REVIEW · FILE MANAGER
Verdict: Yes, for anyone who moves files between a Mac and servers or cloud storage: ForkLift 4 puts SFTP, S3, Google Drive, SMB and more in a fast dual-pane window, with sync, previews and remote editing, for a one-time 19.95 USD. Its search covers names, tags and even content on remote servers, which is useful within the folders you browse.
7 November 2026 · By Ishtiaque Hossain · 4 minute read · reviews ForkLift 4.7.6
Looking for a file you can describe but not name? Try Shlexball. The first 30 searches are free and need no account.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon. 16 GB memory. On a phone? Email yourself the link.
This review is based on ForkLift's own pages, read on 14 October 2026. Every claim links to the page it came from. We are the makers of Shlexball, so we say plainly where ForkLift does better.
| Price | Single user 19.95 USD, Family 29.95 USD, Small Business 69.95 USD (1 year of updates); 2-year options cost more |
| Licence | Lifetime; keep using the last version your updates cover |
| Runs on | macOS 14.6 or later for ForkLift 4.4 and newer; latest version 4.7.6 |
| Connects to | SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, SMB, AFP, NFS |
| Search | By name, extension, kind, tags or content, even on remote servers |
| Best for | People who manage local and remote files side by side |
ForkLift 4 is a dual-pane file manager and file transfer client for macOS. Two panes show two folders at once, which makes copying, comparing and organizing files between them simple.
It connects to SFTP, FTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Rackspace Cloud Files, SMB, AFP and NFS, and can connect to several servers at once and copy between them by drag and drop.
The window has a sidebar of devices, connections and favorites, the two panes in the middle, and a preview pane on the right that can switch to an activity view or a log.
Sync compares two folders, local or remote, and shows matching, modified, new and deleted files; you synchronize one way or both with one click, and ForkLift says analysis is up to 20x faster than in ForkLift 3.
The preview panel plays audio and video, shows images and PDFs, and lets you quick-edit text files in place, even on remote servers. Remote editing in your preferred editor uploads changes as you save.
Other tools include tabs and saved workspaces, Quick Open for favorites and commands, multi-rename presets, archives you browse like folders, Git status and commands, an Open in Terminal command, a file compare tool and a toggle for hidden files.
Favorites can sync across your Macs through iCloud, and ForkLift can become the default file viewer so most apps point to it instead of the Finder.
ForkLift can search and filter by name, extension, kind, tags or content, even on remote servers. Quick Select picks files by typing a name, an extension or a tag.
Archives can be searched and filtered too, without unpacking them first.
This is search inside the file manager: it works on the folders and servers you are browsing, which suits people who already know roughly where a file lives.
ForkLift 4 licences are lifetime licences with a set length of free updates. With one year of updates, Single user costs 19.95 USD, Family 29.95 USD for every Mac in your household, and Small Business 69.95 USD for up to 5 Macs.
Two years of updates cost 34.95 USD, 49.95 USD and 119.95 USD. When updates end, you keep using the last version your licence covers, for as long as it works with your macOS.
Long-time users get a bonus of 100 extra days of updates when upgrading, and you can test ForkLift in trial mode before buying.
ForkLift 4.4 and later need macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later, and ForkLift 3 and 4 can be installed side by side.
Give it Full Disk Access when it asks. Without it, ForkLift cannot reach attached drives or your Desktop, Downloads and Documents folders, and drag and drop is limited.
ForkLift searches where you are browsing. Shlexball searches your Mac from a plain-English description of what you remember, looking at file and folder names and the text inside files, including PDFs and Word documents.
Shlexball is read-only and its language model runs on your Mac. The first 30 searches are free, then 9 USD a month or 59 USD a year.
Describe the file instead of browsing for it: Shlexball, 30 free searches.
▶ DOWNLOAD SHLEXBALLWith 1 year of updates: Single user 19.95 USD, Family 29.95 USD and Small Business 69.95 USD. Licences with 2 years of updates cost 34.95, 49.95 and 119.95 USD.
No. It is a lifetime licence with 1 or 2 years of free updates; afterwards you keep using the last covered version.
Yes. It can search and filter by name, extension, kind, tags or content, even on remote servers.
ForkLift 4.4 and later require macOS Sonoma 14.6 or later; earlier ForkLift 4 versions run on macOS Monterey 12.4.