APFS FUSE Driver for Linux vs Xplot: Side-by-Side Comparison (2026)
Features, pricing, ratings, and pros & cons — compared head-to-head.
APFS FUSE Driver for Linux is a free digital forensics tool. Xplot is a free digital forensics tool. Compare features, ratings, integrations, and community reviews side by side to find the best digital forensics fit for your security stack.
CST VerdictBased on our analysis of available product data, here is our conclusion:
Forensic examiners and incident responders working with seized Apple hardware or cloud-native Linux environments need APFS FUSE Driver for Linux because it's the only free tool that lets you mount and analyze encrypted APFS volumes without leaving the Linux command line. With nearly 2,000 GitHub stars and active maintenance, it's proven reliable enough that major forensic labs have standardized on it for macOS evidence acquisition pipelines. Skip this if your team relies on commercial forensic suites with GUI workflows; read-only FUSE mounting demands CLI competency and won't recover deleted files the way carving tools do.
Incident response teams with large packet capture backlogs will find Xplot's speed advantage worth the free price; color-coded TCP analysis cuts analysis time on network forensics work that would otherwise require manual trace parsing or expensive commercial alternatives. The tool handles gigabyte-scale pcap files without the overhead of full-stack DFIR platforms, making it particularly useful for lean teams doing ad-hoc packet investigation rather than automated response. Skip Xplot if you need threat hunting across multiple data sources or NIST Respond capabilities like automated remediation; this is a single-function parsing tool, not a platform.
