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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Desktop App

fish shell

A friendly command-line shell that suggests and highlights as you type.

Visit fish shell4.6

  • Rating

    4.6 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    macOS, Linux

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What is fish shell?

fish is a smart and user-friendly command-line shell for macOS and Linux. It has syntax highlighting, suggestions as you type and tab completions that work without any configuration. It generally works like other shells such as bash or zsh.

Third-party open-source projects. We are not affiliated with their authors; repositories are provided as-is by their maintainers. Review each project's license, code and security before installing. See our Disclaimer.

Pros: what fish shell does well

  • Useful out of the box with no setup
  • Suggestions as you type
  • Free and open source

Cons: where it falls short

  • Some scripts written for bash need changes
  • Mostly for people who use a terminal

Who fish shell is for

Anyone who wants a more helpful terminal without tweaking config files.

Who can skip it

People who never open a terminal.

fish shell alternatives

Not sold on fish shell? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Personal Productivity resources

Nushell

Focus: data pipelines. Shares shell and command line with fish shell. Adds Windows and Offline. Same 4.6 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

iTerm2

Focus: mac and tmux. Shares terminal and command line with fish shell. A Mac app, not a desktop app. Rated 4.7 (fish shell: 4.6).

Mac AppFreemacOS
4.7Visit

zoxide

Focus: navigation. Shares terminal and command line with fish shell. Adds Windows. Rated 4.7 (fish shell: 4.6).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

Task

Focus: task runner, automation and build tool. Shares command line and open source with fish shell. Adds Windows. Same 4.6 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

topgrade

Focus: updates, package manager and automation. Shares terminal and open source with fish shell. Adds Windows. Same 4.6 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.6Visit

Free alternatives to fish shell

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Dasel

Focus: json, yaml and data conversion. Shares command line and open source with fish shell. Adds Windows. Rated 4.5 (fish shell: 4.6).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.5Visit

fzf

Focus: fuzzy finder. Shares command line and shell with fish shell. Adds Windows and Offline. Rated 4.8 (fish shell: 4.6).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit

Atuin

Focus: shell history and sync. Shares terminal and command line with fish shell. Adds Windows. Rated 4.7 (fish shell: 4.6).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

htop

Focus: process viewer and system monitor. Shares terminal and command line with fish shell. Rated 4.7 (fish shell: 4.6).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.7Visit

direnv

Focus: environment variables and projects. Shares shell and command line with fish shell. Same 4.6 rating.

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.6Visit
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