Free, open-source (AGPL-3.0) disk usage analyzer for macOS, Windows and Linux, written in native Rust + egui. Animated sunburst or treemap; drag items into a collector, then Trash / delete / back-up-first, with optional 3-pass (DoD 5220.22-M) secure erase. Content-matched duplicate finder with keep-one-copy rules, SSH server scanning via an uploaded agent, cloud scanning through rclone, and a CLI scan mode. Unusual arc: a 2-day Electron prototype (~2021), ported to Tauri Jan 2023, dormant 2.5 years, then a from-scratch v2.0 rewrite by the original author in Sept 2026 - 16 v2 releases in 3 weeks. Self-updating, unsigned builds; funded by a locally-picked in-app sponsor banner.
Rust + egui since v2.0 ('native Rust', per repo); v0.x was Rust + React on Tauri; the ~2021 prototype was Electron. Remote SSH scans push a small 'squirreldisk-agent' binary; cloud scans shell out to rclone (installed on demand from downloads.rclone.org)
Adileo Barone, Bologna - 115 of ~120 commits. Built v0 in days, left it dormant 2023-2026 (long enough for a fork and a 'sorry for the long silence' reply), then returned with the v2 rewrite and near-daily releases. Day job is technology advisor / fractional CTO; SquirrelDisk is his flagship among ~95 small repos.
License
GPL
AGPL-3.0 (GitHub API; LICENSE file in repo)
Price
Free
Free and open source; funded by 'a small sponsor banner inside the app' - banner list fetched at launch, picked locally, per the site's FAQ and privacy policy
Launched
Product Hunt launch, hunted by the author
Repo created
GitHub stars
2,124 (as of 2026-11-02)
First release
Domain registered
(squirreldisk.com)
Last seen alive
Checks
Mechanical checks derived from the fields above. Each row is one fact; "not yet checked" means exactly that, not a failure. There is no composite score; read them together.
Track record
about 3 years
Source published
Yes
Release signing
Unsigned
Security contact
None found
Reproducible builds
Not yet checked
Telemetry
Present, can opt out
Runs elevated
Never
Auto-update channel
Unsigned
Recent activity
Last seen 16 days ago
Author states builds are 'not signed with a paid Apple Developer ID or a Windows code-signing certificate, and the Mac app is not notarized' ('Is SquirrelDisk safe?' page); first-run warnings on both OSs are documented
No SECURITY.md or security contact found; vulnerability-ish reports go through the public issue tracker (e.g. issue #62 AV false positive)
Sends at launch + hourly: GitHub update check (disableable) and squirreldisk.com/ads.json sponsor list carrying app version, OS and CPU type; the server counts launches/daily users from IP via a monthly-rotating code, 'IP addresses are never stored'. 'Anonymous sponsor stats' and 'Personalized sponsors' are on-by-default toggles in Settings
App 'doesn't ask for administrator rights on any system' and runs as the normal user; sudo-less by design (safe page)
Self-updates from GitHub releases built by a public Actions workflow in the same repo ('SquirrelDisk updates itself when a new version comes out'); underlying artifacts are unsigned
Deletion guard rails are a path list in source with tests: whole drives, system folders, home dir, ~/.ssh and keychains are never deletable; app and settings folders need extra confirmation; it 'refuses to delete itself'
Repo description and 2023 Product Hunt tagline: 'A DaisyDisk, WizTree and WinDirStat alternative' / 'the perfect alternative to softwares like WinDirStat, WizTree, TreeSize, and DaisyDisk'. Radix (see radix.json) in turn pitches itself against SquirrelDisk.
Research notes
Three lives: Electron prototype 'built in 2 days' ~2021 (v0 README disclaimer), Tauri port Jan 2023 that stalled at v0.3.4, zero commits in 2024-2025, then v2.0.0 on 2026-09-27 - a from-scratch native-Rust rewrite by the original author, with 16 releases through 2026-10-18.
No author promotion found on reddit at all: the only hit is an incidental r/mac thread (Feb 2026) where a user asks about a file SquirrelDisk found. Launch venues were Product Hunt (2023 and 2026).
Popular on GitHub anyway: 2.1k stars, 104 forks - attention accrued by word of mouth while the repo sat unmaintained (single 2023 release line).
Dormancy invited a community fork: KnightRlex/SQdisk ('the original user has neglected it'), announced inside issue #62 during the dead years; moot now that v2 shipped.
Deletion safety is designed-in, not bolted-on: collector -> Trash by default, keep-one-copy duplicate rules ('a copy is never removed if it turns out to be the same file as the copy kept'), files changed since the scan are left alone, app-library files never removed.
Funding model is an in-app sponsor banner (ads.json fetched hourly), unusually well documented: the privacy policy lists every outbound request and the 'Is SquirrelDisk safe?' page names the exact never-delete paths.
Old-build AV scare resolved: Intego VirusBarrier flagged the unsigned v0.3.4 dmg (issue #62, 2024); VirusTotal and a locally-built binary came back clean - false positive on the legacy build, and the author now says to report any scanner hit on v2.
Earliest author promotion found; hunted by the author himself. hunted.space records 138 upvotes, 7 comments, #37 daily. No author reddit promotion exists at all.
The easiest open source app you will ever use to detect huge files. Built with Rust, Squirreldisk is the perfect alternative to software like WinDirStat, WizTree, TreeSize, and DaisyDisk. Supporting MacOS, Windows, and Linux. — Virtue
Quiet v2 relaunch (~3 upvotes per nicheloom) five days after the v2.0.0 release ended 2.5 years of dormancy - marks the real change of direction: Tauri app reborn as a native-Rust tool under active development.
Free, open-source disk usage analyzer for macOS, Windows and Linux. See what fills your disk, servers (SSH) and cloud storage in an animated sunburst or treemap, and clean it up safely. A DaisyDisk, WizTree and WinDirStat alternative, in native Rust — Virtue