EmpiricCommander File Manager vs DashFlare
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side ā with what reviewers say about each.
EmpiricCommander File Manager
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A real file manager for iPad - and for Mac and iPhone. Two panes side by side, drag between them, and move files where they belong without exporting or round-tripping through the Files app. PHOTOS OFF YOUR PHONE The Files app cannot see your photo library. EmpiricCommander can: browse your albums like folders and copy them to a USB-C drive, your NAS, SFTP, S3 - any destination, no account required. Originals are copied byte for byte with EXIF and location intact, a second run copies only what is new, and Free Up Space deletes a photo only after the copy has been read back and verified. THE WHOLE LOOP, NO MAC NEEDED Clone a repository over HTTPS or SSH, open a file in the built-in editor with syntax highlighting, stage your changes, commit, and push - on iPad and iPhone, without a separate terminal app. A commit log with a rendered branch and merge graph shows what happened, per-file diffs show exactly what changed, and merge conflicts are resolved in-app, per file. A REAL SSH TERMINAL An interactive shell to your server, from inside the file manager, on Mac, iPad and iPhone. iOS ships no ssh binary, so this is a full client implementation rather than a wrapper around a system tool. CONNECT TO WHAT YOU ALREADY HAVE SMB network shares (your NAS, Mac, or Windows PC), SFTP with key authentication, S3 and S3-compatible storage, FTP, WebDAV, Azure Blob, Dropbox, and more - browsed, copied, and moved like local folders. Your connection list syncs across your devices through iCloud; passwords stay in the Keychain and are never uploaded. BUILT FOR REAL FILE WORK - Dual-pane on Mac and iPad, with a tab bar on iPhone. - Streaming transfers, including remote to remote, with progress that survives leaving the app. - Folder Sync in four modes, and Compare Folders with SHA-256 verification so you can prove a copy is byte-for-byte identical. - Batch rename with regex, numbering and dates, previewed before it runs. - Browse inside ZIP archives like folders; create ZIP and TAR/GZ; read password-protected archives. - Duplicate finder, disk-usage treemap, checksums, permissions editor. - Quick Look plus rich preview for CSV, JSON, Markdown, YAML, TOML and source code. - Full hardware-keyboard support on iPad: arrows, shift-selection, Tab, Esc, Return, Space. ON-DEVICE AI Describe a batch rename in plain words, or summarize a document, using Apple Intelligence. It runs entirely on your device: no account, no API key, no per-use cost, and your filenames and file contents never leave the device. ONE PURCHASE, THREE PLATFORMS Buy once and use EmpiricCommander on your Mac, iPad and iPhone - one device of each type. Not a subscription. This major version and all of its updates are included. PRIVACY No tracking. Diagnostics are strictly opt-in.
DashFlare
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DashFlare is the Cloudflare client that actually works. Manage your domains, DNS records, and cache directly from your iPhone or iPad. No subscriptions to use the basics, no menu trees pretending to be a dashboard, no broken credential storage. Built by a developer with 40+ Cloudflare zones who was tired of the official app showing a menu and the competition crashing on launch. DashFlare gets out of your way. WHAT YOU GET FREE ⢠Live dashboard with traffic, page views, threats, bandwidth, and cache hit rate ⢠24-hour and 7-day analytics across your top domains ⢠Browse DNS records for any zone (read-only) ⢠Cloudflare component status (so you know if it's them, not you) ⢠Health checks ā ping your own sites with one tap ⢠Up to 3 domains visible at a time WHAT DASHFLARE PRO ADDS ⢠Unlimited domains ā see all of them at once ⢠14-day, 30-day, and custom date-range analytics ⢠Favorites ā pin the domains you actually care about ⢠Quick actions ā Purge cache, Under Attack Mode, Pause, Dev Mode ⢠DNS write access ā Create, edit, and delete records from the app ⢠No upsells inside the app PRO PRICING ⢠DashFlare Pro Monthly ā $1.99 / month, auto-renewing subscription ⢠DashFlare Pro Yearly ā $19.99 / year, auto-renewing subscription ⢠DashFlare Pro Lifetime ā $34.99 one-time purchase, never billed again SUBSCRIPTION TERMS Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew at the price stated above unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. Subscriptions can be managed and auto-renew turned off by going to your iOS Settings > [your Apple ID] > Subscriptions after purchase. No cancellation of the current subscription is allowed during the active subscription period. Lifetime is a one-time non-consumable purchase and is not a subscription. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://vikingnetllc.com/dashflare/privacy.html TECHNICAL HONESTY ⢠Your Cloudflare API token is stored in the iOS Keychain on your device. We never see it. ⢠No backend. The app talks directly to Cloudflare's API. We have no servers in between to collect anything. ⢠No analytics SDK. No advertising SDK. No tracking. Check the privacy policy ā you'll see "no data collected" because there genuinely isn't any. ⢠Open standards: REST + GraphQL. Same APIs Cloudflare's own dashboard uses. DARK MODE BY DEFAULT Because you're a developer and your eyes deserve it. PRIVACY https://vikingnetllc.com/dashflare/privacy.html SUPPORT eric@vikingnetllc.com
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: EmpiricCommander File Manager at every 2 days against DashFlare's every 5 days. DashFlare's advantage is device support (6 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS
Both are free to download. EmpiricCommander File Manager sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and DashFlare sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
EmpiricCommander File Manager ships an update every 2 days, DashFlare every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 11, 2026 and September 19, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | EmpiricCommander File Manager | DashFlare |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days ā better | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch, Vision Pro ā better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 ā better | 18.0 |
| Further details ā not scored | ||
| Size | 32 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Burlac Mihail | Viking Net LLC |
In-app purchases
EmpiricCommander File Manager
- EmpiricCommander Pro$29.99
DashFlare
- DashFlare Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- DashFlare Pro Yearly$19.991 Year
- DashFlare Pro Lifetime$34.99
Questions
Is EmpiricCommander File Manager free?
Is DashFlare free?
Do EmpiricCommander File Manager or DashFlare have ads?
Which is updated more often, EmpiricCommander File Manager or DashFlare?
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