Comparisons & alternatives · Disk-space analysers
Why use the Storage Inspector when Finder can calculate folder sizes?
Short answer: Finder sizes folders one window at a time. The Storage Inspector ranks the biggest folders across your disk, drills down, names usual suspects, and offers Move to fast drive on rows that can safely move.
Finder can show folder sizes in List view (with Calculate all sizes turned on in View Options), but only for the folder you're looking at — you still have to hunt across your disk yourself.
The Storage Inspector does the hunting:
- it ranks your largest folders across the disk, biggest first, and drills into any of them to any depth as results arrive;
- it checks a curated list of usual suspects — device backups, developer data, app caches, Downloads, the Trash and more — with friendly names;
- rows that can safely move get a Move to fast drive button, and a busy folder gets Move when closed;
- it shows what changed since last time, and what your Mac's snapshots are holding.
Finder is still handy for a quick look inside one folder. See What's Using Space.