Soquel

The last file manager you'll ever need. And it's open source!

Free and MIT licensed · Apple silicon and Intel · macOS 13 or later

Pay what you like

The download is the whole thing. There is no paid version and nothing is held back from this one. That said, if you found it helpful, you can send USDC, USDT or ETH here:

Ethereum. Other chains tooWell established tokens are fine, including on Solana and Bitcoin. Shitcoins I burn on sight. They have destroyed the world of crypto.

List view with sortable columns and the preview panel — List view, with the folder tree and the preview panel

Icon view, with real Quick Look thumbnails

Column view, one pane per folder level — Column view, a pane per level

Disk map sunburst showing where space went — The disk map, for finding what filled the disk

Settings window showing the colour slots — Colours, background image and shortcuts in Settings

Views

List view ⌥⌘1: Sortable columns: name, size, kind, date, with a folders-first toggle.
Icon view ⌥⌘2: Adjustable tile size.
Column view ⌥⌘3: A pane per level, folders marked with a chevron.
View-mode pill: The three modes draw as one segmented control with the selected segment filled.
Thumbnails in icon view: Generated by Quick Look off the main thread, cached by path, size and modification date.
Sort by name, size, kind or date ⌃⌘1–⌃⌘4: Or click a column header, or use the palette.
Multi-column sorting: Shift-click a header to add a tiebreaker, up to four keys.
Auto-sized columns ⌥⌘=: Widths fit the longest value in the folder, measured over every row.
Metadata columns: Dimensions, resolution, duration, codec, bit rate, colour space, camera — in any folder.
Preview and details panel ⌥⌘I: Quick Look over kind, size, dates, POSIX permissions, owner, symlink target, extended attributes, media metadata, and SHA-256 on demand.
Quick Look Space: The system preview, as everywhere else.

Panes and tabs

Nested pane splits ⌘D ⇧⌘D: Vertical and horizontal mix. A split divides the focused pane only, so splitting one leaves the rest alone. ⌥⌘D rotates the split holding it.
Up to four panes, tabs in each: ⌘1–⌘4 to focus, ⌘T for a tab.
Session restore: Panes, tabs, and the active tab in each, brought back on launch.
Named workspaces: Save and reopen an arrangement. A nested layout reopens nested; a pane whose folder has gone leaves a gap the arrangement closes.
Pane toolbar: Filter field on top, a customisable button bar under it. Right-click to choose the buttons.

Moving files

Create, rename, duplicate, copy, move, trash, delete: If one file fails the rest still go, and it names the one that failed.
Rename in every view: List edits the name in place; icon and column use a sheet.
Conflict handling: Keep both, replace, skip, cancel — with both sizes and dates shown.
Folder merge on conflict: Merge, apply-to-all, skip-identical. A merge cannot be undone.
Undo ⌘Z: Rename, create, duplicate, trash and move.
Transfer queue ⌥⌘J: Throughput, a coarse estimate, and pause, resume and cancel per job.
Selection shelf ⌃⌘A ⌃⌘B: Gather files from any number of folders, then deliver them all at once.
Batch rename: Find and replace, regex, numbering, case, extension, trim and file-date insertion, with a live preview.
Cut and paste in the context menu: Plus Copy Path directly, with the other formats one level down.
Drag and drop: Within Soquel and to and from every other application.
New File templates: Text, Markdown, JSON, Swift, Python, Shell, HTML and CSV, created in the folder you are in.
Folder comparison and sync ⇧⌘K: Left only, right only, differs, same — by size and date, or by checksum. Copies one direction over the rows you tick.

Finding things

Search panel ⌘F: Name or contents; contains, regex or glob; this folder, home, or everywhere; case, hidden files, app bundles, depth.
Search says what it skipped: Too large, not text, unreadable folder, result cap: each count is shown with the results.
Search ranking: Name matches outrank content matches; an exact name outranks a prefix, which outranks a substring.
.gitignore-aware search: Optional. Nested ignore files, negation and anchoring all honoured, and the count skipped is reported.
Saved searches: Named queries in the sidebar. Every option survives, and a search whose folder is gone runs in the current one.
In-folder filter /: Narrow the folder you are looking at without leaving it.
Command palette ⌘K: Fuzzy match over every command in the application.

Getting around

Breadcrumbs and an editable path bar: Click to type or paste a path. Quotes and newlines are stripped.
History, enclosing folder, Git root: Back and forward, ⌘↑, and a jump to the repository root.
Folder tree ⇧⌘T: An expandable hierarchy in the sidebar, lazy-loaded, following the active pane.
Sidebar groups: Your own named sections: create, rename, remove, collapse.
Pin to the sidebar: Drag a folder in, and reorder by dragging within and between groups.
Custom sidebar icons: Any emoji or SF Symbol per shortcut, plus a display name that does not rename the folder.
Keyboard-first preset: j k to move, h l to leave and enter, g g and G for the ends, ⌃d ⌃u by half a screen. Handled in the file list, so text fields are untouched.
Remappable shortcuts: Every command, recorded in place, with conflict detection.

Knowing what is there

Disk map ⇧⌘U: A sunburst of where the space went, with the biggest items listed beside it. A hard-linked inode counts once. Symlinks are not followed. Slices too thin to draw are added together instead of dropped, so a ring always totals its parent.
Folder sizes: An opt-in background column. A hard-linked inode counts once; symlinks are not followed.
Git status: A status column and badges from git status, with folders marked when anything inside them has changed.
Archive browsing: Look inside zip, tar, 7z and rar without unpacking. Extract on demand.
Copy path, six formats: Absolute, file URL, filename, filename without extension, parent directory, shell-escaped.
Hidden files ⇧⌘.: Shown or not, your choice, per window.

Reaching other places

Connect to Server ⌃⌘K: SMB, AFP, NFS, WebDAV and read-only FTP, through the system's own mounter. A mounted server is an ordinary path, so search, compare and the shelf all work on it unchanged. No password passes through Soquel.
Terminal and editor ⌃⌘T ⌃⌘E: Opens the current folder in either. Installed terminals and editors are detected, and your choice is remembered.
Open With, and set the default: Every application registered for the file, plus changing the system-wide handler for its type.
Choose what opens each kind of file: Twenty-three kinds in one table in Settings, rather than one file at a time through Get Info.
A prompt before slow applications: Xcode, Android Studio, the JetBrains and Adobe applications and the rest ask before opening, with an "Open, don't ask again" for the ones you meant.

Making it yours

Settings as one JSON file: settings.json beside theme.json. Edit it in any editor and the running application picks the change up — no restart.
Customisable colours: Seven slots, for light and dark separately.
Background image: Any image behind the file list, with opacity and five fit modes.
Designed light and dark palettes: Monospaced figures throughout, so columns of numbers line up.
Settings window ⌘,: Appearance, Keyboard and Applications.

When something goes wrong

Logging: Every notable action, to ~/Library/Logs/Soquel/ and to the unified log.
Copy Recent Logs: In the palette. Puts the last three minutes on the clipboard, with the build and OS named. Files older than a day are removed on their own.