Looking for the best free duplicate file finder? Here’s a list of the best free apps to find and remove duplicate files.
What are duplicate files? Generally, a set of duplicate files is two or more files that are exactly identical (regardless of name). What is a duplicate file finder? It’s a type of software to automatically identify duplicate files and easily delete them.
There are different types of such software. Some are free, and some are paid. Some are dedicated apps, and some are available as a part of other software. Some can deal with various file types, and some only deal with a certain type of files, typically images.
This article focuses on free apps that are designed for the purpose of handling various types of duplicate files such as duplicate images, videos and documents in Windows 11, Windows 10 and earlier versions. It also talks about such apps available for macOS.
Cisdem Duplicate Finder
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Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7
License: Freeware
Latest version: 10.0.0.3, released in July 2023
Rating: 4.5
Auslogics Duplicate File Finder is completely free. It’s easy to use for everyone and can find all common types of duplicate files such as duplicate photos, audios and videos.
This app has 3 search modes. You can set it to search for all duplicate files or only a certain type such as duplicate images. It’s customizable. When searching for image or audio duplicates, you can also Use EXIF and ID3 for searches. In this way, this program will check the info in these file tags, like image resolution, date, audio title, artist, album, and more.
You can also exclude certain files or folders from the search by adding them to the Ignore lists from Settings. This tool has added some system files to the Ignore lists by default. Don’t remove these files and folders to avoid data loss.
It displays the found duplicate files for you to view, sort and filter and lets you preview images, videos and PDFs. You can select unnecessary duplicates for deletion or let the app do it. Delete selected duplicates permanently or move them to the Recycle Bin or the Rescue Center.
This free duplicate file finder is great but not perfect. It doesn’t allow you to use drag and drop to add a folder to search. Also, it’s bundled with a potentially unwanted app. Luckily, it allows you to refuse to install the unwanted app.
Here’s a full review of Auslogics Duplicate File Finder.
If you are looking for the best duplicate file finder for Windows, get the free trial of Cisdem Duplicate Finder.
Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7 and Windows Vista
License: Freeware
Latest version: 4.1.2, released in May 2019
Rating: 4.5
Duplicate Cleaner Free can be a good duplicate file finder especially for tech-savvy users. It’s feature-rich and highly configurable.
The app has three modes: Regular mode, Image mode and Audio mode, with the latter two modes actually only available in Duplicate Cleaner Pro.
The Regular mode supports various file types. It uses the MD5 algorithm or byte-by-byte comparison to compare files and identifies duplicates. You can also set it to search for duplicate files by name, size or extension or a combination of them. There are three sets of options to exclude files from the search.
With support for many image formats (such as JPG, PNG and BMP), including raw image formats (such as RAW, CRW, DNG, MRW and CR2), this app can be a good duplicate photo finder. What’s more, this program has a built-in audio player, which allows you to play the Audio files within the application.
This Windows duplicate file finder provides many options to let users control the process of finding and removing duplicate files. New users may feel overwhelmed by the options. Don’t worry. There is a built-in user manual.
Compatibility: 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or later, macOS 10.12 or later, 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Ubuntu
License: Freeware
Latest version: 4.3.1, released in July 2022
Rating: 4.5
dupeGuru is one of the oldest duplicate file finders. It came out in 2004 and used to be a paid app. The app has been free and open-source since 2010.
The app has three modes: Standard, Music and Pictures. The Standard mode can quickly identify duplicate files by content or name. When in the Standard mode, dupeGuru is the fastest of all the duplicate file finder free apps that I have tested. Note that the app ignores small files by default. To find as many duplicates as possible, you may want to go to Options to include small files.
Only dealing with audios, the Music mode can find duplicate songs, such as duplicate MP3 files, by filenames, content or tag. The Picture mode is specialized in finding duplicate photos and lets you preview duplicate photos with-in the app by clicking on Details on the tool bar.
It can scan one or multiple folders for duplicate files at a time. Its Results tab displays the duplicate files that have been found. It displays the file name, folder, size, etc. of the found duplicate files in columns. But if you want to preview and compare the file contents, you need to double-click the file to open the default application for viewing. It’s not convenient. You can sort files by name, size, location or file type. And it allows you to select unwanted duplicates for removal by hand or by choosing Dupes Only in the top menu.
This open-source duplicate file finder is simple and easy to use. At the same time, there are advanced features (such as Custom Command) and options, helping users make the most of the app.
Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 and Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
License: Free and Pro
Latest version: 6.3.0.1
Rating: 4.0
Fast Duplicate File Finder can quickly scan folders and subfolders for duplicate images, documents and media files. It’s pretty configurable.
It offers four scan methods. If you only want to find exactly identical files (regardless of name), I recommend the default method 100% Equal Files. This method compares file by content and can find duplicate files with different names. The Similar File Names method and File Size method compare files by name or file size and don’t take content into consideration when identifying duplicate files. I personally don’t recommend them. If you also want to find non-exact duplicates, choose the Similar Files method.
The app provides a preview feature so that you can easily view the found duplicate files, but only allows you to preview the file names of the first 10 duplicate groups. And it doesn’t support comparing duplicate/similar images side by side. (If you need this feature and have a large number of duplicate images on computer, I would rather recommend another duplicate finder-Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder, which is by the same developer of this program.) There is an Auto Check feature and a few Auto Check rules to quickly select file duplicates to eliminate.
You need to get the Pro edition to unlimitedly use all the features of Fast Duplicate File Finder, such as the full preview feature, the full feature to find similar files, and the feature to exclude files and folders from scan.
Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, 8, 7 and Windows Server, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions
License: Freeware
Latest version: 4.5.48, released in April 2023
Rating: 4.0
If you are technically proficient, you can check out this free duplicate file finder and remover. It’s quite rich in features and provides many options to play with.
This app searches for duplicate files in individual folders and also compares folders for duplicates. It has seven search methods, each for different purposes and with a set of options.
To find duplicate files only, I recommend selecting the Find duplicate files on the basis of their properties method and then the File content option, which offers several algorithms (such as MD5 and SHA-1) for you to choose from. You can also find duplicate or similar files by comparing file name. There are plenty of other options.
There are also many options when it comes to showing, previewing and removing the found duplicate files.
AllDup can be very powerful. It can also be overwhelming and confusing.
Compatibility: macOS 10.8 or later, including macOS 14 Sonoma
License: Free and Pro
Latest version: 1.4.3, released in October 2022
Rating: 4.0
Thanks to its support for all file types, this great free Mac duplicate file finder can locate duplicate songs, photos, movies, videos, documents, etc. It offers multiple comparison modes. The default mode is Checksum, which scans your computer for exact duplicates.
With the convenient preview feature, it’s easy to preview and examine the found duplicate files. You need to select duplicates to delete. Clicking the Auto Select button automatically selects the duplicate for deletion, but it only applies to one group of duplicates at a time. You need to upgrade to the Pro edition to be able to apply to all.
This free app has the essential features that duplicate file finder software should have. It does a good job of removing duplicate files from folders. When it comes to duplicates in Mac’s Photos app, it won’t help. For this task, you need a duplicate file finder safely designed for Mac’s Photos.
Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Vista and XP
License: Freeware, for personal-use only
Latest version: 1.8d, released in May 2010
Rating: 4.0
This portable free duplicate file finder is lightweight and useful, allowing you to find duplicate files on Windows PC by file content or by filename. Users can effectively find both identical and similar images, thanks to its ability to do pixel-based image comparison.
There are two comparison methods: Compare names and Compare content. The latter is recommended, but note that scanning for duplicates by content will take a longer time. With both methods, you can adjust the matching level. Anti-Twin enables you to preview a set of duplicate images in a window, which helps you compare them more conveniently.
From the results list, select the checkbox in front of the unwanted file to mark it for deletion. Then click on the Delete selected files button. You can choose to delete the unwanted duplicate copies directly, send them to the Recycle Bin or move them to <drive>\antitwined\ folder temporarily. If you choose the first remove method, files will be deleted permanently and cannot be restored. It’s not recommended.
One of the great things is that it can also find duplicate files in shared network folders, which requires decent network connection.
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Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, Windows 8, Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP; macOS 10.8 or later
License: Free (with limits) and Premium
Latest version: 7.25.0.45, released in August 2023
Rating: 4.0
Easy Duplicate Finder has a Free edition and a Premium edition. It offers two usage modes: Easy and Advanced. The Easy mode is recommended by the developer, but we recommend the Advanced mode.
In the Advanced Mode, you are allowed to decide where to scan for duplicate files and choose the scan method, which lets you take control.
There are ten scan methods. To find duplicate files on your PC or Mac, the default scan method is the most accurate, which identifies duplicates by comparing both file hash and file size. To search for duplicate audio files, the Music scan method is the best. If you are a Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive user, then congratulations, you can use Easy Duplicate Finder’s Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive scan method to easily do the cleanup.
To make the process of finding duplicate files more quickly, you can use the Include feature, which allows you to only search one type (such as image or audio) of file for duplicates at a time.
Note that the Free edition of this duplicate file finder only allows you to use it to delete ten duplicate files. To delete more, you will have to use File Explore (PC) or Finder (Mac).
Compatibility: Windows 11, Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista, XP, 2000, Server 2003
License: Freeware
Rating: 4.5
Latest version: 1.2.1, released in September 2023
It’s a free yet powerful software program designed for photo deduplication. The freeware offers the following main benefits.
This excellent free duplicate photo finder has been around for more than 10 years and has gone through 5 upgrades. It contains no adware or malware and is safe to download and use.
It has most of the basic functions that a duplicate photo cleaner should have. The support for popular image types makes it useful enough in many cases. One of the great things is its ability to find the resized pictures. Resized photos are the same in photo content but different in size. With this app, you can easily find them out.
If you only want to get rid of relatively large duplicate images, you can go to Settings to set a minimum image size. I prefer scanning all images in the target folder or drive for duplicates.
This program automatically selects the original and duplicate images for you, but there isn’t a mass deletion feature. You need to go through each set of duplicates and manually delete the redundant ones one by one. This can be a drawback.
Duplicate file finders may vary in performance, usability, capabilities and the operating systems they support, but they are likely to work in a similar way. Here we will take the best free duplicate file finder for Windows as an example and show you how to use such software to get rid of duplicates on Windows and free up hard drive space.
Step 1. Add the location to scan for duplicate files. You can add one or multiple folders, subfolders or drives/partitions.
Step 2. Set preferences if needed. For example, you choose the way that duplicate files are identified or exclude certain files and folders from scan.
Step 3. Start the scan. Click the Search button or something alike, such as the Scan button or Start button.
Step 4. View duplicate files. Viewing duplicate files and previewing them allows you to better know the files you are dealing with. You can also open and view files with the associated apps. Sorting them by name, type or size may also be helpful.
Step 5. Delete unwanted duplicates. Select file duplicates for deletion manually or with the Select feature (or a similar feature) and then click the Delete Selected Files button (or a similar button) to remove them.
Here are some tips, which are applicable regardless of the duplicate file finder or operating system you use.
Duplicate file finder freeware is generally not as good as the paid counterpart in terms of capacities and performance, but sometimes they are already useful enough. Some of the apps on our list of the best free duplicate file finder software are freeware. Some also have paid editions, which have more advanced features. There are also a few decent open-source apps. However, they haven’t been updated for years. Therefore, they are not included in this list.
To find and delete duplicate files easily, efficiently and safely, it’s recommended to use Cisdem Duplicate Finder, the best duplicate file finder for Mac and Windows.
Rosa has worked in Mac software industry for more than eight years. She believes that the purpose of software is to make life better and work more productively. In addition to writing, Rosa is also an avid runner.
peter jones
Auslogics very slow. Over 8 hours and still waiting
Apoh1s
Great List! AllDup portable edition is compatible with Windows XP and Vista too...
Donata Hopfen
Thanks for your detailed comparison. This is exactly what I need since I have a lot of duplicates on my computer and they take up too much space. Now I solved this problem!