Compare software

fish vs Nushell: catalog facts
fish	Nushell
Best for: An interactive shell that is pleasant immediately, with nothing to configure	Best for: Shell that pipes structured tables instead of untyped text
Free Free and open source under the GPL.	Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.
macOS, Linux, Command line	Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line
Autosuggestions from history appear as you type with no plugins Syntax highlighting shows an invalid command before you run it All 4 strengths for fish Autosuggestions from history appear as you type with no plugins Syntax highlighting shows an invalid command before you run it Tab completions generated from man pages, so they cover real options Works well with no configuration file at all	Structured pipelines remove most text parsing from everyday shell work Identical behaviour on Windows, macOS and Linux
Not POSIX-compatible, so bash snippets and scripts often need changing No official Windows build All 4 limitations for fish Not POSIX-compatible, so bash snippets and scripts often need changing No official Windows build A smaller plugin ecosystem than zsh Minimum supported macOS version is 10.12	Not POSIX compatible, so existing shell scripts do not run in it The language is still evolving and breaks between releases
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: GPL-2.0	License: MIT
No account needed	Not stated if an account is needed
Offline features available	Not stated if it works offline
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for fish github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell Catalog checked September 21, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Nushell nushell.sh github.com/nushell/nushell Catalog checked September 22, 2026

“Not stated” means we have not confirmed it. Features can vary by device and plan.