xmessage AlternativesShells and other similar apps like xmessage

xmessage is described as 'Display a message or query in a window (X-based /bin/echo)' and is a Shell in the os & utilities category. There are more than 10 alternatives to xmessage for Linux, Windows, Mac, Python and Qt. The best xmessage alternative is Zenity, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like xmessage are Modern Message Box Generator, Yad, KDialog and easybashgui.

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xmessage alternatives page was last updated Oct 15, 2025

Zenity
10 likes
Zenity is a tool that allows you to display GTK dialog boxes in commandline and shell scripts.
22 Zenity alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Origin
United States
Platforms
Linux
Is Zenity a good alternative to xmessage?
Modern Message Box Generator
1 like
Generates a customizable "Task Dialog" box - a more modern version of the old Windows message box.'
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Origin
United States
Platforms
Windows
Is this a good alternative to xmessage?
Yad
10 likes
Yad (yet another dialog) is a fork of Zenity with many improvements, such as custom buttons, additional dialogs, pop-up menu in notification icon and more. It's useful for creating quick and easy GUIs for shell and batch scripting.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Origin
International
Platforms
Linux
Is Yad a good alternative to xmessage?
KDialog
4 likes
kdialog allows you to display dialog boxes from shell scripts. The syntax is very much inspired from the "dialog" command (which shows text mode dialogs).
23 KDialog alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Origin
Germany
EU
Platforms
Linux
Is KDialog a good alternative to xmessage?
easybashgui
1 like
Bash functions library for *BSD and GNU/Linux that aims to give simple GUI functions using yad, gtkdialog, kdialog, zenity, Xdialog, (c)dialog, whiptail or bash builtins depending on KDE or GNOME running or not, Yad/Gtkdialog/Xdialog installed or not and, eventually, X...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (BSD-3-Clause)
Platforms
Linux
Is easybashgui a good alternative to xmessage?
whiptail
2 likes
display dialog boxes from shell scripts.
22 whiptail alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
Is whiptail a good alternative to xmessage?
gxmessage
1 like
a GTK-based xmessage clone.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source (GPL-3.0)
Application type
Shell
Origin
United Kingdom
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Is gxmessage a good alternative to xmessage?
MessagePop
1 like
MessagePop is a simple application designed to help you convey a message to the computer user. The program allows you to specify the message text and the other parameters from the command line.
Cost / License
Free
Proprietary
Platforms
Windows
Is MessagePop a good alternative to xmessage?

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1comment
Comments about MessagePop as an Alternative to xmessage

Guest
Negative commentMar 19, 2016
0
Does not work with Linux, which xmessage only works with.
Review by a new / low-activity user.
MessagePop is Free and Proprietaryxmessage is Free and Open Source
dialog
1 like
display dialog boxes from shell scripts. Curses based. Works in console mode.
22 dialog alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Windows
Linux
Is dialog a good alternative to xmessage?
CocoaDialog
1 like
CocoaDialog is an OS X application that allows the use of common GUI controls such as file selectors, text input, progress bars, yes/no confirmations and more with a command-line application. It requires no knowledge of Cocoa, and is ideal for use in shell and Perl scripts (or...
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Origin
United States
Platforms
Mac
Is CocoaDialog a good alternative to xmessage?
PyDialog
1 like
My problem was that the KDialog code is still not ported to Qt5 and it depends on various Qt4/KDE4 components. The kdialog has big dependency sizes so we made an alternate dialogs like kdialog switches, options.
9 PyDialog alternatives
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Origin
Hungary
EU
Platforms
Mac
Windows
Linux
Python
Qt
Is PyDialog a good alternative to xmessage?
9menu
1 like
create a menu to run commands.
Cost / License
Free
Open Source
Application type
Shell
Platforms
Linux
Is 9menu a good alternative to xmessage?