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Best Finder alternatives / File managers

This Path Finder dual pane behavior irks me too, because I'm often using Rectangle app to move windows left and right to move/copy some stuff from the desktop. And the panes doesnt move proportionally, which is pretty inconvenient.
 
MacBH928 said:
commander one lets you use double pane for free, just saying
Click to expand...

All of the Norton Commander inspired applications (i.e.Windows-inspired applications) seem to lack a really basic feature that I need. I need to see the full tree view of folders and contents all at once. This is what Finder calls "list view". That's quite different from what Command One calls "list view".

List view in Commander One:

1774813824335.png


List view in Finder:

1774813759039.png
 
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svenmany said:
Years ago I did - on their forums.

I've been struggling with the definition of "bug" these days. This behavior of Path Finder seems more of a design choice and lack of attention to its consequences. Sometimes developers think everything is fine even though a user doesn't like it. It can be a battle that's not worth fighting. If you have a link to where they are requesting feedback, I'll follow through and provide it.

This behavior began when they introduced their module system. Prior to that, resizing windows kept the panes proportionally allocated. I suspect they implemented a solution that would be expensive for them to change.
Click to expand...
In January they sent out a Newsletter with a survey link. I've sent you a direct message with the link to their survey.
 
svenmany said:
All of the Norton Commander inspired applications (i.e.Windows-inspired applications) seem to lack a really basic feature that I need. I need to see the full tree view of folders and contents all at once. This is what Finder calls "list view". That's quite different from what Command One calls "list view".

List view in Commander One:

View attachment 2617980

List view in Finder:

View attachment 2617979
Click to expand...
do you use the F commands shortcuts? seems very cumbersome to select multiple files and navigate to panes and directory paths with just keyboards, exra difficult with mac since you have to hit the FN button
 
MacBH928 said:
do you use the F commands shortcuts? seems very cumbersome to select multiple files and navigate to panes and directory paths with just keyboards, exra difficult with mac since you have to hit the FN button
Click to expand...

Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. Are you referring to Commander One (which I have on my computer) or Finder? What are "F commands"? By the way, I don't even have an FN button on my external keyboard.
 
MacGizmo said:
They're not even close to the same. FileUtils is a nice little utility that adds very specific items to the Finder's contextual menus. DefaultFolder is a system-wide enhancement that offers a plethora of features not only to Open/Save/Export/Import dialog boxes, but to the entire file system (shortcuts, etc.).

They're both excellent utilities. DefaultFolder is the first thing I install on any new Mac I've used since the Mac OS 9 days.
Click to expand...

I started to consider installing FileUtils for kicks. I noticed that the author is Dragan Milic. On an older computer that has Path Finder installed, he is listed in the output of

sudo sfltool dumpbtm

Code: 
                 UUID: 5C126827-549C-4129-9AC8-C7FE6F7FB2B0
                 Name: Dragan Milic
       Developer Name: Dragan Milic
                 Type: developer (0x20)
                Flags: [  ] (0)
          Disposition: [disabled, allowed, visible, not notified] (0x2)
           Identifier: Dragan Milic
                  URL: (null)
           Generation: 0
  Embedded Item Identifiers:
    #1: 16.com.cocoatech.PathFinder.SMFHelper7

Is he affiliated with that company or did Path Finder just use his code in some helper tool?
 
svenmany said:
I noticed that the author is Dragan Milic. On an older computer that has Path Finder installed... Is he affiliated with that company or did Path Finder just use his code in some helper tool?
Click to expand...
He's a freelance developer, so he probably shows up in a lot of apps' credits, I would imagine.
 
svenmany said:
I started to consider installing FileUtils for kicks. I noticed that the author is Dragan Milic.

Is he affiliated with that company or did Path Finder just use his code in some helper tool?
Click to expand...
Dragan Milic is a developer associated with CocoaTech and there are other Dragan Milic's that are developers as well, according to Google and others.
 
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MacHeritage said:
Dragan Milic is a developer associated with CocoaTech and there are other Dragan Milic's that are developers as well, according to Google and others.
Click to expand...

I finally found this:

supportyourapp.com

Support Your App – Customer Support Outsourcing for Tech Unicorns

Customer Support Outsourcing for Unicorn Tech Companies
supportyourapp.com supportyourapp.com

That's from 2025 and describes how they are using AI to improve support. And now I see that "Dragan" is listed as CTO on cocoatech.io. "...he loves to ride his bicycle through the Netherlands..." And the FileUtils website lists the company "ZigZag" as based in that country.

CocoaTech says they are based in San Francisco. I guess that might be just advertising if the CTO is actually remote.
 
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Hi — I’m Alexandra from the Path Finder team.

A couple of things mentioned here are fair, especially around UI behavior. The specific case where resizing the window doesn’t proportionally resize the panes but instead starts covering modules is actually interesting — we weren’t aware that this is a real pain point in everyday use. I’ll pass this on to the team. We’ve been working on UI and stability actually quite a bit recently. Most of the current work was dedicated to make existing behavior more predictable and to fix long-standing quirks.

There’s a public beta of the upcoming version (26) available right now — if you install Path Finder 11 and use Option → Check for Updates, you’ll get it. If you do try it, feedback on things like resizing, etc. would be very useful, since that’s exactly the kind of behavior we’ve been revisiting.

Also just to clarify — yes, Dragan is part of the team.

Happy to answer questions if anything specific comes up.
 
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Alexandra_Cocoatech said:
Hi — I’m Alexandra from the Path Finder team.

A couple of things mentioned here are fair, especially around UI behavior. The specific case where resizing the window doesn’t proportionally resize the panes but instead starts covering modules is actually interesting — we weren’t aware that this is a real pain point in everyday use. I’ll pass this on to the team. We’ve been working on UI and stability actually quite a bit recently. Most of the current work was dedicated to make existing behavior more predictable and to fix long-standing quirks.

There’s a public beta of the upcoming version (26) available right now — if you install Path Finder 11 and use Option → Check for Updates, you’ll get it. If you do try it, feedback on things like resizing, etc. would be very useful, since that’s exactly the kind of behavior we’ve been revisiting.

Also just to clarify — yes, Dragan is part of the team.

Happy to answer questions if anything specific comes up.
Click to expand...

thanks for joining the thread, i am eyeing Path Finder. I think a big selling point would be complete privacy no data no analytics collected.

say, what happens if I purchase 2 year license and the 2 years are over? does PathFinder stop working or does it continue as is. Because if it stops working then this is not license but time limited subscription offer.
 
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MacBH928 said:
thanks for joining the thread, i am eyeing Path Finder. I think a big selling point would be complete privacy no data no analytics collected.

say, what happens if I purchase 2 year license and the 2 years are over? does PathFinder stop working or does it continue as is. Because if it stops working then this is not license but time limited subscription offer.
Click to expand...
It will still work. It just won't get updates for bug fixes and new features. Same way Forklift works.
 
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MacBH928 said:
thanks for joining the thread, i am eyeing Path Finder. I think a big selling point would be complete privacy no data no analytics collected.

say, what happens if I purchase 2 year license and the 2 years are over? does PathFinder stop working or does it continue as is. Because if it stops working then this is not license but time limited subscription offer.
Click to expand...
Hi — thanks, glad it’s helpful.

On privacy: Path Finder does not collect analytics or usage data. The only related component is a crash reporter, which is optional and can be disabled in Settings → General (it’s actually off by default). It also checks the validity of the license once in a while, but there’s no tracking or background data collection.


On the license: the 2-year option is a time-limited license, not a perpetual one. After the period ends, the license expires. We moved to this model quite deliberately. In the past (Path Finder 10), licenses were effectively treated as perpetual if you don't upgrade further, but that also depended on a third-party license checking system. At some point that system stopped working properly, and it created real problems for users who expected everything to keep functioning indefinitely. We spent quite a bit of time trying to work around that.


So the current approach is more explicit: we don’t want to promise something we can’t reliably guarantee long-term. It’s not about pushing subscriptions — it’s about avoiding that kind of situation again.


Happy to clarify anything else.
 
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Keep in mind that Path Finder 26.x has become uglier, mimicking Apple's atrocious Tahoe UI. You can not even make the fonts and icons of the sidebar module normal or small. There is a zoom slider that only goes from 1.00x (huge) to 2.00x (huger).
 
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Is there a way to know if these proprietary apps are snooping on you? i mean you are giving them full access to your HD. Can we trust the label on the Mac App Store that says "no data collected" ?


Corefile said:
If you want a 2 pane FLOSS app for macOS then try Nimble Commander.

Advanced file manager for Mac - Nimble Commander

Dual-pane Mac file manager with a classic design, built for power users. Includes file search, batch renaming, terminal emulator, ZIP, 7z, RAR, tar, gzip, FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and more.
magnumbytes.com magnumbytes.com
Click to expand...

good choice. Commander One also have a very usable free tier
 
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