Cygwin Alternatives for Mac

Cygwin is not available for Mac but there are some alternatives that runs on macOS with similar functionality. The best Mac alternative is BusyBox, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to Cygwin and five of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Cygwin are WindTerm, Cash, RustyBox and csshX.

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Alternatives list

  1. BusyBox icon
     47 likes

    Single compact binary offering essential Unix utilities for embedded, rescue, and custom Linux builds, supporting Android, FreeBSD, and devices with limited memory and storage. Includes networking, shell, and file handling tools for streamlined deployment.

    9 BusyBox alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Android
    • BSD
    • FreeBSD
    • Android Tablet
     
  2. WindTerm icon
     21 likes

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

    71 WindTerm alternatives

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
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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
  3. Cash icon
     4 likes

    Cash is a cross-platform implementation of Unix shell commands written in pure ES6.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  4. RustyBox icon
     1 like

    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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  5. csshX icon
     2 likes

    csshX is a tool to allow simultaneous control of multiple SSH sessions. It will attempt to create an SSH session to each remote host in separate Terminal.app windows. A master window will also be created. All keyboard input in the master will be sent to all the slave windows.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
5 of 5 Cygwin alternatives