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Best Finder alternative

Guys, go ahead and try all of them. Remember my words: Pathfinder is the best option of all. It's not perfect, but for Power Users like us, It's the only app that will be helping us without hiccups. Could they do better? Yes. Can they fix some bugs? Yes. Can they give better support? Hell yeah. The reality is we are on our own.
 
Used to love PathFinder until now. Was a customer for 14 years but now they switched to a subscription based model and I will never support any software that forces me to pay every year for nothing new. I reported several bugs a few years ago that haven't got fixed for 2 versions/years now. And now I should pay double the amount ebery year?

Sorry can't recommend PathFinder to anyone anymore.
 
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dbrewood said:
Yeah their bug fixing (not) is legendary.
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I have to agree. I'm a very long time PathFinder user and have reported many bugs over the years including screenshots and videos which clearly demonstrate the problems, but they never get fixed.

I won't opt in to the subscription model.

But, now what?
 
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I used Forklift for a while and, for reasons I can’t recall, gave up on it. I’ll give it another shot. Right now I’m trying Commander One, the setup of which seems a little clumsy. Perhaps I need more time with it.
 
I tried CommanderOne but it always felt a bit half baked and cumbersome. I've been using Forklift for 2 years now, it seems to be the best of the bunch.
 
I've used Path Finder for longer than I can remember. I'm not overtly opposed to subscription models if the software brings value, but I do own Forklift and will thus make an attempt over the next few weeks to see if I like as my daily driver.

Again, nothing against Path Finder, but when I have to quit the app to get the contents of a folder to refresh, well...
 
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My only problem with Forklift is the it doesn't save the expansion state in the tree view. When I return to my home directory, say, I want to see the tree expanded in exactly the same way as when I was last in my home directory. I often work across a number of subdirectories and I always want to see them all at the same time.

Finder and Path Finder both have that feature. I've written to Forklift support and they said they think it would be a good addition and will consider it in a future update.

If Forklift introduces this feature, I will leave Path Finder and stick with Forklift. I find a few very particular Path Finder bugs very frustrating. I've reported them on their forum over the years. They acknowledge them. They don't fix them.

The simplest "bug" is you cannot maintain a 50/50 split when in dual-pane mode. If you tend to resize the windows, that ratio is usually lost when you close and reopen them.
 
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Forklift's new pricing model is the same as Path Finder's. It's not a subscription model as in something you have to continue to pay for in order to use. You have to pay only if you want to upgrade to a later version. After you pay, you get free upgrades for a year.

CommanderOne doesn't have a "tree" view like Finder, Path Finder, and Forklift have. That's the view I use all the time.
 
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svenmany said:
Forklift's new pricing model is the same as Path Finder's. It's not a subscription model as in something you have to continue to pay for in order to use. You have to pay only if you want to upgrade to a later version. After you pay, you get free upgrades for a year.

CommanderOne doesn't have a "tree" view like Finder, Path Finder, and Forklift have. That's the view I use all the time.
Click to expand...

Regarding Path Finder, I take back what I said about their subscription model. My 1 year license just ran out, so I figured I'd buy another year. My understanding was that whatever I download would get free updates for a year, but I could use indefinitely. That is NOT the case.

Path Finder is now pure subscription. And, the yearly price is $29.95. When I upgraded in January 2021 I only paid $18. This is a massive increase in price, much inferior offering, and probably a buggy product just as before. I'm going to stick with my current Path Finder version and pray that Forklift eventually releases an improved version.

At the end of the day, if Apple just gave me a dual-pane finder, I'd just stop looking for another solution.
 
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Nearly 15 year PF user. Just accidentally updated PF without realizing it had switched to subscription model. I can re-install PF10 and use that until it no longer works on the latest macOS, but...

I have 4 macs for daily personal use, and subscription model only allows 2 macs per subscription, so I'd have to have 2 subscriptions (previous license was stingy at 3 activations, but 3 still better than 2 and I could add a 4th Mac for a small fee). And in the old days, "major" upgrades were only once every 2-3 years. Now it would be US$60 annual subscription for file management. Even if it covered all my Macs, $30/year is pushing it. If it was for professional use, or I did it all day as part of a hobby, it would be worth it. But I'm just an average user with average needs, so I'm out.

As others have said, they're poor at fixing bugs, and they keep adding more features that I don't need. And their customer communication is horrible. A visit to their website to figure out what was going on with this was an insult to my intelligence.

I'll check out Forklift and Commander One again (I've tried both previously, but it's been years). I might just stick with Finder, which while still an embarrassing effort by Apple, has improved quite a bit over the years since I last used it regularly. If only it had split screen view.

I'm actually fine with the subscription model most of the time, but only if the price is reasonable. These software developers are going to soon realize that there's only so many subscription dollars to go around. They can focus on a small niche of users that require their product and are willing to pay whatever, or they can focus on appealing to a larger user base and make up the subscription dollars in volume. Pathfinder is obviously going for the former. Good luck to them with that. I recently cancelled my 1password subscription for the same reason (another great product that isn't great enough to justify the expense for me), and Evernote is getting dumped next (a once great product that crashed and burned with v10). Way too many costly annual subscriptions - they add up!
 
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Their latest update is completely confusing. Just got email about all new 2022 version:

Path Finder is Brand New for 2022​

New Payment Options Abound!​


along with a $5 discount code. Go to their website, download the "new" version I assume, and am told that it is older than the one I have installed! Got to about in the program and it says it is Pathfinder 2021.
 
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My only explanation for Path Finder's massive price increase (independent of whether it's done via subscription) is that they are struggling financially. They only have one support person named Mary. They are probably struggling to hire and retain developers like most companies are these days. And, they're probably taking a hit from inflation.

Best of luck to them. If they had been producing high quality software for years I might have cut them some slack. But, I'm constantly reminded of their shortcomings - like two days ago when my sidebar reverted to the defaults. This bug has persisted for years and I've seen it across complete reinstalls of the OS and the Path Finder application. Incompetence is forgivable, but I won't pay for it.
 
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svenmany said:
Best of luck to them. If they had been producing high quality software for years I might have cut them some slack. But, I'm constantly reminded of their shortcomings - like two days ago when my sidebar reverted to the defaults. This bug has persisted for years and I've seen it across complete reinstalls of the OS and the Path Finder application. Incompetence is forgivable, but I won't pay for it.
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This. I kicked them to the curb several years ago due to poor support and a plethora of bugs that constantly interfered with my workflow.
 
Just came here to see if anyone was talking about the new PathFinder subscription model. Guess I was not disappointed. :) I have used PF for many years but not extensively - I always want to like it more than I do. I think the subscription model will keep me away.

I do like Forklift but I do not think I am using it to its full capabilities - I will have to look deeper into it.
 
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