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Midnight Commander vs Far Manager: catalog facts
Midnight Commander	Far Manager
Free Free and open source under the GPL.	Free Free and open source under a BSD 3-clause licence.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows
Works over any terminal, including a plain SSH session on a server Browses archives and remote filesystems as if they were local folders	Two-pane keyboard-driven layout that is much faster than Explorer for bulk work Plugin API with archive, FTP and network browsing plugins in the standard distribution
Text interface with function-key bindings takes getting used to Windows needs Cygwin or WSL	Windows only The text-mode interface looks archaic and takes learning
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-3.0	License: BSD-3-Clause
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Checked September 21, 2026

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