maXfolders
Free
Local dual-pane file management: copy, move, compare, Find, archives, Preview, themes, the Tools utilities, plain FTP, and Git status — everything in the box except the items marked PRO below.
Two editions
Same app. One is free, one goes further.
maXfolders comes in two editions built from the same codebase. The App Store edition is free and sandboxed, and covers everything most people need for local file management. maXfolders Pro adds the embedded terminal, Finder integration, and remote/cloud connections beyond plain FTP — and is sold directly from this site, not through the Store, since a couple of those capabilities can't live inside App Sandbox.
maXfolders Pro
One-time purchase — price announced when Pro ships
Everything in the free edition, plus the embedded terminal, Finder Get Info and Comments, and SFTP, WebDAV, S3, and Dropbox connections. Not sandboxed, so it can do a few things App Sandbox simply won't allow.
Pro doesn't have a price tag yet — it's still free to download directly, the same beta it's always been. Download it with a real email now and that email keeps 80% off every Pro deal, for life, once pricing exists.
Included in both editions
The core file manager, free either way
Dual panes & tabs
Source and Destination, folder tabs, a native path bar with predictive typing, and bookmarks.
Copy, move & compare
A resumable Transfers queue, color-coded folder compare, and a side-by-side File Comparator for text and binary files.
Find, archives & lists
Wildcard/content/regex search, zip and tar browsed like folders, and Save File List to CSV.
Preview & Large File Viewer
A Quick-Look-style window that follows Source, plus paged browsing for oversized text files.
FTP
Connect to Server opens a plain FTP connection you browse, drag, upload, and download like a local folder.
Git status
A branch badge, a live status column, and Show Diff in Preview for a changed file.
Ten themes
System, Light, or Dark, and a choice of color themes from Native to Retro to Xcode.
Tools
Nine built-in utilities — Base64, URL and HTML encode/decode, OCR, JSON/XML formatting, text escaping, QR codes, and a cron parser.
Shortcuts.app automation
Copy, Move, Create Archive, Extract Archive, and Find as actions you can chain into your own shortcuts.
maXfolders Pro adds
What you get on top, and why it isn't in the free edition
Everything below is either something App Sandbox — the container every Mac App Store app runs inside — genuinely won't allow, or a capability kept on the paid side deliberately. Either way, none of it is in the App Store edition today.
Embedded Terminal PRO
A colored, resizable shell right below the file list, following your path as you navigate. A sandboxed child process can't reach outside its own container, which would make an in-pane shell mostly useless there.
Finder integration PRO
Get Info opens the real Finder window; a Comments column reads and writes Finder comments. Both work by asking Finder directly, which needs an Automation entitlement the App Store edition doesn't request.
SFTP PRO
Password or private-key authentication, with SFTP host keys pinned. Plain FTP stays free in both editions — this is specifically the encrypted variant.
Cloud Providers PRO
WebDAV, S3 (and S3-compatible services like MinIO, Backblaze B2, and DigitalOcean Spaces), and Dropbox, browsed like a local folder, with checksum-verified transfers.
Sync Browsing across remote trees PRO
Mirroring navigation between two panes works locally in both editions; pairing it with an SFTP, S3, WebDAV, or Dropbox connection needs Pro.
Bulk Delete & Rename on cloud connections PRO
Bulk operations run locally and over plain FTP in both editions. Running them against SFTP, S3, WebDAV, or Dropbox needs Pro.
7-Zip & RAR archives PRO
Pack into a new .7z, and open, browse, and extract .7z and .rar archives like any other folder. RAR is extract-only — its compressor is proprietary. Both use bundled command-line tools that can't run inside App Sandbox.
Media Info PRO
A window with a video or audio file's technical details — container, duration, and per-track codec, resolution, frame rate, sample rate, and channels — the kind of breakdown the MediaInfo app shows, exportable as Text, JSON, or XML.
Side by side
The full comparison table
Every feature, grouped the way the app itself is, plus the sandbox permissions Pro needs that the App Store edition simply doesn't request. Each panel opens expanded — click the yellow dot to collapse a section or the green dot to expand it, just like minimizing and maximizing a window.
Core file management Identical in both editions
| Feature | App Store | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Dual panes, tabs & bookmarks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Copy, Move & Transfers queue | ✓ | ✓ |
| Folder Compare & File Comparator | ✓ | ✓ |
| Find — wildcard, content & regex | ✓ | ✓ |
| Archives browsed like folders (zip, tar) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Save File List to CSV | ✓ | ✓ |
| Preview window & Large File Viewer | ✓ | ✓ |
| Git branch, status & diff | ✓ | ✓ |
| Ten built-in themes | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tools — Base64, URL/HTML, OCR, JSON/XML, QR, cron | ✓ | ✓ |
| Shortcuts.app actions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Open in Terminal.app | ✓ | ✓ |
Connections & remote Plain FTP is free, encrypted & cloud is Pro
| Feature | App Store | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Plain FTP | ✓ | ✓ |
| SFTP (password or private-key auth) | – | ✓ |
| WebDAV | – | ✓ |
| Amazon S3 & S3-compatible (MinIO, B2, Spaces) | – | ✓ |
| Dropbox | – | ✓ |
| Sync Browsing — local folders | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sync Browsing — with SFTP, WebDAV, S3 or Dropbox | – | ✓ |
| Bulk Delete & Rename — local & plain FTP | ✓ | ✓ |
| Bulk Delete & Rename — SFTP, WebDAV, S3 or Dropbox | – | ✓ |
System integration Needs an entitlement outside the sandbox
| Feature | App Store | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded Terminal (in-pane shell) | – | ✓ |
| Finder Get Info | – | ✓ |
| Media Info (technical file details) | – | ✓ |
| Finder Comments column (read/write) | – | ✓ |
| Pack into 7-Zip (.7z) | – | ✓ |
| Open & extract 7-Zip and RAR archives | – | ✓ |
Sandbox & permissions What each edition is allowed to do
This is the part that isn't really a feature list — it's the actual entitlements each build asks macOS for, straight from each target's .entitlements file.
| Capability | App Store | Pro |
|---|---|---|
| App Sandbox | Enabled — required for Mac App Store distribution | Disabled entirely |
| File system access | User-selected files/folders plus Downloads, held as security-scoped bookmarks | Unrestricted — any file or folder, no per-item permission prompts |
| Network access | Outbound client only (network.client) — enough for plain FTP |
Unrestricted — required for SFTP, WebDAV, S3, and Dropbox |
| Automation (Apple Events) | Not requested | Requested — lets Finder integration ask Finder itself for Get Info and Comments |
| Child processes | A sandboxed shell can't reach outside its own container | Unrestricted — powers the embedded terminal and the bundled 7-Zip/unrar tools |
| Distribution | Reviewed and distributed through the Mac App Store | Notarized directly by Apple, downloaded from this site |
Not sure which one you need?
If you don't recognize anything in the Pro list above, the free App Store edition is probably all you need. If SFTP, cloud storage, or the embedded terminal are part of your workflow, Pro is built for that.