Oh My ZSH vs Starship (Shell Prompt): What are the differences?

Oh My ZSH and Starship are popular command-line shell customization tools. Here are the key differences between Oh My ZSH and Starship:

1. Customization and Theming: Oh My ZSH is a framework for managing Zsh configurations, offering pre-built themes, plugins, and settings. It enhances the Zsh shell with auto-completion, syntax highlighting, and prompt customization. Starship is a lightweight and customizable shell prompt, prioritizing simplicity and performance. It supports multiple programming languages and features a modular design.

2. Language Support: Oh My ZSH is primarily designed for Zsh, a powerful and feature-rich shell. It provides extensive support for Zsh-specific features and plugins, making it a preferred choice for Zsh users. Starship, on the other hand, is designed to work with multiple shells, including Zsh, Bash, and Fish. It offers consistent and cross-shell support to use Starship with a preferred shell.

3. Performance: Oh My ZSH provides a rich set of features and plugins, which can sometimes impact the performance of the shell. While it offers excellent flexibility and customization options, it may introduce some overhead, especially when using resource-intensive plugins. Starship, on the other hand, focuses on performance and aims to provide a fast and lightweight prompt. It is designed to be efficient and has a minimal impact on shell performance.

4. Configuration: Oh My ZSH is highly configurable and allows users to tweak the Zsh shell. It provides a convenient configuration file where users can enable or disable plugins, customize themes, and define aliases and functions. Starship follows a similar approach and provides a simple and intuitive configuration file that allows users to customize the prompt's appearance, add or remove modules, and define custom formatting options.

In summary, Oh My ZSH is a comprehensive Zsh framework with extensive customization options and a rich set of pre-built themes and plugins. It is well-suited for Zsh users who prefer a feature-rich shell with advanced customization capabilities. Starship, on the other hand, is a minimalist and fast shell prompt that works across multiple shells and focuses on performance and simplicity. It offers a lightweight and highly customizable prompt that can be easily tailored to individual preferences.