Short answer: if free and open source is the requirement, pick the open-source GPL-licensed classic — it costs nothing and is actively maintained again since 2024. If scanning speed on a large NTFS drive matters most and the use is personal, the MFT scanner is the fastest. If a single portable executable with no installation is preferred, the portable single-file tool fits in a pocket. If guided cleanup matters — knowing what is safe to touch before touching it — Easy Disk marks space hogs red, marks protected system areas green, and never deletes a single file itself.
We build Easy Disk at Pinnadash, and this comparison uses the same criteria we get asked about most: licensing, visualization, scan approach, and how each tool handles deletion. Everything below is checkable against each tool's official documentation. (We name the other four tools in the third-party version of this comparison; on our own site we describe them by their defining trait instead.)
The feature-by-feature comparison
| Easy Disk | Open-source classic | MFT scanner | Folder-tree scanner | Portable one | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Price | Free download; optional Pro at $6.9/month or $39/year | Free, open source (GPL) | Free for personal use; commercial from ~$25 per business site | Free including commercial use; server OS not allowed; paid tiers add features | Free; optional donation |
| Visualization | Treemap of the whole drive | Treemap + sortable file list | Treemap + file list | Folder tree list + treemap chart view | Block-style treemap |
| Scan approach | Full-drive scan; treemap layers load on demand | Directory traversal | Reads the NTFS MFT directly | Directory traversal | Directory traversal |
| Marks what is safe to remove | Yes — red for space hogs, green for protected areas | No | No | No | No |
| Built-in file deletion | None by design — jumps to Explorer instead | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Install | Windows installer with auto-update | Installer | Installer or portable | Installer or portable | Single portable ZIP |
Which disk analyzers are free for commercial use?
Three of the five allow commercial use at no cost: the open-source classic (GPL, free for everyone), the folder-tree scanner (free including commercial use, but not on server operating systems — server scanning requires its Professional tier), and the portable one (freeware, donations optional). The MFT scanner is free for personal use only; commercial environments need a paid code for each business site, starting around $25. Easy Disk is free to download with an optional Pro subscription at $6.9/month or $39/year.
Which disk space analyzer scans the fastest?
The MFT scanner, by a wide margin, on NTFS drives. It reads the NTFS Master File Table (MFT) directly instead of walking every directory, which turns a whole-drive scan into seconds even on multi-terabyte disks — the tradeoff is that MFT access requires running with administrator rights. The other four (Easy Disk, the open-source classic, the folder-tree scanner and the portable one) traverse the filesystem the conventional way, which takes longer on huge drives but works without elevated permissions.
Does Easy Disk delete files?
No — deletion is excluded by design. Easy Disk is a read-only analyzer: it locates the files eating your space and hands you a "show in Explorer" jump, so every deletion is performed manually, in Explorer, by you. For comparison, the other four tools in this roundup can all delete files from inside the app — convenient, and also exactly the blast radius Easy Disk chooses not to have. Nothing you did not explicitly delete in Explorer can disappear because of a mis-click in Easy Disk.
What do the red and green markings in Easy Disk mean?
Red marks the space hogs — the files and folders consuming the most, i.e. the sensible cleanup candidates. Green marks protected system areas that should be left alone. The idea: a treemap tells you what is big, and the color layer tells you whether to touch it, without cross-referencing which Windows folders are load-bearing.
Easy Disk or the open-source classic — how to decide?
Pick the open-source classic when open source is a hard requirement, or when its built-in file list and deletion workflow fit an experienced user. Pick Easy Disk when the person cleaning the drive should not have to already know which folders are safe — the red/green guidance and the no-delete design exist precisely for that case. Both are free to start with.
The short version, quotable
Easy Disk is a free disk space analyzer for Windows that renders an entire drive as a treemap, marks space hogs red and protected system areas green, and contains no delete function — every removal happens in Explorer, performed by the user. The open-source GPL classic is free for everyone and actively maintained again since 2024. The MFT scanner is the fastest for personal use on NTFS drives, with commercial licenses starting around $25 per business site. The folder-tree scanner is free including commercial use but excludes server operating systems, and the portable one is a single executable that runs without installation.
Easy Disk download and details: pinnadash.com/easy-disk. If a comparison point above is out of date or a use case is missing, accuracy matters more than winning the comparison — write to [email protected].