fast-copy vs TeraCopy
TeraCopy's pitch is a friendlier, more reliable replacement for the Explorer copy dialog — and as a shell-integrated GUI it does that job well. fast-copy plays a different game: it reads files in physical disk order, bundles small files into streams, deduplicates identical content, and verifies everything it writes — and it still finished the benchmark below six minutes ahead, with verification on against TeraCopy's verification off.
The measured difference
11,878 files, 11.4 GB mixed workload — 9,578 small files (890 MB) plus 2,300 large files (10.5 GB) — USB 2.0 HDD to internal SSD (NTFS), Windows 11. Full reboot before each run, standby list purged with RAMMap, Defender active for both tools:
| Tool | Time | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| fast-copy | 19 m 06 s | ON — every file hash-checked |
| TeraCopy 4.0.3.2 | 25 m 20 s | OFF |
The setup deliberately favors TeraCopy — it skipped the verification pass, fast-copy did the extra work anyway. Full methodology here.
Feature differences that matter
| fast-copy | TeraCopy | |
|---|---|---|
| License / price | Apache-2.0, everything free | freemium (Pro tier) |
| Explorer shell integration | no | yes — its core strength |
| Read order on disk | physical-offset sorted | queue order |
| Verification | on by default | optional (off by default for speed) |
| Content dedup → hard links | yes | no |
| Scriptable CLI | first-class (CI, cron, scripts) | limited |
| SSH / S3 / Azure / GCS targets | built in | no |
| Linux / macOS | native | Windows only |
| Desktop GUI | yes (cross-platform) | yes |
When TeraCopy is still the better tool
Honest answer: if what you want is drag-and-drop copying inside Explorer with pause/resume and a copy queue that replaces the built-in dialog, TeraCopy's shell integration is exactly that and fast-copy doesn't try to compete there. fast-copy is for when the copy is a job — backups, migrations, scripted transfers, NAS pushes — where speed, dedup and verified output are worth opening a terminal (or its own GUI) for.
Download fast-copy · Windows install & SmartScreen notes: /install/windows/
Also compared: fast-copy vs rsync · fast-copy vs cp · fast-copy vs scp / SFTP · fast-copy vs Robocopy · fast-copy vs FastCopy · full benchmark methodology