Say Goodbye to Finder. Meet Marta.

Originally published on malcolmlow.com

macOS Finder has served Mac users faithfully since 1984 — but its age is showing. For anyone who regularly moves files between folders, manages projects with complex directory structures, or simply wants a more keyboard-friendly workflow, Finder's single-pane design quickly becomes a bottleneck.

Marta is a modern, native macOS file manager that addresses every one of these frustrations head-on — and it's free.

What is Marta?

Marta is a dual-pane, keyboard-driven file manager built exclusively for macOS. Developed by Yan Zhulanow, it borrows the powerful two-panel paradigm from classic file managers like Total Commander and Midnight Commander, wrapped in a clean, native macOS interface. It's highly customisable, supports themes, and has its own plugin and scripting ecosystem.

How to Install Marta

1. Download from marta.sh, or run brew install --cask marta if you use Homebrew
2. If you used the .dmg, drag Marta into Applications and open it — click Open when macOS asks you to confirm
3. Optional: go to System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access and toggle Marta on, so no folder is off-limits

Why Marta Beats Finder

Dual-pane navigation — the game changer. The single biggest advantage Marta has over Finder is its side-by-side dual-pane view. Your screen splits into two independent file panels, each showing a different folder, so you can see your source and destination simultaneously.

• New folder in seconds — one keyboard shortcut (⌘⇧N) creates a folder inline, ready to name
• Fully keyboard-driven — navigate, open, rename, copy, move, delete, all without touching the mouse
• Tabs & bookmarks — keep multiple folder locations open as tabs; bookmark your most-used directories
• Themeable & configurable — custom themes plus a conf.marco config file to remap shortcuts and add plugins

Why "Show Hidden Files" Doesn't Reveal ~/Library

Toggling Marta's Show Hidden Files option — like Finder's ⌘⇧. — only reveals dotfiles: items whose name starts with a period. Your ~/Library folder isn't a dotfile. It's hidden by a separate, macOS-level system hidden attribute (set via chflags hidden), which a normal "show hidden" toggle doesn't override.

Two ways around it:

Option 1 — Use the Favorites menu. Marta actually ships with Library as a default Favorite. Press ⌥2 to open the Favorites menu, then press the number shown next to Library to jump straight there.

Option 2 — Remove the system hidden flag. If you want ~/Library visible permanently (in Marta and Finder alike):

chflags nohidden ~/Library

This changes a system-level attribute, so it affects every app that reads it, not just Marta.

Cloud-sync folders (Dropbox, Google Drive, etc.) are hidden separately

Unhiding ~/Library doesn't automatically reveal what's inside it. macOS also independently hides ~/Library/CloudStorage — the folder holding your Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrive sync folders — and each individual cloud folder inside it carries its own separate hidden flag too. To see Dropbox in Marta, clear all three levels:

chflags nohidden ~/Library
chflags nohidden ~/Library/CloudStorage
chflags nohidden ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox

Same idea for Google Drive or OneDrive — swap "Dropbox" for the matching folder name. Or skip Terminal entirely and just add the specific folder to Favorites once you've navigated to it.

Using the Favorites Menu

Favorites work like browser bookmarks for folders you visit constantly. Out of the box, Marta pre-populates a few common ones — Downloads, Desktop, and Library.

Open Favorites menu: ⌥2 → shows a numbered list, press the number to jump

To add your own folder: navigate to it in either pane, then run the Add to Favorites action from Marta's Action Panel (command palette). It's appended to the bottom of your list, and you can reorder or organise entries hierarchically from there.

Marta vs Finder: Which Should You Use?

Marta is better for frequent copying, moving and organising because its two panes keep source and destination visible. Finder remains better integrated with macOS for Desktop, iCloud and routine system tasks. You don't need to replace Finder — use Marta for keyboard-first file work and Finder when Apple's built-in integration matters.

Feature	Marta	Finder
Layout	Two panes	Single window or tabs
Workflow	Keyboard-first	Mouse and trackpad-first
Best for	Moving files between folders	Native macOS integration

FAQ

What is Marta?
Marta is a free, dual-pane, keyboard-driven file manager for macOS. It replaces Finder's single-pane window with two side-by-side panels.

Is Marta free?
Yes. Marta is free and open-source. Download it directly from marta.sh or install it via Homebrew with brew install --cask marta.

How do I install Marta on macOS?
Download the latest release from marta.sh, or run brew install --cask marta in Terminal if you use Homebrew.

Does Marta replace Finder?
Not entirely — Finder stays the macOS default for things like the Desktop and disk operations. Most people run Marta alongside Finder as their primary tool for day-to-day file work.

How do I navigate to Dropbox in Marta?
Dropbox lives at ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox, and macOS hides both ~/Library/CloudStorage and the Dropbox folder inside it with a system-level hidden attribute — toggling Show Hidden Files won't reveal either one. Fastest fix: press ⌥2 to open Favorites, navigate to it once, then use "Add to Favorites" so it's one keypress away next time. Or run chflags nohidden ~/Library/CloudStorage/Dropbox in Terminal (after clearing ~/Library and ~/Library/CloudStorage the same way) to make it permanently visible.

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Marta won't replace Finder for every macOS task — but as a daily driver for navigating, organising, and moving files, it's simply in a different league. If you've ever felt frustrated waiting on Finder's slow animations or clicking through five menus just to create a folder — give Marta five minutes. You won't go back.