A lot of us use File Managers to keep track of all the various files we’ve got. Although tons of them are available in the Google Play Store, many don’t provide the functionality or ease of access that you want—or need—in a file manager. That said the consistency of these apps has improved tremendously over the years, and we’ve got the latest you can find for your Android device today.
Amaze File Manager
Price: Free
Amaze File Manager is a newer app, and it’s a pretty good one. It’s open-source and focuses on being a lighter experience for those who only need to do some light file browsing. It includes Material Design, SMB file sharing, built-in app manager to uninstall apps, root explorer, and more.
Amaze File Manager includes the most important items without feeling bloated. It’s free to download and use in-app purchases if you want to help its devs.
Root Explorer
Price: Free / $3.99
Root Explorer has long been a staple of root users. It’s not the most up-to-date app, but it gets regular updates. These upgrades bring a newer interface, more functionality, and greater reliability than their early iterations.
You will have unmitigated root access (as long as your device is rooted) to do as you please. This includes fun resources including an APK binary XML viewer, the ability to modify the owner or category of a file, support for MD5, and more.
There’s a free version called Explorer. It’s just for regular use though. Root Explorer is where it’s at so if you like the company and want a non-root version, Explorer works as well.
Cx File Explorer
Price: Free
Cx File Explorer is a very good, simple file browser. It features a relatively new UI, all basics, and support for several cloud storage platforms and shared storage servers (FTP, SMB, etc). In particular, we like areas of the dashboard where you can conveniently find items like your SD card, key storage, and download folders, or easily search network drives.
It requires the app manager as well, and it seems to work perfectly. It’s not the most powerful on the list, but it’s certainly one of the better free file browsers with no in-app purchases or advertisements.
Total Commander
Price: Free
Total Commander is one of the most powerful and highly regarded applications for the file manager. It has almost any functionality you could like, including network storage support, cloud storage support, plugin support, bookmarks, and other tools such as the included text editor.
This one is fast becoming the favorite of many, even though the design isn’t as current as others would have preferred. However, it is absolutely free with no in-app purchases and no ads. It’s hard, therefore, to be overly dismissive of stuff like looks.
Solid Browser
Price: Free trial/$2.99
Solid Explorer has grown in popularity, and it’s easy to see why. Features Material Design, cloud service, root access, FTP, SFTP, WebDav, SMB, and CIFS support, archive and compression support, Chromecast support, and also theme options are available. This is the absolute upper limit of how many functions a file manager app can have before it can be deemed overloaded. You should check it out for a few weeks free of charge. After that, it costs $1.99. This is the one we’re going to recommend first. Maybe it’s the best one on Android.
MK Explorer
Price: Free / Up to $4.99
MK Explorer is another newer file manager. It’s an easy choice that doesn’t have a lot of flair. If you just want something easy, that’s extremely preferable. It provides a Material Design interface, basic file management tools, and root access.
Support is also offered in 20 languages and has a built-in text editor, gallery, and music player. This one is a little older than that. It was last published in 2016. This is only recommended for smartphones running older versions of Android, such as Lollipop or Marshmallow.
MiXplorer Silver
Price: $4.49.00
MiXplorer Silver is one of the newest file managers on the list. The list of features is very interesting. You get the regular things like file searching, folder support, cloud storage support, and an HTML viewer. There are also several niche features, such as EPub, MobiPlacket, and PDF reader support, as well as file encryption. There’s even a bunch of plugins that provide many more features if desired.
So if you need more support for the archive and less support for the PDF, you can get the archive plugin and skip the PDF plugin. The software does not have a free edition, so make sure you test it before the rebate window runs out and make sure you enjoy it.
FX File Manager
Price: Free/$2.99
FX File Explorer is a relatively newer file manager. It’s got all the normal stuff. This covers numerous media and file features, multi-window access, support for network storage such as FTP, and also support for encrypted archived files. That’s a lot to take in but ultimately, FX Explorer does it all.
You can also get a text editor and its archive help works for less popular stuff like GZip, Bzip2, and 7zip. Best of all, it doesn’t have any advertisements and it doesn’t watch the phone. It’s a good option, particularly for those who turn away from ES File Explorer.
Astro File Manager
Price: Free
Astro is one of the oldest file manager applications in Android. Over the years, it has its ups and downs. However, it has always been a strong option. Some capabilities include support for SD card, cloud storage, file compression, app management, and support for extracting archives (ZIP and RAR). It’s absolutely free with no ads, too. Metago, the developer, still has a trial update if you want to explore the new updates sooner.
X-plore File Manager
Price: Free
X-Plore File Manager is one of the most interesting choices on the list. It’s a forced dual-pane app that ensures you’re going to handle two windows at once pretty much all the time. This is kind of cool if you copy/paste between folders or need to transfer files fast. It also provides support for different file forms, cloud storage, network storage (FTP, SMB, DLNA/UPnP), built-in hex editor, root support, and several other features.
You can even view APK files as zips. A drawback though is it looks straight out of the ‘90s. But don’t let that turn you off — this app is so much more than that.