The best dotfiles alternatives
3 tools that do a similar job to dotfiles, 3 of them open source. Each entry says what it does and who it suits, so you can pick the one that fits instead of the most famous.
You're replacing
dotfilesMathias Bynens's personal macOS shell config files and setup scripts, shared as a starting point.
- 1
chezmoi
Open source · MIT · ★ 22.1k
Manages your config dotfiles across multiple machines, with secrets kept safe.
Best for: People who use more than one computer and want their settings to match; Developers who keep shell, editor, and git configs under version control
- 2
Oh my tmux!
Open source · MIT · ★ 25.5k
A ready-made, pretty tmux configuration file you drop in and customize.
Best for: Developers who already use tmux and want a better-looking, feature-rich starting config; People new to tmux who want a sensible default setup without writing their own
- 3
Home Manager
Open source · MIT · ★ 10.5k
Manages your user-level packages and dotfiles declaratively, using the Nix package manager.
Best for: People already using Nix or NixOS who want their user environment managed the same way; Users who want reproducible dotfiles and per-user packages
How we pick: tools in the same category that solve the same problem, projects that name each other as alternatives, and open-source projects that describe themselves as an alternative to dotfiles. We don't take payment for placement.