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Nushell vs fish: catalog facts
Nushell	fish
Best for: Shell that pipes structured tables instead of untyped text	Best for: An interactive shell that is pleasant immediately, with nothing to configure
Free Free and open source under the MIT licence.	Free Free and open source under the GPL.
Windows, macOS, Linux, Command line	macOS, Linux, Command line
Structured pipelines remove most text parsing from everyday shell work Identical behaviour on Windows, macOS and Linux	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
Not POSIX compatible, so existing shell scripts do not run in it The language is still evolving and breaks between releases	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
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License: GPL-2.0
Not stated if an account is needed	No account needed
Not stated if it works offline	Offline features available
Official website Full listing and sources Sources for Nushell nushell.sh github.com/nushell/nushell Catalog checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for fish github.com/fish-shell/fish-shell Catalog checked September 21, 2026

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