Filee is a free, open-source desktop file converter that you drive by dragging files onto a donut-shaped ring of output formats instead of opening an application window. It is aimed at anyone who converts files often enough to be tired of web converters: office workers moving documents between formats, people dealing with HEIC photos from a phone, and anyone who would rather not upload a contract or a scan to a stranger's server. The project is written in C# on .NET with an Avalonia interface, is MIT licensed, and has collected roughly 5,950 stars since it first appeared on GitHub at the end of September 2026.
What it does
Filee converts files locally, with no upload step and no account. The project says it covers more than 244 formats, which is the authors' own count rather than an independent audit, and the groups it names are:
- images, including HEIC from iPhones
- PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents
- HWP and HWPX, the Hangul office formats
- video and audio
- e-books and archives
Two things separate it from a plain format list. It converts batches in parallel rather than one file after another, and when there is no direct path between two formats it chains steps on its own: the project's own example is HWP to HWPX to DOCX. Office document conversion does not require Microsoft Office to be installed.
How it works
There is no main window to go and find. You hold a modifier key (Ctrl on Windows, Option on macOS), drag your files, and a ring of formats opens at the cursor; you drop the files on the format you want and the conversion happens right there. Output settings live in the same ring, so you pick quality, size and destination folder before the drop rather than in a dialog afterwards.
The README also advertises a command line, so scripted and repeatable conversions look possible, though the saved copy of the README cuts off before the syntax. For everyday use, the drag gesture is the entire interface.
Getting started
Windows 10 and Windows 11 are the supported platforms, and the project's own badges mark macOS and Linux as preview. Nothing in the repository lists CPU, memory or GPU requirements, so treat it as an ordinary desktop app rather than something with known limits. There is no model, no API key and no cloud service anywhere in the picture: everything runs on your own machine, so this is genuinely free to use, not free to download with a paid service behind it.
Builds are published, not just source. The installer lives on the Releases page at github.com/KnifeLemon/Filee/releases/latest, and the project site is filee.sh. The repository is at github.com/KnifeLemon/Filee if you would rather build from the .NET sources; the README has Install and Command line sections for that, which the saved excerpt does not show in full.
When to use it / when not
The catch is maturity, on two axes. The macOS and Linux builds are still labelled preview by the authors, so Windows is the only platform treated as stable, and the repository itself is weeks old (created 29 September 2026, last pushed 19 October 2026), which is early for a tool that rewrites your documents. Keep your originals for the first few jobs.
Use it instead of an online converter such as CloudConvert when the file should not leave your computer, when you have a folder of files rather than one, or when you want conversion to be a two-second gesture instead of a browser tab, an upload and a download.
Do not use it if you are on macOS or Linux and need something dependable today. It is also the wrong pick when fidelity matters more than convenience, as with complex page layout or print-ready PDF, where LibreOffice or a hand-written ffmpeg command still gives you more control over the result. And it is a desktop utility built around a mouse gesture, so it is not a converter to put on a server.
One note on the attention it is getting: the Trendshift badges in the README come from a third party, not the author, and rank it the top C# repository of the week. The star count reflects a current wave of interest rather than years of use in the field.
Windows users who convert files more than occasionally should take Filee seriously. It removes the upload, the wait and the app window from a chore most people still do through a website, and the capabilities that matter are specific rather than vague: parallel batches, multi-step routes between formats, and HWP or DOCX without Office installed. The licence is MIT and installing is a download rather than a build, so the cost of trying it is close to zero. Just read it as a promising young project: judge the macOS and Linux builds later, and expect a project this new to still be collecting bug reports from 244 formats' worth of edge cases.