Zsh AlternativesShells & Terminal Emulators like Zsh

Zsh is described as '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' and is a very popular Shell in the os & utilities category. There are more than 25 alternatives to Zsh for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD and Cygwin apps. The best Zsh alternative is fish, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like Zsh are GNU Bourne Again SHell, Nu Shell, Elk Shell and the xonsh shell.

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Alternatives list

  1. fish icon
     113 likes
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    Fish is a user-friendly command line shell for UNIX-like operating systems such as Linux

    31 fish alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Rust
     
    • Most users think fish is a great Zsh alternative.

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

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

    • fish is Free and Open SourceZsh 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    10
  3. Nu Shell icon
     18 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

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  4. Elk Shell icon
     3 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...

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  5. 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
     
  6. KornShell icon
     10 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

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

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
     
  8. 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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  9. Oil icon
     1 like
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    Oil is a new Unix shell.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  10. Janetsh icon
     2 likes
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    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

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  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.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application types

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
     
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    1
    Comments about DASH Shell as an Alternative to Zsh
    Centaro
    Negative
    0

    Not meant to be interactive.

    Zsh Icon
    DASH Shell icon
    • DASH Shell is Free and Open SourceZsh is also Free and Open Source
  12. Closh icon
     1 like
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    Closh combines the best of traditional unix shells with the power of Clojure. It aims to be a modern alternative to bash.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
12 of 27 Zsh alternatives