Free Software To Read Ntfs On Mac

A list of free NTFS for Mac software, how to choose the best free NTFS for Mac software to read/write NTFS drive in macOS Catalina 10.15/10.14 Mojave/High Sierra 10.13/Sierra 10.12.

Microsoft NTFS is one of the primary file systems of Windows. If you work on a Mac computer and need to read or write files from HDD, SSD or a flash drive formatted under Windows, you need Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software.

Write, edit, copy, move and delete files on Microsoft NTFS volumes from your Mac! Fast, seamless, easy to use. Mount, unmount, verify, format or set any of your Microsoft NTFS volumes as a startup drive.

New! Supports macOS 10.15 (Catalina)

Write files to Microsoft NTFS drives on your Mac

Can’t write, copy, edit or delete files on Microsoft NTFS-formatted drives from your Mac? It’s because macOS has limited support for Windows volumes — that is, you can only read data, but can’t write or delete anything. Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software provides blazing fast, unlimited read/write access to Microsoft NTFS hard drives, SSDs or thumb drives formatted for Windows computers!

• Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software is a great upgrade to an exceptional cross-platform utility that’s easily worth the money, especially if you own the previous version 14, in which case this one’s free.
  The user interface is tastefully designed, with buttons for mounting, unmounting, verifying, or erasing the selected volume. Dual-boot users also have the option to reboot into a compatible mounted Mac or Windows startup volume. There’s even a lovely color-coded space indicator like the one introduced with Mac OS X El Capitan, displaying content by Audio, Video, Apps, Images, and Other categories.

  MacWorld, USA, August 2017,
  macworld.com

• Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software, the excellent third-party file system driver that enables writing to Windows-formatted volumes at native speeds.

  MacWorld, USA, June 2017,
  macworld.com

• Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software is the best such software solution: reliable, fast, and now affordable as well…
  Fast, seamless, and easy to use, Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software is required for those who need to write to Windows volumes. And now it’s more affordable than ever.

  MacWorld, USA 2016,
  macworld.com

• A very specialized product that does its job in a very unobtrusive way. You just install it and it works. When you plug an NTFS disk into your Mac, it just mounts on the desktop like any other disk, and when you copy a file to it, it just works, no muss, no fuss. This utility is also invaluable if you find yourself in a situation where you need to format a disk as NTFS, and it performs this task with an equal lack of drama

  Apple Press, DVMUG

• Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software is an essential installation for anyone working with Macs and PCs, as it helps to break down the barriers that exist between the two operating systems

  Mac World UK,
  macworld.com

• It’ll install cleanly and easily on macOS 10.12 Sierra and “just work”, so it’s a good option

  How-to-Geek

• Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software does exactly what we expect from it, by offering a seamless NTFS disk management. It’s good performances even allow working directly on the Windows partition, including for heavy applications such as video or photo processing.

  mac4ever.com

• WOW….Ive been struggling with the whole MAC/Windows NTFS issue for some time and have a number of external drives that I need to swap between Mac/PC all the time. I’ve always had a headache with NTFS drivers etc. I bought and downloaded your Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software today and WOW. Amazing. Everything just works. Brilliant product. Worth every penny. Thank you.

  Robinson Philip

• It is pretty fast with NTFS transfers (slightly slower than OSX extended partitions obviously) and I’ve never had any problems mid-transfer or anything. For me, it’s always done what it said on the box, and now with V14 it’s got El Capitan compatibility, so no complaints here. If you’re looking for a way to have plug-and-play NTFS drives on your mac, there really isn’t a better alternative to Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software. Highly recommended for all Mac users!

  M. Doyle

• If you have a Mac and you need to access volumes that are formatted NTFS, this is the best solution out there. Why Apple hasn’t just baked in support for NTFS after all these years still remains a mystery. I’ve been using Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software for several years now and have never had any problems with it.

  H. Jaynes

Blazing Fast

Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software is up to six times faster than any of its closest commercial competitors!

Fully Compatible

Supports macOS Catalina
and older macOS
See Specifications

Powerful Features

Safe data transfer, hassle-free work, easy to use, seamless user experience

How it Works

Simple as 1-2-3

Install

Download and install Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software onto your Mac.

Done!

Microsoft NTFS volumes connected to your Mac are available in the Finder.

All operations just a click away!

If you need more than just a blazing fast and reliable Microsoft NTFS driver, our lightweight menubar and full-featured Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software apps are always at your service.

Access all of your Microsoft NTFS drives and perform the most common volume operations like mount, unmount and verify.

Quickly restart your Mac in Windows from the menubar (assuming it’s installed on your mounted Microsoft NTFS drive).

Seamless User Experience

If you’ve ever used Apple’s Disk Utility, you already know how to use Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software. If you haven’t, it will only take a few moments to get acquainted.

Microsoft NTFS for Mac by Paragon Software takes the best of Apple’s Disk Utility and moves it to the next level, augmenting Microsoft NTFS volume operations and advanced mount options.

Mounting is entirely under your control with advanced options

Mount in Read-Only: select this option if you need to access sensitive data without modifying any files.

Do not mount automatically: select this option if you want to manually control access to a volume.

Outstanding performance at blazing fast speed

6x times faster*

*Tested on 2016 MacBook Pro with SSD drive, view benchmarks here.

Fresh review: check out the video review by European Motion Picture Association.

Before you are led to the introduction of free NTFS drivers for Mac, here is some background information in case you don't know.

You can read Windows NTFS drives on Mac. But Mac can't write to NTFS drives, including create, edit, copy, paste, delete, or transfer files on NTFS drive on Mac desktops and laptops. Do you know why?

NTFS is a file system developed by Microsoft, the competitor of Apple. NTFS is used by default on Windows platform, especially for system drive. Additionally, if you use Boot Camp to create a Windows partition on your Mac, you will find you can't mount BOOTCAMP Widnows partition with both read-write access either. Up to now, Mac operating systems, including macOS Catalina/Mojave/High Sierra/Sierra and Mac OS X El Capitan, only provide NTFS read support but deny NTFS write support.

You know the business, but for users, is there any way to let Mac write NTFS drives? Can you make the NTFS drive fully compatible with macOS or Mac OS X? Sure. The easiest method is to use NTFS driver for macOS software.

If you are looking for a totally free NTFS for Mac software, there are four options: Mounty for NTFS, NTFS-3G, FUSE for macOS and SL-NTFS.

NTFS for Mac - free drivers for macOS

Some Mac users may have upgraded to macOS Catalina and are digging around for an NTFS driver for macOS 10.15. But it's hard to find a Free NTFS for Mac that supports macOS 10.15 yet. Fortunately, iBoysoft has upgraded their software iBoysoft NTFS for Mac to be compatible with macOS Catalina.

If you are using a Mac running macOS 10.14 and earlier, you can try the NTFS driver for Mac below and share NTFS drives between Windows and Mac.

1. Mounty for NTFS

Mounty for NTFS is completely free software to enable write ability to NTFS drives on Mac. It has simple design to help users mount NTFS drives with write support on Mac.

As a free utility, Mounty for NTFS does have some highlights:

1. Totally free.
2. Fast download and installation because it is less than 1MB.
3. One-time installation and no additional driver needed.

But Mounty for NTFS dose get complaints because:

Mac Ntfs Read Write

1. The write speed to NTFS drive is rather slow.
2. It can't mount the NTFS formatted drives in read-write mode automatically.
3. It can be unstable and fails to mount NTFS drives.
4. It can cause data loss problems.
5. It doesn't provide tech support.
6. The software is not compatible with the latest macOS Catalina or Mojave.

2. NTFS-3G

NTFS-3G is an open-source project from Tuxera, so the public can download this NTFS for Mac free to write to Windows NTFS drives on Mac computers.

Set aside its advantage for being free, NTFS-3G is complained a lot because of its poor performance. Some main drawbacks of this free NTFS driver for Mac are listed below:

1. Complicated installation. You have to know how to use Terminal or have already downloaded FUSE for macOS, Homebrew or Xcode.
2. Poor usability. Users have to use the software by command lines in Terminal instead of an interface.
3. Poor compatibility. NTFS-3G only supports macOS 10.12 or earlier. It doesn't support the latest macOS 10.15 and macOS 10.14.
4. Slow write speed. The file transferring is noticeably slow.
5. Tuxera stops maintaining this utility.
6. No technical support. As freeware, no technical support is available when issues occur.

3. FUSE for macOS

FUSE for macOS (was OSXFUSE) is another open and free NTFS driver for Mac from Tuxera that can enable write support to NTFS drives on Mac. In fact, FUSE is a file system extension that allows user to read and write disks with the formats that are not fully supported by Apple.

FUSE for macOS is worth trying because:

1. It is free of charge.
2. It is compatible with Mac operating system from Mac OS X 10.6 to macOS 10.14.
3. Multiple languages are available.

As a free NTFS driver for Mac, FUSE for macOS has some obvious limitations:

1. It can be unreliable sometimes such as file size being reported as 0 bytes.
2. It has no technical support when issues occur.

4. SL-NTFS

SL-NTFS means Snow Leopard NTFS. As a matter of fact, writing to NTFS on Apple is possible since Mac OS 10.6 without any third-party NTFS driver, but the NTFS writing support is disabled by default. Therefore, SL-NTFS is used as an interface on the Apple NTFS driver to enable writing to NTFS drives on Mac.

As a free NTFS for Mac app, SL-NTFS has some pros as followings:

1. It is free.
2. It is simple to install.

However, SL-NTFS has some cons to prevent people from using it.

1. It has limited access to a large number of files and a large volume of data.
2. It can't enable NTFS write on some NTFS external hard drives.
3. It can cause conflicts if you have another NTFS enabler installed.
4. It has no technical support.

Generally speaking, despite of being free, those free NTFS for Mac software have various flaws, making them very risky to use.

If you are afraid of using a risky free NTFS utility for Mac, there are two cost-effective alternatives for you. Even though they are not completely free, they can provide a lot of merits that free NTFS drivers don't have.

Best NTFS drivers for Mac

Free NTFS drivers for Mac can be troublemakers because of their low write speed, poor compatibility, no technical support, etc. Nevertheless, you don't have to pay a fortune to get enough reliability, stability and simplicity from a cost-effective NTFS for Mac - iBoysoft NTFS for Mac or iBoysoft Drive Manager.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is an ultimate NTFS for Mac solution in macOS and Mac OS X that can easily help you mount NTFS volumes on Mac desktops and laptops as regular drives in read-write mode.

iBoysoft NTFS for Mac has quite a few advantages you can take into account:

1. It can mount NTFS volumes in read-write mode automatically.
2. It can unmount and eject NTFS volumes with one click.
3. It can repair NTFS file system errors.
4. It can erase NTFS volumes for data cleanup.
5. It can reformat other file system (except APFS) into NTFS.
6. It is fully compatible with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
7. It is easy to install and use.
8. Free technical support is provided.

iBoysoft Drive Manager

Another great alternative to free NTFS driver for Mac is iBoysoft Drive Manager. It is a handy Mac tool that can enable full read-write access to NTFS drives on Mac and help manage multiple external drivers/network drives with one click.

iBoysoft Drive Manager is a great replacement of a free NTFS driver for Mac because:

Free Software To Read Ntfs On Mac

1. It is extremely affordable and offers 7-day free trial.
2. It is fully compatible with macOS 10.15/10.14/10.13/10.12 and Mac OS X 10.11/10.10/10.9/10.8.
3. It is fast to write to NTFS drives and transfer files between NTFS drives and Mac.
4. It is easy to install and use.
5. It provides lifetime free upgrades.
6. Free technical support is provided.
7. Besides powerful NTFS writing support, it can manage external drives and map network drives as local drives in the Finder.

If you want to know any disadvantages that iBoysoft Drive Manager might have, I would say the only one should be - it is not free. But it is really cheap compared with other commercial NTFS for Mac programs, such as Paragon and Tuxera.

Free Ntfs Reader For Mac

We also provide a table to help you find the most preferable NTFS driver:

Mac Ntfs Read Only

Now, you have a few options in your hands. If you don't care the risks and want to try out the free NTFS for Mac programs, generally speaking, Mounty for NTFS and FUSE for macOS are better ones. However, if you care about the reliability, technical support and NTFS write speed a lot, or you are specifically looking for an NTFS driver for macOS Catalina, Mojave or High Sierra, iBoysoft NTFS for Mac is your best choice.