ForkLift alternative: Peekaboo vs ForkLift
By Vishva Variya · Updated
ForkLift is the file manager for people who move files between places: two panes, SFTP and S3 connections, folder sync, Git. Peekaboo solves a different problem, the one where you know a file is somewhere on this Mac and can’t find it, or the disk is full and you don’t know why. Many people will want both.
Looking for ForkLift itself? It’s at binarynights.com.
- ForkLift price
- $19.95 one-time (1 year of updates) or $34.95 (2 years)
- ForkLift requires
- macOS 14.6 or later
- Peekaboo
- $24.99 one-time, 14-day trial, macOS 14+
ForkLift figures from binarynights.com and binarynights.com/store, verified 2026-10-31.
Why pick Peekaboo over ForkLift?
Search the way you remember it
Type “pdfs from last week over 5 MB” and Peekaboo turns it into filter chips you can edit. ForkLift’s search works on names and a folder at a time.
Words inside screenshots and scans
Peekaboo reads the text in images and PDFs with Apple Vision, on your Mac, so “screenshot with tracking number” finds it.
See where your space went
Space Map shows every category and folder by size, and duplicates are found by SHA-256 and look-alike photos by Vision.
Peekaboo vs ForkLift, job by job
| Job | ForkLift | Peekaboo |
|---|---|---|
| Two panes, remote servers, sync | Core feature: SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, S3, SMB, cloud drives | Not a goal. Local files only, no network drives yet |
| Finding a file you half remember | Name search in the current location | Plain-English search across the Mac, with editable chips |
| Text in screenshots and PDFs | Not offered | On-device OCR, searchable and copyable |
| Duplicates and disk usage | File compare between two folders | Duplicates finder and Space Map |
| Price | $19.95 one-time (1 year of updates) | One-time, 14-day free trial |
The honest verdict
If your day is servers, deploys and syncing folders, ForkLift is the better tool and Peekaboo doesn’t try to compete. If your problem is the files already on your Mac (finding them, reading what’s in them, clearing the ones you don’t need), that’s Peekaboo’s whole job. They sit side by side without overlap.
ForkLift vs Peekaboo: questions
Can Peekaboo connect to SFTP or network drives like ForkLift?
- No. Peekaboo works with the files on your Mac. Network drives are first on the list for a later version; remote servers aren’t planned.
Does Peekaboo have a dual-pane view?
- No. Peekaboo shows files as a card or list library with an inspector. For two-pane copying, Finder windows side by side or ForkLift do the job.
What macOS does ForkLift need?
- ForkLift 4 requires macOS 14.6 or later, per binarynights.com.