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File Pilot vs Explorer++: catalog facts
File Pilot	Explorer++
Freemium Free during the beta, with a paid license also offered.	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Windows	Windows
Very small standalone download Fast flattened search across whole drives	Tabbed browsing with bookmarkable tabs, which Explorer only gained much later Completely portable when configured to save settings to a file rather than the registry
Still in beta (v0.8.5) Windows only	Windows only The last tagged release is from January 2024
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Closed source	Open source
License not stated	License: GPL-3.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 23, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

Catalog facts only. Anything “not stated” is unconfirmed. Check full listings for details.