Comparison

FileBrowser vs File Manager

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Read full description

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.

About

File Manager

This app provides comprehensive file management capabilities, including viewing images, editing text, and previewing office documents. It also offers robust compression/decompression, media playback, scanning, cloud storage integration, and secure file transfer options.

Highlights
  • Image browser
  • Text and source code editor
  • Office document and PDF reader
  • Compression and decompression
  • Universal audio/video player
  • Cloud storage management
  • Network file transfer
Features
Read full description

File Manager - The best all-in-one file management app, chosen by over 100,000 users. Main feature list: - Image browser, supports JPG, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, and other image formats - Text editor, supports adjusting text size and offers hundreds of font options - Office document preview, supports Word, PPT, Excel, Pages, Keynote, Numbers, and other document formats - PDF reader, supports converting PDF pages to images - Epub reader, supports various themes and text switching - Comic reader, supports cbz and cbr file types - Source code editor, supports over 100 programming languages and offers more than 80 selectable themes - Compression and decompression, supports almost all compression file formats such as rar, zip, 7z, lzma, tar, iso, tgz, txz, zstd, and also supports encrypted compression and file decryption, and extract compressed archive by volume. - Universal audio player, supports accelerated and decelerated playback - Universal video player, supports m3u8 online playback, subtitle addition, channel switching, etc. - QR code and barcode scanning and custom QR code generation - Scanner, supports scanning various documents and IDs - Cloud storage management, supports iCloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Box, Baidu Netdisk and Alibaba Cloud Disk - Network connectivity, supports FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, SMB, NFS and AList - Near-field transmission, allows file transfer between phones without consuming network data - Lock screen feature, supports gesture and PIN code unlocking, and also supports Touch ID and Face ID unlocking. More features will be released gradually, stay tuned.

Screenshots

FileBrowser4 screens
File Manager4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: FileBrowser at 82% against File Manager's 22%. FileBrowser also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and rating (4.7 vs 4.3). File Manager's advantage is price (Free vs $7.99) and iOS requirement (13.4 vs 15.6). On update cadence, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

File Manager is free to download; FileBrowser costs $7.99 up front. File Manager sells 2 one-off in-app purchases. FileBrowser asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

FileBrowser holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: FileBrowser has 5.6K ratings behind it against 124, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 82% of FileBrowser's written reviews are positive against 22% of File Manager's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FileBrowser ships an update every 5 weeks, File Manager every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and August 21, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
FileBrowser versus File Manager: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFileBrowserFile Manager
Price$7.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (5.6K ratings) — better4.3 (124 ratings)
Positive reviews82.1% of reviews — better22.2% of reviews
Number of ratings5.6K — better124
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaidFree with in-app purchases — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.613.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size70 MB197 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperStratospherix LtdMirarobot Science & Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

FileBrowser

All ratings5,642 ratings
Positive94.2%
Neutral2.4%
Negative3.4%
Written reviews1,157 reviews
Positive82.1%
Neutral6.1%
Negative11.8%

File Manager

All ratings124 ratings
Positive80.6%
Neutral7.3%
Negative12.1%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive22.2%
Neutral22.2%
Negative55.6%

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

File Manager

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

FileBrowser

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

File Manager

One-time2
  • Update to Pro$2.99
  • Premium$3.99

Questions

Is FileBrowser free?
FileBrowser costs $7.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is File Manager free?
File Manager is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, FileBrowser or File Manager?
FileBrowser is rated higher. FileBrowser averages 4.7 out of 5 from 5.6K ratings, while File Manager averages 4.3 from 124 ratings.
Do FileBrowser or File Manager have ads?
Neither FileBrowser nor File Manager shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FileBrowser or File Manager?
FileBrowser ships an update every 5 weeks, and File Manager every 3 weeks. Most recently, FileBrowser was updated on September 24, 2026 and File Manager on August 21, 2026.

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