Good news! BinaryNights confirmed that ForkLift 4 is coming to Setapp:
https://twitter.com/BinaryNights/status/1700093954190938383?s=20
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An exposeā of Forklift 4 can be found on Utube - it runs for about an hour starting at about 26 minutes.
A second session to be added next week.
Useful for those largely unfamiliar with Forklift
This is on Macbites After Hours - link here https://youtu.be/SYv2xK5Jd2A
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I have used both Forklift and Path Finder and will now probably let my Path Finder subscription expire. I have made my decision, but cannot say which application is best, ā¦ thatās in the eye of the beholder.
Both are good applications. The feature of Path Finder is its modularity and it has more useful functions like for example a Dropshelf, Secure Delete and Directory Listing Reports. The modularity gives the user quite a bit of flexibility in how the interface is configured. This modularity also seems a slight liability because on rare occasions this can collapse; so you have to rebuild your set up and āresetā whats on the favourites sidebar. Incidentally Path Finders sidebar is quite limited compared to the flexibility that Forklift offers.
I would have no problem in continuing with Path Finder but for several years have been disappointed with their support and general communication. There seems little improvement in support despite continuing complaints. If you go to Path Finders Discord channel you will see regular apologies from Path Finder support, but seemingly no improvement. On the other hand I have found Forklift support adequate.
The life of small developers is not easy and Forklift 4 has disappointed a few existing users. My impression Forklift 4 has taken a lot longer to build than expected so the release functionality may be a bit short of their initial aspirations. The challenge will be to show steady improvement under the new pricing model.
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Thank you Brisbane.
I also picked Forklift 4 and have got a 1 year License. The good thing about this model is that in 2025 if they donāt have any good features that I want, I wonāt have to pay for those updates.
Sorry to say but Iām one of the unhappy users of Forklift 4. Iāve been using Forklift happily for some years through Setapp, both as a finder replacement as well as an FTP client. After migrating to an M1 Silicon MBP, the version offered by Setapp is 4.0.4 currently and somehow the FTP feature is broken for me. No matter what I try, I end up with a āhost not foundā error. Yet on my older Intel Macbook, version 3.5.8 (the last version before 4), everything works just fine using the same inputs/prompts.
I subsequently installed a bunch of other FTP clients (or apps with FTP capabilities) for testing, and got mixed results. Most apps that function primarily as FTP clients work fine, while apps with FTP features often failed to connect on the M1 Silicon OS. Not sure if that means anything.
These apps managed to connect successfully:
Transmit 5 (Transmitās user experience of connecting comes closest to Forklift 3)
Commander One (This mounts the remote server as a drive. Ironically, once Commander One connects successfully, Forklift will be able to view and transfer the files, but Forklift wonāt connect to the server by itself, which means I have to flip between both apps.)
CyberDuck
Filezilla
These apps failed to connect via FTP:
Mac OSās own āConnect to Serverā feature failed.
CloudMounter
DropShare
FTP Rush (Connects successfully but failed to display any files)
So far, I have only had one exchange with Forklift support so perhaps itās premature to be posting this but Iām a little weary from all the troubleshooting, plus hoping to find others with similar FTP issues who can offer solutions.
Itās possible Iām just gonna ditch Forklift on my newer mac when there are other apps that work out of the box. It just sucks because the FTP connection of Forklift 3 was the most seamless of them all as it feels like Iām just moving files around with Finder. Other FTP clients can feel less seamless.
I have tried Forklift (Including the latest version) and have finally found what I believe to be the PERFECT FINDER REPLACEMENT
try it out and make sure to get all the upgrades for like $1 each !
In my opinion it is the MOST UNDER RATED APP OUT THERE
Good luck
PS
Also unlike the greedy pigs at Forklift it is a ONE TIME PAYMENT FOR LIFE
I HATE monthly payments
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Always looking for a good file manager, so I just did a quick dig into it. Chinese developer, doesnāt have its own website, and if you use something like Little Snitch to block it from phoning home it stops working.
Reddit thread about the phoning home here ā https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1ea3aye/qspace_file_manager/
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Forklift is a US$ 19.95 one time payment, use it for ālifeā, with the caveat that this payment is for one year of updates. No monthly payment. No it stops working if you stop paying crap.
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With a disagreeable statement like this, Iām not surprised to see that there are other concerns with this app. Not interested.
The problem with any Finder replacement, is that (1) they must keep up with macOS changes and (2) there is very little room for error and incompatibility. Thatās what killed the Path Finder app for me.
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I could swear youāve mentioned this before, but do you use a Finder alternative? If so, which one?
Forklift 3 continues to work just fine.
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I have Forklift installed, but itās only used occasionally. I usually use two Finder windows stretched horizontally one above the other.
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Which does work great, but with Forklift I donāt have to mess with anything, since it always opens with the 2 panes in exactly the same size as I last opened it. I also like that Forklift always opens to where I left it, while Finder always defaults to a specific folder (of your choosing).
I have a folder to store all my bank statements. My statement comes with filename in the form of <some cryptic numbers_yyyymmdd_last four digit>.pdf for example, 12345678_20240731_1111.pdf. You can imagine how hideous the alignment looked in Finder due to the fact that Finder is not using monospace fonts.
Then I remember I had purchased Forklift 3 before and I went and download it again and boy, the filenames are all aligned properly.
If thereās one thing that bugs you about Finder (no monospace font), then I think Forklift is a good replacement, even the old version 3.
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I am a Finder replacement addict, but Forklift in my opinion is the best. QSpace is also very powerful but the feeling is like it is more a bunch of features put one of top of the other rather than a cohesive application, like a Linux desktop app from 20 years ago. I do not care whether the author is chinese or not, anyway.
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For me itās the āunknown Chinese developerā plus aggressive telemetry. If you have to be online to use a file manager, thatās a huge red flag. Having that data being potentially sent to any country with an authoritarian government that (functionally) asserts ownership of anything it wants is what makes it a complete no-go to me.
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Have you tried using ForkLift without an internet connection? For me it still works fine.
When I use Little Snitch to trace the traffic, there is no traffic at allā¦
Forklift is not the app in question. QSpace is the questionable app with the aggressive telemetry.
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What @MevetS said. I love Forklift, despite the fact that it likes to crash on me when dealing with large numbers of files.