DaisyDisk vs WinDirStat

DaisyDisk

• Mac users who keep running out of disk space
• Finding what is behind large System Data or Other storage figures
• People who want a one-time purchase that covers their personal Macs

WinDirStat

• Finding out what is filling a Windows drive at no cost
• Companies that want a free tool: commercial use is allowed
• Administrators exporting CSV or JSON reports from automated scans

DaisyDisk

• macOS only; the current version needs macOS 10.13 or newer, and the FAQ says there is no Windows or iOS version.
• The free trial cannot delete files, show them in Finder, scan as administrator or scan cloud storage, and shows purchase reminders.
• The Mac App Store edition cannot scan as administrator and only detects hidden and purgeable space without revealing or purging it.
• It does not find duplicate files, and deletion is permanent, not a move to the Trash.

WinDirStat

• Windows only; the site points Mac and Linux users to other open-source tools such as GrandPerspective and QDirStat.
• It is developed and tested for Windows 7 through 11 and Windows Server 2008 R2 through 2025; other versions are not supported.
• The accelerated NTFS scan needs the app to be run elevated.
• File recovery is described as an attempt and covers only local NTFS, exFAT and FAT drives.

DaisyDisk

Sunburst disk map

Scans a disk or folder and draws its contents as a sunburst map that you browse to locate the largest files and folders.

Fast scanning

The vendor quotes 12-20 seconds for an APFS SSD startup disk and 6-12 seconds for an HFS+ one, and 3-5 minutes for NTFS, FAT and exFAT volumes.

Collector and deletion

Drag items to the Collector, review them, then click Delete, with 5 seconds to cancel. Files are removed permanently, and system folders are not accepted.

Hidden and purgeable space

Detects space that regular scanning cannot account for, reveals it by scanning as administrator, and can purge purgeable space and local snapshots.

Cloud scan

Connects Dropbox, Google Drive, Microsoft OneDrive and Box and scans them over the network like a local disk, without allocating local disk space.

Quick Look preview

Pressing Space previews any file with the built-in Quick Look, so you can identify it before deciding whether to delete it.

WinDirStat

Scanning

Scans multiple folders, drives, network shares or MTP devices in one pass. Running elevated speeds up scans of local NTFS drives.

Disk usage views

Shows the largest files and file types alongside treemaps, sunbursts and flame graphs, and compares logical with physical sizes.

Search and duplicates

Searches by name, size, type or owner. Duplicates are found by comparing content hashes, with optional sparse hashing for probable matches.

Reports and monitoring

Scan snapshots can be saved and reopened, reports exported as CSV or JSON, scans automated, and file-system changes watched.

Cleanup and recovery

Runs cleanup tools on selected items and can attempt to recover deleted files from local NTFS, exFAT and FAT drives.

Permissions and storage analytics

Inspects permission entries and estimates storage tier costs from file sizes and modification ages.

DaisyDisk

• Lifetime License$9.99

  one-time purchase

  Stand-alone edition for up to 5 personal Macs. Minor updates and bug fixes are included, with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

• Mac App Store edition$9.99

  one-time purchase (US Mac App Store)

  Sandboxed edition without scanning as administrator. The vendor offers App Store customers free migration to the stand-alone license.

WinDirStat

• WinDirStat$0

  The complete app as x64, x86 and ARM64 installers, portable archives, a Microsoft Store package, or through winget, Chocolatey or Scoop.

DaisyDisk

• Lifetime license

  Lifetime license with no subscription

  One payment buys a lifetime license with no recurring charges. Minor updates are included, and a paid major upgrade would not invalidate the license.

• Education

  Student discounts on request

  The pricing page says student discounts are offered and asks buyers to contact the vendor for details.

• Other savings

  Corporate and portable IT licenses

  Corporate licenses and portable licenses for IT services are available on request, according to the pricing page.

WinDirStat

No public discounts listed.