10 Best Free Duplicate File Finders for Windows and Mac 2025

We inevitably have duplicate files accumulated on our computers over time. They can cause inconvenience and take up storage space. 

Luckily, we can handle them using a duplicate file finder, a type of software that automatically identifies duplicate files and simplifies duplicate removal.

I tested ten best free duplicate file finders and will share my reviews of these apps in this article. These reviews cover effectiveness, performance, and ease of use, helping you effortlessly choose the right tool to find and delete duplicate files on your Windows (Windows 11, 10 or earlier) or Mac computer.

 

A quick overview

The best free duplicate file finder for average users is Auslogics Duplicate File Finder, and the best option for advanced users is AllDup.

I also include a comparison of all ten apps towards the end of the article.

 

How I tested and ranked these duplicate file finders

First, I researched and discovered the ten most popular free apps capable of finding duplicate files using search engines and forums. I installed these apps on my Windows 11 (64-bit) PC. For apps also available on Mac, I installed them on my iMac running macOS Ventura 13.2.1.

Next, I configured some apps for the best possible performance. For apps with suitable default settings, I left them unchanged. Then, I tested each app using 9.47 GB of files, which included photos, videos, audio files, documents, and archives such as ZIP files.

Last, I ranked these apps. Below are my criteria.

• Is the app truly free to use?
• Can it find all duplicate files?
• Is it fast when scanning for duplicates?
• Is duplicate removal easy and reliable?
• Is the app easy to use?
• How customizable is it?

 

Reviews: 10 best free duplicate file finders

#1 Auslogics Duplicate File Finder | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7

Latest version: 11.0.1.2, released in July 2025

Rating: 4.5

Best for: Those who are looking for an easy way to remove duplicate files from folders that are not large

Auslogics Duplicate File Finder used to be completely free but now offers free and paid versions. Its free version allows you to handle duplicate photos truly for free, although there are some feature limitations.

This app supports common file types and scans for duplicates by comparing file contents. If you want, you can set it to also consider file names when comparing. In my test, it took 1 minute and 52 seconds to find 3,216 duplicate files, whereas a professional app found all 3,226 duplicate files in 7 seconds.

The app provides a feature that selects all but one file for deletion in each duplicate group, simplifying the removal. However, the free version only lets you select one kind of duplicates at a time, such as duplicate JPG files. Deleted files are sent to the Recycle Bin, making it possible to recover files.

 

#2 Duplicate Cleaner Free | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Vista

Latest free version: 4.1.2, released in May 2019

Rating: 4.5

Best for: People who need to manage duplicate photos and prefer a more customized experience

Duplicate Cleaner Free is completely free to use. This app is a bit more advanced and less user-friendly than Auslogics Duplicate File Finder. It’s more configurable, letting you have more control.

The app can find duplicates in all common file types. By default, it identifies duplicates by comparing file contents with the MD5 algorithm or byte-by-byte comparison. You can also ask it to only compare file names, sizes, and other non-content information. In the test, this app found 3,226 duplicate files in 1 minute and 45 seconds.

Duplicate Cleaner Free can be a good duplicate photo finder due to the following.

• Support for multiple image formats, such as JPG, PNG and BMP
• Support for camera RAW image formats, such as RAW, CRW, DNG, MRW and CR2
• Built-in image preview mode

Compared to other free duplicate file finders, Duplicate Cleaner Free provides more rules for selecting duplicates to eliminate, which could benefit experienced users but may be overwhelming for beginners. Here are some of the rules.

• Select duplicates by location or file name
• Select duplicates randomly
• Select duplicates by time or size

 

#3 Fast Duplicate File Finder | Windows

Compatibility: indows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, 7, and Vista, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions

Latest version: 6.7.0.1

Rating: 4.0

Best for: Those who prefer a customizable file deduplication experience and a symbolic link feature

Fast Duplicate File Finder offers free and paid versions, and the free version is truly free to use but with some feature limitations. This app is pretty customizable and offers multiple scan methods for you to choose from.

• The default “100% Equal Files” method is recommended, which detects duplicates in all file types by comparing file contents and can find duplicate files with different names. In the test, this mode found 3,226 duplicate files in 57 seconds.
• The “Similar File Names” and “File Size” methods don’t involve content comparison and can be less reliable.

The app has a preview feature, but the free version only supports previewing certain file types. For a better preview feature with side-by-side previews, you can consider Visual Similarity Duplicate Image Finder, which is from the same developer.

In addition to moving duplicates to the Recycle Bin, this app can create symbolic links. When a duplicate is removed from a folder, a link will appear in this folder to act like this deleted file, which can be useful for advanced file management.

 

#4 AllDup | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, and Server, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions

Latest version: 4.5.70, released in July 2025

Rating: 4.0

Best for: Tech-savvy people who are looking for a powerful and highly customizable free duplicate file finder

If you are technically proficient, you can check out AllDup, which is freeware. It’s quite rich in features and provides many options to play with. This app scans for duplicate files within and across folders. It has seven scan methods, each for different purposes and with a set of options.

• The “Find duplicate files on the basis of their properties” method with the “File content” option is recommended. In my test, this method found 3,226 duplicates in 45 seconds.
• The “Find similar pictures” or “Find similar audio files” method handles similar files. However, setting them up requires understanding various file comparison techniques.

AllDup also offers multiple options for viewing scan results and selecting duplicates for deletion, which all require some configuration. Some important features like deleting duplicates are indirect and hidden. All in all, the app’s interface is overwhelming and confusing.

 

#5 dupeGuru | Windows, Mac & Ubuntu

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

Latest version: 4.3.1, released in July 2022

Rating: 4.0

Best for: People who are looking for an open-source duplicate file finder with customizability and control

dupeGuru is one of the oldest duplicate file finders, coming out as a paid app in 2004 and becoming free and open source in 2010. It has three modes and each with a set of scan methods.

• The Standard mode can identify duplicates in common file types by content (recommended) or name. In my test, this mode took 49 seconds and only missed a few duplicates.
• The Music mode can find duplicate audio files like songs by name, content, or tag.
• The Picture mode can scan for both identical and similar photos. The algorithm used for similar image detection is not revealed, but the test suggests that it’s only a basic one.

You can view basic information of duplicates, like names, paths, and sizes, and clicking Details allows you to preview duplicate photos if in the Picture mode. Using the Mark All feature will select all duplicates to move to the Recycle Bin (Windows) or Trash (Mac).

Although its interface has a simple look, dupeGuru is not user-friendly for beginners, especially when it comes to managing found duplicates. Those who are interested in this app but find it challenging can read its official user guide.

 

#6 Anti-Twin | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, Vista, and XP

Latest version: 1.8d, released in May 2010

Rating: 3.5

Best for: People who need to remove duplicates from a very old PC, such as the one running XP

Anti-Twin is a portable free duplicate file finder that haven’t been updated for over a decade. If you are looking for a recent app, you can skip this one.

This app is lightweight and useful. It offers two methods for comparing files and detecting duplicates.

• The Compare content method focuses on file contents and ignores file names. In the test, this method took 41 seconds to complete the scan and only missed a few duplicates. If you also want to find similar images, you can adjust the matching level. However, the pixel-based similar image comparison technique is kind of outdated and not effective enough.
• The Compare names method can be used for identifying same and similar files and also allows you to adjust the matching level. However, the comparison is merely based on file names and sizes and is not reliable enough. I don’t recommend this.

Anti-Twin does offer a feature to help you automatically select all duplicates for deletion by date, name, or location. However, its options are straightforward and can be confusing.

The app provides tips to walk you through the whole process of scanning for and removing duplicates. However, it’s still not very user-friendly, which may be partly due to an outdated design.

 

#7 CCleaner | Windows & Mac

Compatibility: 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7 or later; macOS 10.10 or later

Latest version: 6.39.11548 (Windows), released in August 2025; 2.09.187 (Mac), released in October 2023

Rating: 3.5

Best for: Those with CCleaner already installed on their PC and don’t mind a less intuitive interface

CCleaner provides free and paid version, and the free version lets you remove duplicate files truly for free.

CCleaner is a feature-rich app for system optimization, and the duplicate file finder feature is only part of it. It offers two scan methods. I recommend the Match by Content and Size method. Methods that only involve non-content comparison are not effective enough. The app took 2 minute and 4 seconds to finish the scan and didn’t reveal the number of duplicate files found.

The app does help users handle duplicate files. However, it’s not a very great solution.

• The app lists found duplicates in a neat and organized way, but it doesn’t allow you to preview images, which is very inconvenient for managing duplicate photos.
• The feature for selecting duplicates can only be found via right-click, which may lead users to doubt whether this important feature exists.
• Duplicates are deleted permanently, without an option to sending them to the Recycle Bin or Trash, making recovery impossible.
• The most confusing part is that subfolders aren’t scanned by default, which potentially results in many missed duplicates.

 

#8 Easy Duplicate Finder | Windows & Mac

Compatibility: Windows XP or later; macOS 10.8 or later

Latest version: 7.33.0.70, released in February 2025

Rating: 3.5

Best for: People who want to scan large folders for duplicate files but don’t focus on removing them

Easy Duplicate Finder has free and paid versions. Its free version can quickly find duplicate files but doesn’t help you remove them.

It comes with two usage modes: Easy and Advanced. The latter is recommended for allowing more customization and control. With the Advanced mode, you can choose from ten scan methods.

• The default method is the most accurate, which identifies duplicates by comparing both file contents and sizes. It detected 3,226 duplicates in just 35 seconds in my test.
• The Music method is the best for finding duplicate audio files.
• For Google Drive, Dropbox, and OneDrive, there are corresponding methods available.

If you want to find only certain duplicates, you can specify file types. Once the scan is complete, you can view duplicates by file type, which is handy. However, the free version lets you delete only up to ten group of duplicates.

 

#9 Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11, 10, 8, 7, XP, 2000, and Server 2003

Latest version: 1.2.1, released in September 2023

Rating: 3.5

Best for: Those who want to handle a small number of duplicate photos and prefer to remove them individually instead of in bulk

Awesome Duplicate Photo Finder is dedicated to finding duplicate photos. This free duplicate photo finder supports several popular image types including CR2, a Canon RAW format, which can be enough for many users. In the test, it took 7 minutes and 1 second to complete the scan, which is painfully slow.

In addition, this app detects certain similar photos, such as resized version of a photo. The built-in preview feature offers big-sized side-by-side previews, helping you conveniently preview duplicate and similar photos.

However, there isn’t a feature to help you select duplicates for mass removal. You can go through each duplicate group and manually delete files, which is suitable only for managing a small amount of duplicates.

 

#10 Wise Duplicate Finder | Windows

Compatibility: Windows 11 and 10

Latest version: 2.1.8, released in July, 2025

Rating: 3.5

Best for: People who are looking for a quick duplicate file finder and willing to delete duplicates individually

Wise Duplicate Finder has a free version and a paid one. The free version can quickly scan for duplicates but don’t help much in removing them.

This app is relatively new and may be not very stable yet. It failed to work multiple times when I tried to scan a folder. After I reinstalled it, it returned no results first and then worked properly. It took just 22 seconds to find 3,225 duplicate files, missing only one. It’s the fastest among all free apps I tested.

In each duplicate group, you need to manually select the duplicate item(s) for deletion, because the feature that selects all duplicates isn’t available for free.

The interface is simple and organized, with customization options to specify file types, protect important folders, and exclude files. However, beginners might still take a while to understand how to use the app.

 

A comparison of duplicate file finders

 

FAQ

Is there a free duplicate file finder?

Yes, there are free options available. Some of them are freeware, which means users can use all features for free. Some are the free versions of paid apps, which can help users manage duplicates for free but with feature limitations.

Does Windows have a duplicate file finder?

No, Windows doesn’t come with a duplicate file finder.

What is the best duplicate file finder?

It depends. If you are looking for a very easy way to remove duplicate files for free, Auslogics Duplicate File Finder is the best. For advanced users after high customizability and control, AllDup is the best. If you don’t mind paying for high accuracy, speed and ease of use, Cisdem Duplicate Finder is the best.

 

To wrap up

Finding the best free duplicate file finder for your needs is no easy task. Luckily, this article can help you quickly narrow down your options, focus on apps that are potentially the best, and then pick the most suitable one for you! Regardless of the tool you choose, I recommend testing it first to learn how to make the most of its features.