SpaceSniffer for Mac: the treemaps that do the same job

Written by the maker of Strata, which is one of the tools below. Facts about SpaceSniffer and the other tools come from their own websites, checked on 10 October 2026; each links to its source.

Is there a SpaceSniffer for Mac?

No. SpaceSniffer, by Umberto Uderzo, is a Windows program, and its site offers no Mac version. It is freeware, with donations welcome, and portable: you unzip it and run it, with no installer, and its settings live in an XML file rather than the registry. Its release notes leave no doubt about the platform: version 2.0.1.4 made it "an x64 executable" with a graphics engine rewritten on Windows' DirectDraw, and later releases add high-DPI support for Windows 10 and 11 and fix rendering on Windows 7.

It is also more alive than its long quiet spell suggests. After 1.3.0.2 in October 2016 there were no releases for more than eight years; the 2.0 series began in May 2025, and the current version, 2.2.0.27, came out on 25 March 2026. So if you have moved to a Mac, the reason to switch tools is the platform, not the project.

What SpaceSniffer does, and where each part lives on a Mac

SpaceSniffer is a treemap first and last, with a handful of habits built around it. Each has a Mac equivalent, and one of them is already in Finder.

SpaceSniffer	What it does	On a Mac
Treemap	Folders and files as rectangles sized by space; click for detail, double-click to zoom in	GrandPerspective; QDirStat; WizTreeMac; Strata's Detailed Map
Filter field	Typed filters such as *.jpg, |*.jpg to exclude, >1mb or <3months, combined with semicolons	GrandPerspective's filters and masks; WizTreeMac's search filters; Strata's Search and File Types
Colour tags	Four colours, Ctrl+1 for red, then filter on them	Finder tags, Control-1 to Control-7
Export module	Text reports in a layout you design	GrandPerspective's text export; WizTreeMac's CSV export; Strata Pro's Report
Portable	Runs from any folder with no installer; settings in one XML file	WizTreeMac's portable mode, from an external drive

The alternatives, one by one

Eighteen Mac disk tools sit in one table in our roundup of Mac disk space analyzers. These five are the closest to SpaceSniffer.

GrandPerspective: the closest in spirit

GrandPerspective is a free Mac treemap, and it works much as SpaceSniffer does. Point at a rectangle and its name and size appear; click to lock the selection, then zoom in with Command +, one folder level at a time, and back out with Command -, as its help describes. Its filters and masks do the work of SpaceSniffer's filter field: tests on name, path, size, file type and more, which can hide items, remove them from a view, or skip folders during a scan.

Like SpaceSniffer, it costs nothing: SourceForge has it free, and a $2.99 Mac App Store copy is the same app for those who prefer the store. The 3.8.1 release of 13 September 2026 asks for macOS 14; on macOS 11 to 13, 3.7.2 still works. It will not delete anything until you allow it, since that control is disabled by default, and once allowed it moves items to the Trash.

QDirStat: treemap plus tree

QDirStat puts a tree of folders beside its treemap, which suits anyone who found SpaceSniffer's single view hard to read for exact sizes. The GPL keeps it free, Apple has notarized its Mac builds, and Homebrew sets it up with brew install --cask qdirstat, for macOS 13 or later. Its Qt toolkit gives it a cross-platform look rather than a Mac one.

WizTreeMac: a Windows favourite, now on the Mac

Antibody Software's WizTree, another Windows treemap tool, came to the Mac on 16 September 2026 as WizTreeMac. It pairs a tree with a treemap, filters its search with regular expressions too, exports CSV, and has a portable mode that keeps its settings beside the app on an external drive, much as SpaceSniffer keeps its XML file. Personal use costs nothing, on macOS 12 and up. What changed in the move from Windows is in our WizTree for Mac guide.

DaisyDisk: rings instead of rectangles

DaisyDisk draws the disk as interactive rings rather than a treemap: the same information, drawn another way. Unlike SpaceSniffer it is paid, $9.99 once for up to five personal Macs on macOS 10.13 or later. Its user guide is plain about deleting: files go for good, not to the Trash, after five seconds in which you can cancel.

Strata: a treemap, and cleanup in the same app

Strata is ours, so weigh this accordingly. Its Detailed Map (Command 4) is a treemap drawn down to single files, with names and sizes written on the larger rectangles, as in the picture at the top of this page. Point at a rectangle to read what it is, click a folder to go in, and press Command [ or Back to come out. Where SpaceSniffer has its filter field, Strata has Search, which looks through the whole scan and draws what it finds by size, and File Types, which groups a folder into videos, archives, disk images and other kinds.

The difference is what happens next. Strata finds junk, duplicates, app leftovers and large files, and anything it removes can come back from the Trash with Put Back. The map, Search and Large Files cost nothing; cleanup is Strata Pro, a single $9.99, on macOS 13 or later.

Colour tags: already in Finder

SpaceSniffer's tags are a way to mark files while you work: hover, press Ctrl+1 for red, and filter on the colour later. The Mac has the same idea built into Finder, and it keeps the tags after you close the window. Per Apple's guide to tags:

• Select a file and press Control 1 to Control 7 to add or remove a favourite tag; Control 0 clears them.
• Control-click a file and pick a colour just above Tags in the menu.
• Click a tag in Finder's sidebar to see every file that has it, or type its name in the search field.

So a workflow that went "find big files, tag the ones to check, review the tagged ones" works the same way on a Mac: find them with your disk tool, tag them in Finder, and come back to the tag in the sidebar.

SpaceSniffer's filters, translated

SpaceSniffer's filter field covers kinds of file, sizes and dates in one line. On a Mac they live in different places, but each has a route:

• One kind of file, such as *.jpg. In Strata's Search, type .jpg, or pick the Images tab; it looks through the whole scan and lists matches largest first, though it matches names only for files of 1 MB or more. GrandPerspective can mask or filter its treemap with a test on the name.
• Big files, such as >1mb. Strata's Large Files lists up to the 500 biggest files over a threshold you choose, from 10 MB to 5 GB, from ordinary folders rather than inside apps or libraries such as Photos. GrandPerspective's filter tests can use size as well.
• Old files, such as >2years. Finder's own search does this: start a search, click the Add button on the right, just below the search field, and choose Last opened date from the menu on the left, as Apple's guide to narrowing a search describes.

Side by side

Tool	Shows	Price	Needs	Deleting
GrandPerspective	Treemap, with filters	Free, or $2.99 on the App Store	macOS 14 (11 with 3.7.2)	Trash, off by default
QDirStat	Tree, treemap	Free	macOS 13	Trash, or a permanent delete
WizTreeMac	Tree, treemap, file list	Free for personal use	macOS 12	Not documented
DaisyDisk	Rings	$9.99 once	macOS 10.13	Permanent
Strata	Treemap, list, columns, cards, file types	Free to scan; $9.99 once to remove	macOS 13	Trash, with Put Back

Two things that work differently on a Mac

A map can have holes. Before a Mac disk tool can draw the folders where apps keep your mail, messages and browsing, you have to grant it Full Disk Access in System Settings. Without that, those areas are simply absent from the map. Some tools warn you, GrandPerspective by asking for the access and Strata with an orange triangle on a short total; a bare treemap gives no sign.

Rectangles can overlap in real life. A copy made with Finder's Duplicate shares its original's storage on APFS, the Mac's file system, yet a map that sizes files by length draws both at full size. Our guide to finding large files explains how to read the numbers.

Which should you use?

Frequently asked questions