DaisyDisk against WhatSize, both prices checked

Both are one time purchases from long established developers, both do the same core job, and the difference between them is how they present it. That makes this a genuine preference question rather than a features comparison.

The difference in one line

DaisyDisk shows you the shape of the disk. WhatSize shows you a sortable, filterable list. If you think in pictures, the first is faster; if you think in tables, the second is.

Where each is stronger

The case for DaisyDisk

It is cheaper, the visualisation is genuinely well made, and dragging things from the map to a collection before deleting is a good interaction. For someone who wants to find one large folder twice a year, it is hard to argue against $9.99.

The case for WhatSize

Filtering and sorting is where it wins: finding every file over a certain size, or everything of one type across the disk, is a list operation and a list is the right tool for it. The wider macOS version support also matters if you keep an older Mac running.

What neither does

Both measure bytes per path, which is exactly what they promise. Neither tells you whether a 6 GB folder is a cache that rebuilds itself, an app's only copy of your data, or a leftover from software removed in 2023, and that distinction is what decides whether removal is safe.

That is the gap Free Mac aims at, with the honest trade stated plainly: the scan and the map are free, and exact sizes, opening a folder and removing anything need a key at $19.99 every six months. For a tool used twice a year, either one time purchase here is better arithmetic, and the free options are better still if you only need to find the big thing.