u/WhimByteDev

App name: WhimFiles

Platform: macOS 12 or later, Apple Silicon M1 or later (will not work on Intel)

Price: $19.99 one-time (launch price for about two more weeks), no subscription

Source: https://whimfiles.com

What it does:
WhimFiles is a native Mac file manager built around filtering. You can narrow any folder by type, date, and size all at once which makes cleaning out messy folders like Downloads a lot faster than sorting and scrolling in Finder. It also has fuzzy go to folder/file, dual pane, tabs, hover previews for images and PDFs, batch rename with regex, image conversion, and many other quality-of-life features.

First impression:
I'm the developer, so take this with a grain of salt, but I first started building it because my own Downloads folder had been unkept for years and Finder made cleanup tedious. This app made it much easier.

As I thought of more features I wanted I added them to the app. I don’t have any experience of other similar file manager apps but find it easier to use this app instead of Finder for file operations.

It's native AppKit with no Electron, so it launches instantly and the whole app is about 9 MB. Since it's a file manager I put real work into safe file operations and did a lot of testing for it.

Watch out for:
It's a manual tool, not automation like Hazel that sorts files for you in the background. It works on network volumes but it is really built for local files, so a huge NAS is not the ideal case. Only network request it makes is an anonymous version check that sends just the version number, no telemetry or accounts. The app is code-signed and notarized.

Verdict: Worth trying if you need a file manager (as the creator I’m biased). There is a 30 day fully-featured free trial if you want to judge for yourself. Hope you’ll like it.

Hi! My Downloads folder had been left unkept for a very long time. I started cleaning it up with Finder but it was quite cumbersome so I started creating a simple app to help me filter out and delete or move the files in the folder.

It genuinely helped me clean out my Downloads folder and as I thought of more features I wanted in a file manager I started to add them.

Features such as: Fuzzy go to folder/file where you only need to type a few letters of the path to get suggestions and jump to the correct path instantly. Hover over an image or PDF file to preview it instantly. Command palette to find actions fast. Dual-pane view and tabs that remember their own filters.

As I used the app I added even more features that I wanted: Batch rename with regex support and presets for common operations. Converting HEIC/WebP/AVIF image files to JPG/PNG. Sidebar, single-click open, keyboard controls and many other small quality of life features I discovered while using it. Since it's a file manager I put real work into safe file operations, and the only network request it makes is an anonymous version check.

WhimFiles has a launch price of $19.99 and a fully-featured 30-day trial.

The trial can be downloaded here: https://whimfiles.com