FileBrowser vs Files
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
FileBrowser
Access and manage files across your home computers, network drives, and cloud storage. Upload, download, copy, and edit documents directly from your device, with built-in viewers for various file types and streaming capabilities.
- Connect to computers, NAS, and cloud storage
- Upload, download, copy, and move files
- Multi-tabbed browsing and split-screen support
- Edit documents in-place
- Built-in viewers for documents, photos, and media
- Stream movies and music with AirPlay/Chromecast
- Annotate PDFs and images
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Use your iPad or iPhone to connect to your home computers, network drives and cloud storage. Easily upload/download/copy files and folders from one location to another, and browse your content using a variety of built-in viewers. *** FileBrowser remains the best option if you're looking for a file manager that supports a variety of external connections and also integrates deeply with iOS - Federico Viticci - MacStories *** *** FileBrowser's setup varies for every device, and the automatic wizards work super-well. Charlie Sorrel - Cult of Mac *** Ultra-fast browsing of your computers. Faster than Windows Explorer or Mac Finder and our users agree! GET ORGANIZED FileBrowser gives you everything you need to keep your files effortlessly organized: Move, edit, delete, rename, copy, zip and unzip. Download files from the web and paste them wherever you choose. MULTI-TABBED BROWSING Our FileBrowser suite of apps are the first file management apps to support multiple tabs. Connect to many of your locations at once and switch between them with ease. Use iPadOS split-screen mode to drag & drop between multiple windows. CONNECT TO Windows, Mac, Linux, Time Capsule, NAS drives, portable WiFi drives, SMB, Samba. Google Drive, Dropbox, Box, OneDrive, WebDAV, FTP and SFTP. Link to the same cloud storage with multiple accounts, if you have more than one Dropbox account, for example. EXTEND THE FILES APP FileBrowser allows you to access all your connections from the iOS Files app and other apps that use this as their document chooser, bringing network access to those apps. EDIT IN-PLACE No more copying of documents between apps. Launch an app to edit a network document in-place, such as Word or Pages or any of the Office and Mac suite. Changes are saved to the original document automatically. BLAZINGLY FAST Create bookmarks to your favorite locations & folders. Use a single tap to connect and browse to a favorite folder. PHOTO VIEWER Browse your photos wherever they are stored and display them on your TV or projector using AirPlay or Chromecast. Easily flick through holiday snaps or use the built-in slideshow feature. STREAM YOUR MOVIES / MUSIC Stream movie files or listen to music, both with AirPlay™ and Chromecast support. Use our built-in viewers or stream video to other apps. DOCUMENT VIEWER View Microsoft Office, Apple Pages, Numbers, KeyNote, PDF, text files, source code, HTML, and many more using the built-in viewers. ANNOTATE PDFS AND IMAGES Use the built-in annotation tools for PDFs and images, or use the iOS annotation tools to add notes, drawings or highlight text. SECURITY AND ENCRYPTION FileBrowser securely stores your passwords in the iOS keychain and uses iOS encryption features to protect your local content. Protect local files using a password, TouchID or FaceID. CONNECT ANYWHERE Connect to your Mac or PC when away from home. See our website for details: https://www.stratospherix.com/setupvpn TOO MANY FEATURES TO LIST FileBrowser has many features that we would like to tell you about. Check out our website. You'll be amazed! https://www.stratospherix.com/products/filebrowser FIRST CLASS SUPPORT User manuals and help are available at stratospherix.com/support with how-to articles and videos. You can also email us for fast, friendly support.
Files
Manage files from your device, cloud storage, or external drives in one place. Organize with tags, search, and access recent documents easily. Share files and connect to network drives.
- Access files from device, cloud, and external drives
- Recents view with high-resolution thumbnails
- Organize files with tags
- Search and navigate folders
- Connect to cloud services (Dropbox, OneDrive, etc.)
- Connect to file servers (SMB)
- Pin favorite folders
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Access and organize your files no matter where they’re located — on your device, in the cloud, on an external drive or file server— with Files. The Recents view displays the files you’ve been working on lately in high-resolution thumbnails. Use the powerful Browse view to navigate folders, organize your files with tags, move files between folders, and search. Files also makes it easy to access iCloud Drive and third-party cloud storage services such as Dropbox, Box, and OneDrive. Features • Press the Files icon in the Dock or Home screen to quickly open a file from anywhere • Connect an external drive or SD card to your device to access the files • Connect to a file server at work or a home PC using SMB from Files • Use tags to organize files stored with different cloud providers and across different apps. • Pin your favorite folders in Browse view for quick access to the ones you use most. • Give people access to any file stored in iCloud Drive by sharing a link from the Files app • Drag and drop to select files and organize them into folders
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: FileBrowser at 82% against Files's 14%. FileBrowser also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.9) and update cadence (every 5 weeks vs every 8 months). Files's advantage is price (Free vs $7.99) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 15.6). On ratings volume, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Files is free to download; FileBrowser costs $7.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
FileBrowser holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.9. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 5.6K and 7.4K respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of FileBrowser's written reviews are positive against 14% of Files's.
FileBrowser ships an update every 5 weeks, Files every 8 months. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | FileBrowser | Files |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $7.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.7 (5.6K ratings) — better | 2.9 (7.4K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 82.1% of reviews — better | 14.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 5.6K | 7.4K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 8 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #166 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 70 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Stratospherix Ltd | Apple Inc. |
Customer experience
FileBrowser
Files
User reviews
FileBrowser
From 5.6K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Great file manager
- 🚀 Powerful and versatile
- 🔒 Secure access to files
- 💡 Excellent integration with iOS Files app
- 👍 Reliable and stable
Room to improve
- 🐛 SMB connection issues
- 🐛 Misleading directory caching
- 🐛 Video playback problems
- 🐛 Buggy UI changes
- 🐛 Inability to rename photos
Files
From 7.4K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Smooth performance
- 💡 Useful for storing and organizing files
- 🔒 Secure file storage
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- 🐛 Files disappearing or not saving properly
- 🐛 Unreliable sync with cloud services
- 🐛 Limited functionality compared to desktop file managers
- 🐛 Buggy PDF annotation and editing
Bugs and requests
FileBrowser
Reported bugs
4 issues- Copy and paste functionality broken after update
- Inability to access iCloud files
- Crashes when accessing large files
- Thumbnails not generating properly
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for AV1 video codec
- Improve audio playback controls
- Implement a recycle bin/trash feature
- Add option to loop video playback
- Improve video scrubbing and seeking
Files
Reported bugs
4 issues- Files app not showing any files after iOS 15 update
- Inability to delete downloaded files
- Keyboard glitches when editing documents
- Inconsistent behavior when transferring files to external storage
Requested features
5 requests- Add ability to view file extensions
- Improve search functionality
- Allow more customization of the interface
- Integrate better with other Apple apps and services
- Add support for more cloud storage providers
In-app purchases
FileBrowser
No in-app purchases
Files
No in-app purchases









