64 and ARM64 builds but no Linux or macOS version.
SpeedCommander
A dual-pane file manager for Windows with a viewer for 80+ formats, archives and FTP/SFTP.
Far Manager is free and open source, a text-mode two-pane manager extended by plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing.
Unreal Commander
A freeware two-panel file manager for Windows with archive support, an FTP client and plugins.
Far Manager is free and open source under BSD-3-Clause, a text-mode two-pane manager with plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Yazi
A terminal file manager where nothing blocks: every read, preview and copy happens asynchronously.
nnn
A terminal file manager of about 150 KB that starts instantly, uses under 4 MB of memory and needs almost no configuration.
superfile
A terminal file manager with a modern, colourful interface, built in Go with themes and plugin support.
Vifm
A terminal file manager with a curses interface and Vim-like keybindings.
RnR
A command-line tool that batch renames files and directories using regular expressions.
