KornShell AlternativesOnly apps categorised as Shells

The best Shell alternative to KornShell is fish, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 25 alternatives to KornShell and many of them are Shells so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Shell alternatives to KornShell are GNU Bourne Again SHell, Zsh, Nu Shell and Elk Shell.

  • Shell
  • FreeOpen Source
  • ...

The KornShell language was designed and developed by David G. Korn at AT&T Bell Laboratories. It is an interactive...

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KornShell alternatives page was last updated Mar 10, 2025
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Alternatives
  1. fish icon
     103 likes
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    Fish is a user-friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux

    31 fish alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Rust

    Top fish Features

    1.  Sane defaults
    2.  Autocompletion
    3.  Color coding
    4.  Colored Text
    5.  Syntax Highlighting
    6.  Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
    7.  No registration required
    8.  Works Offline
    9.  Command line interface
    10.  Ad-free
    11.  Interpreter

    fish VS KornShell

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

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

    • fish is Free and Open SourceKornShell is also Free and Open Source
  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 KornShell

     
  3. Zsh icon
     123 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 KornShell

     
  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 KornShell

     
  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...

    27 Elk Shell alternatives

    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 KornShell

     
  6. 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.

    25 the xonsh shell alternatives

    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 KornShell

     
  7. win-bash icon
     14 likes
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    win-bash is a Windows port of the famous GNU bash (see GNU Bash homepage).

    The goal of the win-bash project is to finish the port to Windows and provide a full functional bash.exe binary for windows nt and derived systems. win-bash can be used as a input shell as well as an inte.

    40 win-bash alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Windows
    Discontinued

    The project is no longer developed since 2016. Last version, 1.1, released in March 2011, can be still downloaded from SourceForge.

    win-bash Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    win-bash VS KornShell

     
  8. rush icon
     2 likes
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    rush is a replacement for the unix shell (bash, zsh, etc) which uses pure Ruby syntax. Grep through files, find and kill processes, copy files - everything you do in the shell, now in Ruby.

    28 rush alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD

    rush Features

    1.  Command line interface

    rush VS KornShell

     
  9. 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.

    27 DASH Shell alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD

    DASH Shell Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    DASH Shell VS KornShell

     
  10. 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).

    26 Xiki alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux

    Xiki Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    Xiki VS KornShell

     
  11. rc - a shell icon
     4 likes
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    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.

    27 rc - a shell alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux

    rc - a shell Features

    1.  Command line interface

    rc - a shell VS KornShell

     
  12. sash icon
     2 likes
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    a stand-alone shell with many built-in commands. The built in commands of sash have all libraries linked statically, so unlike most shells, the standard UNIX commands do not rely on external libraries. In case of emergencies, you can boot directly into sash and use it as a...

    28 sash alternatives

    License model

    • FreeOpen Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux

    sash Features

    1.  Command line interface
    2.  Interpreter

    sash VS KornShell

     
12 of 26 KornShell alternatives