If you plug a Windows NTFS drive or a Linux (ext4/Btrfs) external SSD into your Mac, macOS won't let you write to it or doesn't recognize it at all.

⚖️ The Comparison

Existing commercial solutions like Paragon and Tuxera cost $30–$70 (often charging separately for NTFS and Linux), come with 150MB+ installers, and worst of all: they force you into Recovery Mode on Apple Silicon to lower system security (Reduced Security) just to load legacy kernel extensions (.kext) and root daemons. When macOS updates, kernel panics often follow.

I built PolyDrive Disk to provide a modern, genuinely safe alternative:

• 100% Sandboxed & Safe: Built on Apple's modern File System Extension (FSKit) framework. Zero kernel extensions, zero root daemons, zero disabling SIP.
• Lightweight (~10 MB installer vs. 150 MB+): No background services running when you don't use it. Cleanly uninstalls by dragging to Trash.
• Completely Offline: No network permissions, no accounts, zero telemetry.
• All-in-One Format Support:
  • Windows NTFS (native read & write with automatic journal replay)
  • Linux ext4, ext3, ext2, Btrfs (with subvolumes), XFS, and F2FS
  • BitLocker and LUKS1/LUKS2 passphrase decryption (saves to Keychain)
  • Linux LVM volumes and single NAS RAID member drives

💰 Pricing & Free Trial

• Free 3-Day Full Read/Write Trial: Download free from the Mac App Store and test all read & write features for 3 days on your own drives, so you can make sure it is your solution.
• Pricing: After the trial, it is a one-time in-app purchase of $9.99 to unlock unlimited use forever — no subscriptions.

🔗 Links:

• Mac App Store: Download PolyDrive Disk

(Requires Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 26 or later)

I'd really appreciate your feedback, questions, or edge cases you test with it!

I use several different storage systems every day: Cloudflare R2 and other S3 buckets, Dropbox, Google Drive, Nextcloud and Seafile servers, NAS shares, Android phones, and sometimes Linux disks or Raspberry Pi SD cards.

Managing them separately became frustrating. Each service had its own app, login flow, file browser, sync behavior and limitations. Some files were only available through a web interface, while others required a separate command-line tool.

It was also awkward to use these files with scripts or AI coding agents. They work much better with ordinary filesystem paths than with a collection of provider-specific apps and APIs.

So I built PolyDrive, a native macOS app that brings different storage systems into Finder.

It supports:

• Cloudflare R2, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, MinIO and other S3-compatible storage
• Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and Koofr
• Nextcloud, ownCloud, Seafile, OpenList/Alist and WebDAV
• SFTP and FTP/FTPS servers
• SMB shares from a NAS or another Mac
• Android phones and tablets over USB/MTP(no longer need Android File Transfer)
• Read-only ext2/ext3/ext4 disk images and Raspberry Pi SD cards

Some features I found particularly useful:

• Cloud and server locations appear directly in Finder’s Locations sidebar
• SMB shares can remount after login or a network interruption
• SMB passwords are checked before mounting
• SFTP host keys are pinned and changes trigger a warning
• Android devices support two-way file operations through Finder
• Files are fetched on demand instead of being copied into a separate sync folder
• A mounted location can be accessed by ls, rsync, Python, backup tools and coding agents
• There is no PolyDrive account, backend or analytics; credentials stay in the Mac Keychain

The main difference from a typical cloud-drive client is that PolyDrive is intended to bring cloud storage, self-hosted servers, NAS shares, Android devices and local Linux disks into the same Finder workflow.

It is available on the Mac App Store:
https://apps.apple.com/app/id6797990515?mt=12

Website:
https://polydrive.net/

Comparison with Mountain Duck, ExpanDrive, CloudMounter and rclone:
https://polydrive.net/compare

There is a free version for two cloud drives and unlimited Android or local disks, and the full version is a one-time purchase rather than a subscription.

Disclosure: I’m the developer of PolyDrive.