Compare software

Zsh vs ksh 93u+m: catalog facts
Zsh	ksh 93u+m
Best for: Interactive shell with powerful completion, globbing and prompt theming	Best for: Maintaining KornShell scripts or using ksh as a daily shell
Free The open-source application is available without a license fee.	Free Free and open source.
macOS, Linux, Command line	macOS, Linux, Command line
Completion system that knows the options of individual commands Recursive globbing and qualifiers that replace many find invocations	Keeps the original KornShell 93 alive with ongoing fixes Compatible with existing ksh93 scripts All 3 strengths for ksh 93u+m Keeps the original KornShell 93 alive with ongoing fixes Compatible with existing ksh93 scripts Published releases plus a development branch
Startup configuration grows complicated quickly, which is why frameworks exist Scripts written for Zsh are not portable to plain POSIX shells	Mainly distributed as source code Smaller community than Bash or Zsh
Downloadable app	Downloadable app
Open source	Open source
License: MIT	License not stated
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 Zsh zsh.org Catalog checked September 22, 2026	Official website Full listing and sources Sources for ksh 93u+m github.com/ksh93/ksh Catalog checked October 1, 2026

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