fish AlternativesTerminal Emulators & Shells like fish

fish is described as 'Fish is a user-friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux' and is a very popular terminal emulator in the os & utilities category. There are more than 25 alternatives to fish for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD and Cygwin apps. The best fish alternative is PowerShell, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like fish are GNU Bourne Again SHell, Zsh, Nu Shell and Elk Shell.

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Fish is a user-friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux

More about fish
fish alternatives page was last updated Mar 10, 2025
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  1. PowerShell icon
     196 likes
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    PowerShell (including Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core) is a task automation and configuration management framework from Microsoft, consisting of a command-line shell and associated scripting language built on the .NET Framework.

    66 PowerShell alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Snapcraft

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Support for scripting
    2.  PowerShell Scripting
    3.  Optimized for Windows
    4.  Command line interface
    5.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    6.  Autocompletion

    PowerShell VS fish

     
    • PowerShell is the most popular Windows, Mac & Linux alternative to fish.

    • PowerShell is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to fish.

    • PowerShell is Free and Open Sourcefish is also Free and Open Source
    • PowerShell is Lightweightfish is not according to our users
  2. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Bash is the shell, or command language interpreter, that will appear in the GNU operating system. Bash is an sh-compatible shell that incorporates useful features from the Korn shell (ksh) and C shell (csh). It is intended to conform to the IEEE POSIX P1003.2/ISO 9945.

    29 GNU Bourne Again SHell alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD

    Properties

    1.  User friendly

    Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Geeky
    3.  Interpreter

    GNU Bourne Again SHell VS fish

     
  3. Zsh icon
     125 likes
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    Zsh is a UNIX command interpreter (shell) which of the standard shells most resembles the Korn shell (ksh); its compatibility with the 1988 Korn shell has been gradually increasing. It includes enhancements of many types, notably in the command-line editor, options for...

    27 Zsh alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Properties

    1.  Support for Themes
    2.  Lightweight
    3.  Customizable

    Features

    1.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    2.  Support for scripting
    3.  Command line interface

    Zsh VS fish

     
  4. Nu Shell icon
     15 likes
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    This project has reached a minimum-viable product level of quality. While contributors dogfood it as their daily driver, it may be unstable for some commands. Future releases will work fill out missing features and improve stability.

    28 Nu Shell alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Support for scripting
    3.  Portable
    4.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    5.  Autocompletion
    6.  Syntax Highlighting
    7.  Rust

    Nu Shell VS fish

     
    Comments about Nu Shell as an Alternative to fish
    Centaro
    Positive Jun 13, 2024
    0

    It uses structured data and has a nice default UI.

    Guest
    Positive Aug 8, 2023
    0

    Its an amazing cross-platform alternative shell.

    fish Icon
    Nu Shell icon
    • Nu Shell is Free and Open Sourcefish is also Free and Open Source
    • Nu Shell is Lightweightfish is not according to our users
  5. Elk Shell icon
     2 likes
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    Elk is an experimental shell language that aims to seamlessly combine the syntax of a shell language like bash with the syntax of a general-purpose language like Python. Bash is great for executing programs and handling files, but can be quite limiting and tedious to use when it...

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    Elk Shell Features

    1.  Syntax Highlighting
    2.  Autocompletion
    3.  Support for Keyboard Shortcuts
    4.  Variables

    Elk Shell VS fish

     
  6. clink icon
     59 likes
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    Clink enhances your productivity in Microsoft Windows' "cmd.exe". If you're familiar with Bash then you will be familiar with the changes that clink brings to "cmd.exe" (it uses the same 'Readline' library that Bash uses). It is a small utility.

    14 clink alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • GB flagUnited Kingdom

    Platforms

    • Windows

    Properties

    1.  Lightweight

    Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Command line/bash

    clink VS fish

     
  7. Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard

    Xonsh is a Python-powered, cross-platform, Unix-gazing shell language and command prompt. The language is a superset of Python 3.4+ with additional shell primitives that you are used to from Bash and IPython. It works on all major systems including Linux, Mac OSX, and Windows.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux

    the xonsh shell Features

    1.  Support for scripting
    2.  Portable
    3.  Command line interface
    4.  Python API
    5.  Run from python interpreter

    the xonsh shell VS fish

     
  8. KornShell icon
     9 likes
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    The KornShell language was designed and developed by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories. It is an interactive command language that provides access to the UNIX system and to many other systems, on the many different computers and workstations on which it is implemented.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Country of Origin

    • US flagUnited States

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Cygwin

    KornShell Features

    1.  Command line interface

    KornShell VS fish

     
  9. Elvish icon
     2 likes
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    Elvish is a friendly and expressive shell for UN*X systems including Linux, macOS and BSDs.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD

    Elvish Features

    1.  Command line interface

    Elvish VS fish

     
  10. Murex icon
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    Murex is a shell, like bash / zsh / fish / etc however Murex supports an enhanced UX and support for additional type information in pipelines, which can be used for complex data formats like JSON or tables.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux

    Murex Features

    1.  Repl

    Murex VS fish

     
  11. DASH Shell icon
     9 likes
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    DASH is a POSIX-compliant implementation of /bin/sh that aims to be as small as possible. It does this without sacrificing speed where possible. In fact, it is significantly faster than bash (the GNU Bourne-Again SHell) for most tasks. DASH stands for Debian Almquist Shell.

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Country of Origin

    • AU flagAustralia

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD

    DASH Shell Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    DASH Shell VS fish

     
  12. Xiki icon
     5 likes
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    Xiki makes the command line friendlier and more powerful. Xiki Shell (xsh) lets you use Xiki from command line, in a way that augments your current favorite shell (bash or zsh).

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux

    Xiki Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    Xiki VS fish

     
12 of 31 fish alternatives