PowerShell Alternatives for Windows

There are many alternatives to PowerShell for Windows if you are looking for a replacement. The best Windows alternative is PuTTY, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to PowerShell and many of them are available for Windows so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Windows alternatives to PowerShell are Tabby Terminal, ConEmu, cmder and KiTTY.

PowerShell alternatives are mainly Terminal Emulators but may also be Shells or SSH Clients. Filter by these if you want a narrower list of alternatives or looking for a specific functionality of PowerShell.

PowerShell alternatives page was last updated

PowerShell

179

Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator

PowerShell (including Windows PowerShell and PowerShell Core) is a task automation and configuration management framework...

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PuTTY
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
SSH Client
Windows
Linux
BSD
PortableApps.com
ReactOS
105 PuTTY alternatives
PuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH, Telnet, rlogin, and raw socket connection. It can also connect to a serial port.
- - PuTTY is the most popular Windows & Linux alternative to PowerShell.
- - PuTTY is the most popular Open Source & free alternative to PowerShell.
Suggest and vote on features
PuTTY Features
1. LightweightPuTTY consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
SSH
Built-in SSH client
Telnet client
Host management
Graphical User Interface
Serial terminal
Support for SFTP
Logging
Session Management
Xterm emulation
Tabby Terminal
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
SSH Client
Mac
Windows
Linux
84 Tabby Terminal alternatives
Tabby is an infinitely customizable cross-platform terminal app for local shells, serial, SSH and Telnet connections.
- - Tabby Terminal is the most popular Mac alternative to PowerShell.
Suggest and vote on features
Tabby Terminal Features
1. Command line interfaceTabby Terminal either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
2. PortableTabby Terminal can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
3. LightweightTabby Terminal consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
4. Support for scriptingTabby Terminal supports scripts and macros to automate or customize tasks.
SSH
Support for SFTP
Multiple Servers
Electron based
Customizable
Serial-port
Comments about Tabby Terminal as a Alternative to PowerShell
pros, cons and recent comments
Guest
Great looking, fast, convenient.
Positive comment•
0
ConEmu
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
Windows
51 ConEmu alternatives
Windows console emulator with tabs, which presents multiple consoles and simple GUI applications as one customizable GUI window with various features.
Suggest and vote on features
ConEmu Features
1. PortableConEmu can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. Command line interfaceConEmu either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Tabbed interface
Shell integration
Quake-style
ANSI color support
Customizable
Split-screen view
Multi-tabs
Multiple window layouts
Remote Debugging
Kubernetes
Comments about ConEmu as a Alternative to PowerShell
Most users think ConEmu is a great PowerShell alternative.
SamB
ConEmu is not a shell, and PowerShell is not a console emulator. I suppose you could argue that PowerShell ISE sort-of is, but that's not the /point/ of PowerShell ISE, so...
Negative comment•
8

Guest
Shell != Console Emulator
Negative comment•
0
cmder
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
Windows
clink
ConEmu
Windows Command Prompt
PowerShell
37 cmder alternatives
Cmder is an open-source replacement for the Windows command-line. It relies on ConEmu , extending it with the power of clink and some great looking defaults including a Monokai color scheme and custom prompt...
Suggest and vote on features
cmder Features
1. Lightweightcmder consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
2. Portablecmder can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
3. Support for ThemesYou can use themes and templates to change the look and feel of cmder.
4. Windows Explorer Extensioncmder can extend Windows Explorer in various ways, for example add context menu options, etc..
5. Command line interfacecmder either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
6. Extensible by Plugins/Extensionscmder can be extended with add-ons, plugins and extensions.
Customizable
Command line/bash
Tabbed interface
ANSI color support
Built-in SSH client
Opinions about cmder as a Alternative to PowerShell
Almost everyone thinks cmder is a great PowerShell alternative.
KiTTY
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
SSH Client
Windows
81 KiTTY alternatives
KiTTY is an opensource terminal emulator, forked from PuTTY , that adds many extra features to the original software.
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KiTTY Features
1. PortableKiTTY can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. Command line interfaceKiTTY either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
SSH
Session Management
Ssh tunnel
Multiple Browser Tabs
Auto-login
VPS
Auto-saving
Support for Keyboard Shortcuts
Built-in editor
Cygwin
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Shell
Windows
31 Cygwin alternatives
Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment.
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Cygwin Features
1. Command line interfaceCygwin either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Linux on Windows
SSH
POSIX-compatible
ANSI color support
Runtime environment
fish
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Shell
Terminal Emulator
Mac
Windows
Linux
BSD
24 fish alternatives
Fish is a user friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux.
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fish Features
1. Autocompletionfish can predict and complete the rest of a word or phrase you're typing.
2. Command line interfacefish either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
Sane defaults
Color coding
Colored Text
Interpreter
MinGW
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Windows
Linux
BSD
24 MinGW alternatives
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...
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MinGW Features
1. PortableMinGW can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
C++
Cross Compiler
C support
GNU/linux-libre
Native application compiler
Hyper
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
Shell
Mac
Windows
Linux
Electron / Atom Shell
81 Hyper alternatives
Hyper™ is a beautiful and extensible, cross-platform terminal built on open web standards. It provides an elegant command-line experience that is consistent across all supported platforms which includes macOS, Windows and various Linux distributions like Fedora and Debian.
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Hyper Features
1. Extensible by Plugins/ExtensionsHyper can be extended with add-ons, plugins and extensions.
2. Command line interfaceHyper either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
3. Support for ThemesYou can use themes and templates to change the look and feel of Hyper.
Split-screen view
Clean design
Electron based
Tiling Panes
Uses Packages
Divisible
Skinnable
Customizable
Multiple Font Colors
Plugin API
MSYS2
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Terminal Emulator
Windows
38 MSYS2 alternatives
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.
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MSYS2 Features
1. Command line interfaceMSYS2 either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.
2. Support for scriptingMSYS2 supports scripts and macros to automate or customize tasks.
Command line/bash
Linux on Windows
POSIX-compatible
WindTerm
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Proprietary
Terminal Emulator
Shell
Mac
Windows
Linux
41 WindTerm alternatives
A professional SSH/Telnet/Serial/Shell/Sftp client for DevOps.
Suggest and vote on features
WindTerm Features
1. PortableWindTerm can be used from a USB stick or similar with no prior installation.
2. LightweightWindTerm consumes less device resources compared to similar apps.
3. Syntax HighlightingWindTerm supports syntax highlighting for various programming and markup languages.
4. Support for ThemesYou can use themes and templates to change the look and feel of WindTerm.
Support for SFTP
SSH
X server
Command palette
Cross-Platform
Outliner
Git Bash
Is this is a good alternative?
Yes
No
Free • Open Source
Shell
Windows
8 Git Bash alternatives
Git for Windows provides a BASH emulation used to run Git from the command line. *NIX users should feel right at home, as the BASH emulation behaves just like the "git" command in LINUX and UNIX environments.
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Git Bash Features
1. Git SupportGit Bash supports Git, a free and open source distributed version control system.
2. Command line interfaceGit Bash either have CLI support or is a CLI-only app.