Mochi vs Hazel
Mochi or Hazel? An honest comparison.
Hazel and Mochi both organize Mac folders automatically with rules. They make different trade-offs, and the right choice depends on how much you value power, review, and price.
The short answer
Choose Hazel if you want a mature, proven automation tool with deep scripting support and you are happy to pay for a license. Choose Mochi if you want a free, open-source organizer that shows proposed moves for review, keeps an undo history, and can optionally ask an AI model about files your rules cannot place.
Many people will be well served by either. The sections below explain where each one is stronger so you can decide without guessing.
About Hazel
Hazel, made by Noodlesoft, has been the best-known automatic file organizer for the Mac for well over a decade. It watches folders and runs rules whose actions can move, rename, tag, sort into subfolders, and archive files, or run AppleScript, JavaScript, and shell scripts. It also includes Trash management and App Sweep, which offers to remove leftover support files when you delete an app.
Hazel is commercial software with a free trial. Check Noodlesoft’s website for current pricing and features, because both change over time.
About Mochi
Mochi is a free, open-source Mac app released under the Apache 2.0 license. It watches only the folders you authorize and matches files by extension, file type, filename, size, creation or modification date, and Finder tags. One-click Quick Rules cover common jobs such as installers, PDFs, images, screenshots, archives, invoices, and receipts.
Proposed moves enter a review queue where you see the file, the destination, and the reason before approving. Completed moves are recorded in local history and eligible moves can be undone. Mochi never silently overwrites an existing file. When rules cannot place a file, optional AI can suggest a destination from folders you chose, but it cannot approve or perform a move on its own.
Where Hazel is stronger
- Maturity: Hazel has years of real-world use. Mochi is in early development at version 0.1.1.
- Actions and scripting: Hazel can rename, tag, archive, and run scripts. Mochi currently focuses on moving files into destinations you choose.
- Extras: Trash management and App Sweep have no equivalent in Mochi.
Where Mochi is different
- Price and source: Mochi is free, and its source code is public, so you can inspect exactly how it handles your files.
- Review first: moves wait in a review queue with an explanation, which makes it easier to trust a new rule before it touches many files.
- History and undo: every completed move is journaled locally and eligible moves can be reversed.
- Optional AI for leftovers: files that no rule matches can get a reviewable AI suggestion using your own provider keys. AI is off by default.
Trying Mochi alongside Hazel
If you already use Hazel, do not point both apps at the same folder, because two organizers acting on the same files will compete. Instead, add a folder Hazel does not watch to Mochi, enable one or two Quick Rules, and use review mode to see how the results compare. Keep backups of important folders while you experiment with any automation tool.
Read how Mochi works, see the full feature list, or check exactly what data the app processes.