Alternatives to Joshuto
A ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust with Miller-column navigation. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Joshuto
A ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust with Miller-column navigation.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Joshuto.
ranger
A console file manager with vi keybindings and a three-column view showing parent, current and preview.
ranger is the Python original that Joshuto imitates, with rifle file opening and Python configuration, but slower to start and less actively developed.
Yazi
A terminal file manager where nothing blocks: every read, preview and copy happens asynchronously.
Yazi is another Rust terminal manager that is fully asynchronous, with image previews, Lua plugins and Windows support.
felix
A terminal file manager written in Rust with Vim-like key bindings and file previews.
felix is a Rust terminal manager with Vim-like keys and simple YAML configuration, but it is not open source and has fewer features.
nnn
A terminal file manager of about 150 KB that starts instantly, uses under 4 MB of memory and needs almost no configuration.
nnn is a tiny C terminal manager under BSD-2-Clause with a large plugin repository, configured through environment variables.
Vifm
A terminal file manager with a curses interface and Vim-like keybindings.
Vifm offers Vim keybindings and commands in a curses interface, with Windows binaries, and is listed as not open source.
superfile
A terminal file manager with a modern, colourful interface, built in Go with themes and plugin support.
superfile is a Go terminal manager with a themed interface, fuzzy search and previews, whose hotkeys are still changing between releases.
Midnight Commander
Two-panel file manager for the terminal, with an editor and remote access.
Midnight Commander swaps Miller columns for two panels with an editor and remote filesystem browsing, using function keys.
xplr
Explore files with a configurable terminal interface.
xplr is an MIT-licensed configurable terminal explorer on macOS and Linux, needing the surrounding workflow to be configured.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Joshuto as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
clifm
A shell-like terminal file manager that works directly on the command line, without menus or panes.
Joshuto is a Rust ranger-style file manager with Miller columns and optional fzf and zoxide integration, also available on macOS.
lf
A fast terminal file manager in the ranger style, as a single binary with no runtime dependencies.
Joshuto offers the same ranger-style Miller-column navigation in Rust with optional fzf and zoxide integration, but has no Windows build and needs a recent Rust toolchain to compile.
Walk
A minimal terminal file navigator that replaces cd and ls for browsing directories.
Joshuto is a ranger-like file manager in Rust with Miller columns and optional fzf and zoxide integration, but it is listed only for macOS and Linux.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
