GrandPerspective is Great. But It's Time for Something Modern.

We have a lot of respect for GrandPerspective. It was the first app that turned abstract folder sizes into a concrete visual map. It's open-source, it's lightweight, and it's completely free.

But in 2025, on Apple Silicon Macs running the latest macOS, the experience feels dated. We kept using it and kept thinking: this could be modernized.

That's why we built DissectMac.

What GrandPerspective does right

It's GPL open-source. That matters to many users. You can see exactly what the code does, and it'll never be locked behind a paywall.

The treemap is accurate. Each file is a rectangle proportional to its size, with no visual tricks.

It's completely free. No trials, no feature restrictions, no nag screens.

If those are your priorities, keep using GrandPerspective. It's solid software.

Where it feels dated

Navigation. To open a folder, you right-click and select from a menu. To go back up, another menu. There's no fluid click-to-zoom interaction that modern apps have trained us to expect.

The interface. On a Retina display alongside apps like Arc or Figma, GrandPerspective's window chrome feels like a different era. It works, but it doesn't feel native to current macOS.

Modern macOS quirks. APFS containers, "System Data," and heavily sandboxed apps create storage mysteries that older tools weren't designed to highlight.

What we built differently

We wanted:

1. Fast feedback. DissectMac uses async scanning optimized for Apple Silicon. Scans complete quickly on modern NVMe storage.

2. Fluid navigation. Click a block to open it. Click the breadcrumb to go back up. Scroll to zoom. It feels like a modern app because it was built as one.

3. "System Data" focus. The whole point of DissectMac is answering "where did my storage go?" We specifically tuned it to highlight the hidden caches and container folders that confuse people.

Side by side

Aspect	GrandPerspective	DissectMac
Price	Free (GPL)	Free / Pro available
Scan Speed	Moderate	Fast
UI Feel	Classic	Modern
Open Source	Yes	No
Navigation	Menu-based	Fluid zoom/click
Apple Silicon	Supported	Native

Which should you use?

Use GrandPerspective if: Open-source licensing matters to you, or you're comfortable with its interface.

Use DissectMac if: You want a modern experience on Apple Silicon and prefer fluid, click-based navigation.

We still keep GrandPerspective installed for the occasional comparison. It's a classic. But for daily use, we use what we built.

Try DissectMac Free →