BRAVELY.DEV
My Account

Diskaroo vs DaisyDisk — honest comparison

Looking for a DaisyDisk alternative? Here's an honest Diskaroo vs DaisyDisk comparison. Diskaroo maps your disk as a treemap or a sunburst on Mac, Windows and Linux, and it finds exact duplicate files, which DaisyDisk doesn't. What you clear goes to the Trash, so you can get it back, unless you choose to delete it for good. Diskaroo is free with a Bravely Account; DaisyDisk is a $9.99 Mac-only app. If you want to purge purgeable space and APFS snapshots on a Mac, DaisyDisk is built for that job.

Get Diskaroo freeSee Diskaroo

Free with a Bravely Account. No card, no trial clock, no subscription.

Diskaroo vs DaisyDisk at a glance

At a glanceDiskarooDaisyDisk
Entry priceFree (Diskaroo Pro, with a free Bravely Account)$9.99 once
Next plan upFree: no card, no subscription$9.99 once, the same price on the Mac App Store
Lifetime licenseFree for life (Mac + Windows + Linux)$9.99 (Mac only, up to 5 personal Macs)
PlatformsMac, Windows, LinuxMac

Where Diskaroo and DaisyDisk each win

Pick Diskaroo if

  • Runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, and one free Bravely Account covers all three. DaisyDisk runs only on a Mac.
  • Finds exact duplicate files by content in whatever you scanned, keeps one copy of each, and sends the extras to the Trash or Recycle Bin. DaisyDisk has no duplicate finder.
  • Cleanup you can take back: the Collector moves what you picked to the Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows) unless you choose Delete Permanently. DaisyDisk skips the Trash and deletes for good after a 5-second countdown.
  • Colours the map by file type as well as by folder, and a filter box lights up just the blocks whose name or extension matches what you type. DaisyDisk colours folders, draws files in grey, and has no filter.

Pick DaisyDisk if

  • A $9.99 lifetime license for up to 5 personal Macs, the same price on the Mac App Store, with a 30-day money-back guarantee. There's no account to sign in to, and it says it collects and transmits nothing.
  • A polished sunburst map with Apple's Editors' Choice badge on the Mac App Store, where Apple also featured it in its 2011, 2013 and 2015 year-end picks. Its release log goes back to 2010.
  • It purges purgeable space and lists, sizes and deletes local APFS snapshots from inside the app (the edition sold on its own site; the Mac App Store edition is more limited).
  • Scan as administrator reveals restricted system folders and other users' folders (the edition sold on its own site).
  • It scans Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Box directly in the cloud, with no local copy of your files.

Diskaroo vs DaisyDisk, feature by feature

Verified . Source linked at the bottom.

FeatureDiskarooDaisyDisk
Price (entry)Free (with a Bravely Account)$9.99 once
Lifetime priceFree for life (Mac + Windows + Linux)$9.99 (Mac only, up to 5 personal Macs)
Free optionThe whole app, free with a Bravely AccountA trial that maps your disk but can't delete (not in the Mac App Store edition)
PlatformsMac + Windows + Linux (one account)Mac only
Runs onmacOS 14 or later (Apple silicon or Intel); Windows 10 or 11 (x64); 64-bit (x64) Linux with GTK 4macOS 10.13 or later, on Apple silicon and Intel (legacy editions back to 10.5)
Exact duplicate finderYes: by content (SHA-256), in what you scannedNo
Similar / fuzzy duplicate detectionNoNo
Clearing what you collectedTrash or Recycle Bin (restorable), or Delete Permanently if you choosePermanent delete after a 5-second countdown (no Trash), so the space comes back at once
VisualizationTreemap (squarified) + sunburstSunburst
Colour by file typeYes (or by folder)No (folders in colour, files in grey)
Filter by name or extensionYesNo
List viewYes: its own view, sorted by sizeA sidebar list beside the map, sorted by size
Click to drill inYesYes
Purge purgeable space / APFS snapshotsNoYes (the edition sold on its own site)
Scan as administrator (Mac)NoYes (the edition sold on its own site)
Cloud storage scanningNoYes (Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, Box)
System / junk cleaningNoNo
Full Disk Access guide (Mac)Yes: a step-by-step sheet with a button to System SettingsYes: a Full Disk Access tab in its settings
Account neededYes (a free Bravely Account)No (a license key)
Years on marketUnder a year16+ (release log from 2010)
Trust artifactsApple Developer ID (notarized) + a signed Windows installerApple Developer ID (notarized)

Diskaroo on Windows: what we ran, and when

Screenshots and measurements from our own machines, . A generated test folder: 100,000 files in 3,698 folders, 17.45 GB, with 250 planted sets of duplicate files. It holds no one's real files, and the same seed builds the same folder on Windows and Linux.

Windows · measured

5.2 s

First scan of the test folder on Windows, with Windows' file cache emptied before each run.

Median of 7 runs (1.0 to 16.4 s), read from Diskaroo's own status line. Repeat scans, with the files already cached, took 0.2 s (median of 5).

Build
Diskaroo 2.7.5
System
Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200)
Machine
a desktop PC with an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X and 32 GB of RAM
Disk
XPG GAMMIX S60 2 TB NVMe SSD (NTFS)
How to repeat it
  1. Generate the test folder on the drive.
  2. In Diskaroo, choose Choose Folder… and pick the test folder.
  3. Empty Windows' working sets and standby list (RAMMap's Empty menu does both), then wait 12 seconds.
  4. Press Rescan and read the time on the status line when it says Scan complete.
  5. Repeat 7 times and take the median.
Diskaroo on Windows 11 showing the same scan as a sunburst chart, with rings for Music, Videos, Photos, Downloads, Documents and Projects around a 16.25 GB center
The same scan as a sunburst.Diskaroo 2.7.5 on Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200),
Diskaroo on Windows 11 showing a treemap of a 100,000-file test folder, with Music, Videos, Photos and Downloads drawn as the largest blocks and each folder's size listed in the sidebar
Diskaroo's treemap of the test folder on Windows 11.Diskaroo 2.7.5 on Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (build 26200),

Diskaroo vs DaisyDisk FAQs

Is there a free DaisyDisk alternative?

Yes: Diskaroo. Sign in with a free Bravely Account, map your first folder, then claim Diskaroo Pro in the app, free, for life. No card, no trial clock, no subscription. DaisyDisk is $9.99 once for up to 5 personal Macs.

Does DaisyDisk find duplicate files?

No. DaisyDisk's own FAQ says it doesn't detect duplicate files. Diskaroo finds exact duplicates by content in whatever you scanned: same size, then the first 64 KB, then the whole file, matched by SHA-256. It skips files under 1 KB, keeps one copy of each, and sends the extras to the Trash.

Can I get back what I delete?

Yes, with Diskaroo, until you empty the Trash. The Collector moves files to the Trash (the Recycle Bin on Windows) unless you choose Delete Permanently, and duplicates only ever go to the Trash. DaisyDisk deletes permanently after a 5-second countdown, and its guide says those files can't be undeleted.

Is there a DaisyDisk for Windows?

No. DaisyDisk runs only on macOS; its FAQ answers "Not right now, but we're exploring the possibility." Diskaroo runs on Mac, Windows and Linux, and one free Bravely Account covers all three. Is there a DaisyDisk for Windows?

Is there a free version of DaisyDisk?

Only a trial. DaisyDisk's free trial comes with the edition sold on its own site; the Mac App Store edition has none. The trial scans and draws the map, but it can't delete what it finds, show it in Finder, scan as administrator or scan cloud storage. Diskaroo is free with a Bravely Account, including clearing to the Trash and the duplicate finder.

Is DaisyDisk a lifetime license?

Yes, one payment. Minor updates and bug fixes are included; DaisyDisk's FAQ says a major new version "may be offered for a payment", and 2 of its 3 major upgrades so far were free.

Is Diskaroo open source?

No. If you need open source on a Mac, GrandPerspective is free under the GPL.

More Diskaroo comparisons

All comparisons

Diskaroo icon

Diskaroo

Treemap disk visualizer

Get Diskaroo freeAll comparisons

Free with a Bravely Account. No card, no trial clock, no subscription.

Pricing verified . DaisyDisk pricing source. Subject to change.