GrandPerspective alternative: Peekaboo vs GrandPerspective
By Vishva Variya · Updated
GrandPerspective is free and has been answering “what’s filling my disk?” for years with a treemap: every file a rectangle sized by the space it takes, with colour coding and filters you can tune. Version 3.8.1 needs macOS 14, the same as Peekaboo. If a map is all you need, it’s hard to argue with free. Peekaboo is for when the map is the start of a cleanup rather than the end of one.
Looking for GrandPerspective itself? It’s at grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net.
- GrandPerspective price
- Free (SourceForge) or $2.99 on the Mac App Store
- GrandPerspective requires
- macOS 14 (3.7.2 for macOS 11–13) or later
- Peekaboo
- $24.99 one-time, 14-day trial, macOS 14+
GrandPerspective figures from grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net, verified 2026-11-02.
Why pick Peekaboo over GrandPerspective?
Removals you can reverse
GrandPerspective lets you delete from its view. In Peekaboo, everything you clear goes to the Trash as one recorded session, and a single click puts the lot back.
Twins, not just giants
A treemap shows that a file is big, not that it has a copy two folders away. Peekaboo matches identical files by SHA-256 and look-alike photos with Apple Vision.
Space macOS reclaims by itself
Disk Usage lists every folder by size and sets apart the iCloud copies, caches and snapshots macOS frees on its own, so you don’t delete what would have gone anyway.
Peekaboo vs GrandPerspective, job by job
| Job | GrandPerspective | Peekaboo |
|---|---|---|
| Seeing what fills the disk | Treemap, one rectangle per file | Space Map sunburst by category and folder, plus Disk Usage by folder size |
| Narrowing what you see | Filters on name, path, size, type and hard links | Plain-English chips plus ext:, path: and hidden: tokens |
| Before and after a cleanup | Re-scan or twin a view to compare | Undo timeline records each cleanup session |
| Duplicates and app leftovers | Not offered | Exact and look-alike duplicates; App Uninstaller with leftovers |
| Price | Free (SourceForge) or $2.99 on the Mac App Store | One-time per Mac after a 14-day trial |
The honest verdict
If you just want to see the disk, GrandPerspective does it for nothing, and its filters are finer-grained than Peekaboo’s map. Pay for Peekaboo when you want the next steps in the same window: duplicates found, app leftovers swept up, and a cleanup you can reverse if you went too far.
GrandPerspective vs Peekaboo: questions
Is GrandPerspective really free?
- Yes, from SourceForge. The Mac App Store version is the same app for $2.99, which helps cover the developer’s costs and updates automatically, per grandperspectiv.sourceforge.net on November 2, 2026.
Does Peekaboo draw a treemap?
- No. Space Map is a sunburst: rings of categories and folders you click to drill into. Disk Usage shows every folder as a list sorted by size.
Which macOS versions do they need?
- GrandPerspective 3.8.1 needs macOS 14, and 3.7.2 is still offered for macOS 11 to 13. Peekaboo needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.