fish Alternatives

Apps similar to fish include PowerShell, which is free and open source. Other options are GNU Bourne Again SHell, Zsh, Nushell and brush. Shells like fish are a crowded field, with more than 25 alternatives for Linux, Mac, Windows, iPad and self-hosting.

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fish alternatives page was last updated May 22, 2026

Xiki
5 likes
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).
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application typeApplication types
Terminal Emulator
Shell
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Linux
Good alternative?Is Xiki a good alternative to fish?
DASH Shell
9 likes
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.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application typeApplication types
Shell
Terminal Emulator
Origin
Australia
Platforms
Linux
BSD
Good alternative?Is DASH Shell a good alternative to fish?
E
E
es
Like
Es is an extensible shell. The language was derived from the Plan 9 shell, rc, and was influenced by functional programming languages, such as Scheme, and the Tcl embeddable programming language.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
E
Good alternative?Is es a good alternative to fish?
Ergonomica
2 likes
Ergonomica is a cross-platform shell language, implemented in Python. Ergonomica aims to modernize the terminal, in an easily-extensible and usable language, independent of the OS on which it runs. It uses existing core utilities such as the os and shutil packages, as well as...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-2.0)
Application type
Shell
Alerts
Discontinued
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
Good alternative?Is Ergonomica a good alternative to fish?
rc - a shell
4 likes
This is a reimplementation for Unix, by Byron Rakitzis, of the Plan 9 shell. rc offers much the same capabilities as a traditional Bourne shell, but with a much cleaner syntax.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
Good alternative?Is rc - a shell a good alternative to fish?
Janetsh
2 likes
A new system shell that uses the Janet Language for high level scripting while also supporting the things we love about sh. Minimal knowledge of janet is required for basic shell usage, but as you become more familiar with janet, your shell...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (MIT)
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
Good alternative?Is Janetsh a good alternative to fish?
Oil
1 like
Oil is a new Unix shell.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Mac
Linux
Good alternative?Is Oil a good alternative to fish?
K
K
KtSh
Like
Execute shell commands on Android or the JVM.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Application typeApplication types
Terminal Emulator
Shell
Platforms
Self-Hosted
K
Good alternative?Is KtSh a good alternative to fish?
Ble.sh
2 likes
Bash Line Editor is a a full-featured line editor written in pure Bash! Syntax highlighting, auto suggestions, vim modes, etc. are available in Bash interactive sessions!.
5 Ble.sh alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (BSD-3-Clause)
Platforms
Linux
Good alternative?Is Ble.sh a good alternative to fish?
nsh
Like
A command-line shell like fish, complete with tab completion and syntax highlighting, but also POSIX compatibility. Made with Rust, featuring built-in zero configuration.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Mac
Linux
Good alternative?Is nsh a good alternative to fish?
A
A
arsh
Like
A statically typed scripting language with shell-like features.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (Apache-2.0)
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
Windows
Mac
A
Good alternative?Is arsh a good alternative to fish?
fshell
2 likes
fshell is the Symbian equivalent of bash + telnet + a posix-like set of command-line tools. In other words it's a console framework for Symbian OS with support for remote connections and a suite of tools for debugging the device.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application typeApplication types
Terminal Emulator
Shell
Platforms
Symbian S60
Good alternative?Is fshell a good alternative to fish?