Alternatives to Yazi
A terminal file manager where nothing blocks: every read, preview and copy happens asynchronously. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Yazi
A terminal file manager where nothing blocks: every read, preview and copy happens asynchronously.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Yazi.
ranger
A console file manager with vi keybindings and a three-column view showing parent, current and preview.
ranger offers a similar three-column view with vi keys and Python configuration, but it is slower to start and does not work on Windows.
superfile
A terminal file manager with a modern, colourful interface, built in Go with themes and plugin support.
superfile is a Go-based terminal manager with themes, fuzzy search and previews, though it is younger, has fewer plugins and changing hotkeys.
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 much smaller BSD-licensed manager using little memory, relying on plugins for previews and lacking a Windows build outside Cygwin or WSL.
xplr
Explore files with a configurable terminal interface.
xplr offers scriptable navigation and tool integration in the terminal, but runs only on macOS and Linux and requires configuring the surrounding workflow.
Midnight Commander
Two-panel file manager for the terminal, with an editor and remote access.
Midnight Commander uses a two-panel layout with a built-in editor and remote filesystem access, with function-key bindings and Windows only through Cygwin or WSL.
broot
Navigate large directory trees and find files in the terminal.
broot centres on compact tree navigation and interactive search rather than asynchronous previews, and needs shell integration to change the parent directory.
Joshuto
A ranger-like terminal file manager written in Rust with Miller-column navigation.
Joshuto is a Rust ranger-style manager with fzf and zoxide integration, running on macOS and Linux without Windows support.
Vifm
A terminal file manager with a curses interface and Vim-like keybindings.
Vifm uses Vim keybindings and commands with Windows binaries and a Linux AppImage, and is not open source, unlike Yazi.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Yazi 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.
Yazi is a full-screen asynchronous terminal file manager with image previews and Lua plugins, and also runs on Windows and macOS.
felix
A terminal file manager written in Rust with Vim-like key bindings and file previews.
Yazi is an MIT-licensed Rust terminal manager with fully asynchronous browsing, image previews and a Lua plugin system, configured with TOML files.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
Double Commander
A free dual-pane file manager in the Total Commander tradition, running on Linux and macOS too.
Files
A file manager for Windows with tabs, columns, tags and dual panes, built the way Explorer should have been.
Total Commander
The dual-pane Windows file manager people have been using since 1993, still updated, still shareware.
Far Manager
A two-pane text-mode file manager and shell for Windows, extended by plugins for archives, FTP and network browsing.
Walk
A minimal terminal file navigator that replaces cd and ls for browsing directories.
RnR
A command-line tool that batch renames files and directories using regular expressions.
