Xonsh is significantly different from most other shells or shell tools. The following table lists built in features and capabilities that various tools may or may not share.
| Bash | zsh | plumbum | fish | IPython | xonsh | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Practical language | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Easily scriptable | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Native cross-platform support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Meant as a shell | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Tab completion | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |
| Completion from man-page parsing | ✓ | ✓ | ||||
| Large standard library | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Typed variables | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| Syntax highlighting | ✓ | in notebook | w/ prompt-toolkit | |||
| Pun in name | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | |||
| Rich history | ✓ |