Comparativa
Dropit frente a GrandPerspective
Las dos herramientas encuentran archivos grandes. Aquí están las diferencias, incluido dónde GrandPerspective es la mejor opción.
A free, open-source macOS utility by Erwin Bonsma that graphically shows disk usage as a treemap, released under the GNU General Public License and downloadable from SourceForge, with a paid Mac App Store copy that funds development. grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net · Free from SourceForge; $2.99 on the Mac App Store for the same app
Actualizado el 9 de septiembre de 2026
Nuestros artículos se escriben solo en inglés. La app y el resto del sitio están traducidos por completo.
GrandPerspective is free and open source, and this app is neither. That is the most important line on the page, so it goes first. It has been developed by one person since 2005, the source ships alongside every release under the GPL, and the $2.99 Mac App Store copy is explicitly the same app — the author charges it to cover the developer-programme fee, not to gate anything.
It is also more capable than its reputation suggests. Version 3.8.0, released on 24 August 2026, colours the treemap by any of ten different properties including file type, folder depth, size and last-access time; filters on name, path, size, type, hard-link status and package status, and can use those filters to mask files, hide them, or exclude them during the scan; handles hard links so Time Machine backups analyse correctly; saves a scan to reload later; exports as image or text; and lets you re-scan to compare a view before and after a clean-up. Anyone describing it as "just a treemap" has not opened the filter panel.
Where Dropit differs is breadth on both axes. GrandPerspective has one visualisation, tuned over twenty years. This has eight — treemap included — because a size question, an age question and a "many small files" question do not have the same right picture. And it has a cleanup layer GrandPerspective does not attempt: a Quick Wins catalogue, duplicate detection by content hash, an app uninstaller that chases leftover support files, and a safety tier with a written reason attached to every item before it can be staged for deletion.
The pricing comparison is narrower than free-versus-paid makes it sound. Scanning and all eight views here are free forever, with no time limit and no account, which is the same job GrandPerspective does. Payment unlocks the cleanup half. So the real question is whether the cleanup half is worth $3.50 to you — and if it is not, GrandPerspective is an excellent tool and you should use it.
One last thing worth stating plainly, because it is not a small advantage: GrandPerspective is auditable. You can read the source of the thing you are about to point at your home directory. Ours is not open source, and no amount of documentation is the same as source you can read.
Dónde gana GrandPerspective
- It is free, and it is open source under the GPL with the source shipped beside every release. You can read exactly what the thing you are pointing at your home directory does. We cannot match either of those, and we are not going to pretend the difference is small.
- Twenty years of continuous development by the same author, still shipping — 3.8.0 landed on 24 August 2026. That is a maintenance record almost nothing in this category can claim, and we have none at all.
- Its filter system is genuinely deeper than ours. Filters on name, path, size, file type, hard-link status and package status, reusable to mask items in the view, remove them from the view, or exclude them during the scan itself.
- It is hard-link aware, so Time Machine backup volumes analyse correctly rather than reporting nonsense — a real and unglamorous piece of engineering.
- Saving and reloading a scan, and exporting it as an image or text, are free there. The equivalent here — snapshots — is behind the paywall, and it does not export.
- It is a small, lean application with a modest memory and disk footprint, and it is available on the Mac App Store for $2.99 if you prefer buying that way.
Choose GrandPerspective if what you want is a treemap of your disk so you can spot the big rectangles and delete them yourself. It does that well, it costs nothing, you can read its source, and it has been maintained for twenty years — if that is the job, there is no reason to pay us. Choose it also if you need hard-link-correct analysis of a Time Machine volume, or filters more precise than ours.
Comparación de funciones
| Función | Dropit | GrandPerspective |
|---|---|---|
| Free of charge | En parteScan and all views free; cleanup paid | SíFree; $2.99 App Store copy optional |
| Open source | No | SíGPL, source with each release |
| Treemap view | Sí | SíThe primary and only view |
| Additional views (sunburst, flame graph, age map, others) | SíEight in total | NoTreemap only |
| Colour the view by file property | En parte | SíTen schemes, palettes |
| Advanced filters, including exclusions during scan | En parte | SíName, path, size, type, hard link |
| Hard-link aware (Time Machine backups) | En parte | Sí |
| Preview a file before deleting | SíQuick Look | SíQuick Look |
| Delete straight from the view | Sí | Sí |
| Save a scan and reload it later | SíSnapshots, paid | SíFree |
| Export the scan as an image or text | No | Sí |
| Duplicate file finder | SíContent-hashed | No |
| App uninstaller with leftovers | Sí | No |
| Curated cleanup catalogue (caches, dev artifacts) | Sí | No |
| Safety rating and written reason per item | Sí | No |
| Mac App Store version | No | Sí |
| Interactive demo in the browser before downloading | Sí | NoScreenshots |
| Track record | NoNew in 2026 | SíReleased since 2005 |
- Eight views over one scan rather than a single treemap — sunburst, flame graph, bubbles, folder cards, top sizes, age map and mind map alongside it.
- A cleanup layer GrandPerspective does not attempt: Quick Wins, duplicates matched by content, an app uninstaller that sweeps leftover support files, and a developer catalogue covering Xcode DerivedData, simulator runtimes, node_modules matched against a sibling manifest, and the npm, pnpm, cargo, Go, pip and Homebrew caches.
- A safety tier and a plain-English reason on every item before it can be staged, a hard refusal to stage protected system paths, and a device-and-inode re-check immediately before deletion.
- An age map that surfaces large files untouched for a year, which is a different question from what a treemap answers.
- Every view running as an interactive demo on this site, on a realistic dataset, so you can drive the real interface before installing.
- Twenty-three interface languages, a command palette and full keyboard navigation across light and dark themes.
Choose Dropit if the treemap has stopped answering your question — if the space is scattered across caches, duplicates, app leftovers and build artifacts rather than sitting in a few large rectangles — or if you want a written safety reason attached to each item before you delete it. Scanning and all eight views are free permanently, so you can compare the viewing halves side by side and only pay if the cleanup half earns it.
Preguntas
Is GrandPerspective safe?
It is open source under the GPL with the source published alongside each release, it has been maintained by the same author since 2005, and a copy is distributed through the Mac App Store, which means it has passed Apple review. As with any tool that can delete files, ours included, the thing to check is that you can see the full path of what you are about to remove — GrandPerspective shows you the file in the view before you delete it.
Is GrandPerspective free, and what is the $2.99 App Store version?
The SourceForge download is free. The author also sells it on the Mac App Store for $2.99 and states it is the same app — the fee covers the Apple developer programme and development costs, and buying it adds automatic updates and Apple review. Nothing is withheld from the free copy.
What does GrandPerspective not do?
It is a disk usage visualiser and does not set out to be a cleaner: there is no duplicate finder, no application uninstaller and no curated catalogue of caches or developer artifacts. Deletion is manual, item by item, from the treemap.
Is Dropit a good GrandPerspective alternative?
It is if you want more than one view of the same scan, or if you want the cleanup half — duplicates, uninstalls, caches and build artifacts with a safety reason on each. It is not if you specifically want free, open-source software, in which case GrandPerspective remains the better answer.