Free Cygwin Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to Cygwin for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best free Windows alternative is Windows Subsystem for Linux, which is also Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Cygwin and 19 are free and available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting free Windows alternatives to Cygwin are MSYS2, MinGW, WindTerm and Babun.

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Alternatives list

  2. MSYS2 icon

    MSYS2

     47 likes

    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.

    22 MSYS2 alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    MSYS2 screenshot 1
     
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    3
    MSYS2 vs Cygwin Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    2

    Forked from Cygwin with a nice package manager

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    2

    It's fundamentally the same thing

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Because it's based on MSYS (which is based on modern CygWin and MinGW-w64), also it has a nice package manager.

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • MSYS2 is Free and Open SourceCygwin is also Free and Open Source
  4. MinGW icon

    MinGW

     128 likes

    MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and GNU Binutils. It provides a complete Open Source programming toolset which is suitable for the development of native MS-Windows (x86) applications, which do not depend on any...

    23 MinGW alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    Installation Manager
     
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    1
    MinGW vs Cygwin Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    more integrated with Windows

    Review by a new / low-activity user.
    • MinGW is Free and Open SourceCygwin is also Free and Open Source
  5. WindTerm icon

    WindTerm

     21 likes

    A professional SSH/Telnet/Serial/Shell/Sftp client for DevOps.

    70 WindTerm alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    WindTerm screenshot 1
     
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    1
    WindTerm vs Cygwin Comments
    Nuncio Bitis
    Negative
    0

    WindTerm is a terminal. Cygwin is a Linux environment for Windows.

    • WindTerm is Free and Open SourceCygwin is also Free and Open Source
    • WindTerm is LightweightCygwin is not according to our users
  6. Babun icon

    Babun

     20 likes

    Would you like to use a linux-like console on a Windows host without a lot of fuzz? Try out babun!

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Git
    • Cygwin
    • zsh
    Includes Vim with color highlighting.
     
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    1
    Babun vs Cygwin Comments
    yphastos
    Positive
    1

    Much easier setup than Cygwin, with most of what you'll need.

    • Babun is Free and Open SourceCygwin is also Free and Open Source
  7. MinC icon

    MinC

     1 like

    MinC has a tiny kernel emulation (285Kb) which runs on Windows. The rest of the software was taken verbatim from OpenBSD, version 6.1. This means that by installing MinC, you run OpenBSD on your Windows machine at native speed.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Libraries
     
  9. M

    MSYS

     2 likes

    MSYS is a collection of GNU utilities such as bash, make, gawk and grep to allow building of applications and programs which depend on traditionally UNIX tools to be present.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  10. Cooperative Linux icon

    Cooperative Linux

     11 likes

    Cooperative Linux (short-named coLinux) is the first working free and open source method for optimally running Linux on Microsoft Windows natively.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Boot
     
  11. G

    gow

     28 likes

    Gow (Gnu On Windows) is the lightweight alternative to Cygwin. It uses a convenient Windows installer that installs about 130 extremely useful

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Windows
    gow screenshot 1
     
  12. TCC/LE icon

    TCC/LE

     16 likes

    TCC/LE is a complete CMD replacement, and is compatible with your existing Windows command prompt and CMD batch files, while adding thousands of new features.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Screenshot of TCC/LE in action, taken from official website.
     
  13. M

    MinGW-w64

     22 likes

    The project's goal is to deliver runtime, headers, and libs for developing 64 bit (x64), as well as 32 bit (x86), windows applications using gcc-4.4 or newer versions.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  14. U

    unxutils

     7 likes

    Here are some ports of common GNU utilities to native Win32. In this context, native means the executables do only depend on the Microsoft C-runtime (msvcrt.dll) and not an emulation layer like that provided by Cygwin tools.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
12 of 19 Cygwin alternatives