Alternatives to Marta
Fast native Mac dual-pane manager
Marta ranks #9 of 9 in File managers, with an Alt Score of 73. It is proprietary, sold as a one-time purchase and available on macOS. 8 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Power users and developers on macOS who want a faster, keyboard-driven alternative to Finder and are comfortable configuring tools via shortcuts and DSL/config files rather than menus.
A native Swift dual-pane file manager with tabs and multiple windows, quick substring/regex search, and system-wide lookup via macOS indices. It handles archives (ZIP, RAR, 7Z, TAR, ISO, and more) including browsing and editing files inside nested archives, plus disk usage analysis and file previews. A built-in terminal syncs to the active directory, and the app is extensible through Lua plugins, custom themes, and a config DSL.
You navigate two side-by-side panes with keyboard shortcuts (mouse use is optional), triggering commands through an Action Panel (Cmd+Shift+P) and queuing file operations like copy/move/archive as background tasks.
Why people leave Marta
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the File managers checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| File managers checklist | Marta | Directory Opus | Double Commander | Files | ForkLift | Path Finder |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| Dual-pane view | ||||||
| Tabs | ||||||
| Batch rename | ||||||
| Archive handling | ||||||
| Cloud connections | ||||||
| Keyboard-driven | ||||||
| Open source | ||||||
| One-time purchase option | ||||||
| Search quality | ||||||
| Scripting |
Every fact and feature listed for Marta is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License Proprietary verified 2026-07-10
I hope we will open the source code someday later.
https://marta.sh/blog/etty/ -
Platforms macOS verified 2026-07-10
It's a nice file manager for macOS, try it out! :)
https://marta.sh/blog/marta-goes-beta/ -
Pricing model One-time verified 2026-07-10
And, of course, the license will be perpetual.
https://marta.sh/blog/introducing-marta/ -
Status active verified 2026-07-10
I'm committed to continuing the development of Marta
https://marta.sh/blog/back-on-track/ -
Dual-pane view Yes verified 2026-07-10
In the screenshot below, the left pane uses the table view, and the right pane uses 2-column view.
https://marta.sh/docs/core/display-modes/ -
Tabs Yes verified 2026-07-10
Tabs really matter. It was one of the most awaited features of Finder. Of course, you could open multiple windows before, but switching between windows is not so convenient as tab switching.
https://marta.sh/blog/tabs/ -
Archive handling Yes verified 2026-07-10
You can open archives as regular directories. You can even open (and edit) nested archives.
https://marta.sh/docs/advanced/archive/ -
Keyboard-driven Yes verified 2026-07-10
All key bindings are configurable. You can read how to set the hotkeys in the [Key bindings](/docs/configuration/hotkeys/) section.
https://marta.sh/docs/ -
Open source No verified 2026-07-10
I hope we will open the source code someday later.
https://marta.sh/blog/etty/ -
One-time purchase option Yes verified 2026-07-10
And, of course, the license will be perpetual.
https://marta.sh/blog/introducing-marta/ -
Search quality Yes verified 2026-07-10
By default, Look Up displays files and folders whose name matches the query.
https://marta.sh/docs/actions/lookup/ -
Scripting Yes verified 2026-07-10
Marta provides a Lua API for writing plugins.
https://marta.sh/api/
FAQ
Yes. Double Commander, Files and Midnight Commander have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
Double Commander, Files and Midnight Commander — every license claim links its source.