BusyBox Alternatives

BusyBox is described as 'single binary that provides several stripped-down Unix tools in a single executable. It runs in a variety of POSIX environments such as Linux, Android, FreeBSD and others. It was specifically created for embedded operating systems with very limited resources' and is an app in the os & utilities category. There are seven alternatives to BusyBox for Windows, Linux, Android and Mac. The best alternative is Cygwin, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like BusyBox are MSYS2, GNU Core Utilities, gow and Toybox (Linux command line utilities).

BusyBox alternatives are mainly Terminal Emulators but may also be Shells. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of BusyBox.

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BusyBox

Free • Open Source

Mac
Linux
Android
BSD

BusyBox is a single binary that provides several stripped-down Unix tools in a single executable. It runs in a variety of...

Learn more about BusyBox

Cygwin
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Shell
Windows
31 alternatives to Cygwin
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment.
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Cygwin Features
1. Command line interfaceCygwin either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Linux on Windows
SSH
POSIX-compatible
ANSI color support
Runtime environment
Cygwin vs BusyBox
pros, cons and recent comments
Guest
Busybox isnt a sort of full distro as Cygwin is.
Negative comment• ago

4

RemovedUser
Cygwin provides all the good ol' Linux tools directly to Windows. It's better than the Ubuntu addition to Windows 10 in that it can work directly with the Windows filesystem.
Positive comment• ago

-2
MSYS2
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
Windows
38 alternatives to MSYS2
MSYS2 is an independent rewrite of MSYS, based on modern Cygwin (POSIX compatibility layer) and MinGW-w64 with the aim of better interoperability with native Windows software.
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MSYS2 Features
1. Command line interfaceMSYS2 either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
2. Support for scriptingMSYS2 supports scripts and macros to automate or customize tasks.
Command line/bash
Linux on Windows
POSIX-compatible
GNU Core Utilities
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Linux
7 alternatives to GNU Core Utilities
The GNU Core Utilities or coreutils is a package of GNU software containing many of the basic tools, such as cat, ls, and rm, needed for Unix-like operating systems. It is a combination of a number of earlier packages, including textutils, shellutils, and fileutils, along with...
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GNU Core Utilities Features
1. Command line interfaceGNU Core Utilities either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Plain text file
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gow
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Windows
24 alternatives to gow
Gow (Gnu On Windows) is the lightweight alternative to Cygwin. It uses a convenient Windows installer that installs about 130 extremely useful

gow has no features, suggest some!
Discontinued
No activity for over a year.
Toybox (Linux command line utilities)
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Linux
Android
4 alternatives to Toybox (Linux command line utilities)
Toybox combines common Linux command line utilities together into a single BSD-licensed executable that's simple, small, fast, reasonably standards-compliant, and powerful enough to turn Android into a development environment.
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Toybox (Linux command line utilities) Features
1. Command line interfaceToybox (Linux command line utilities) either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
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Toybox (Linux command line utilities) vs BusyBox
pros, cons and recent comments
Guest
because it is the same thing but it works very fine on android N 7.1 while busybox dont work on android N 7.1
Positive comment• ago

0
ptime
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Windows
4 alternatives to ptime
ptime will run any specified command and parameters, and measure the execution time (run time) in seconds, accurate to 5 millisecond or better. It is an automatic process timer, or program timer used for benchmark purposes.

ptime has no features, suggest some!
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RustyBox
Is this a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Mac
Linux
7 alternatives to RustyBox
RustyBox is a free-range, non-GMO fork of BusyBox written entirely in Rust. It includes all your favorite commands like ls, mount, and top, but without a single line of C code! Like BusyBox, rustybox weighs in at just under 1 megabyte and includes all the basic utilities you...
Suggest and vote on features
RustyBox Features
1. Command line interfaceRustyBox either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Portable Linux