Exa vs Starship: Key Differences & When to Use Each

Comprehensive side-by-side comparison of features, pricing, and metrics

Key Differences

Compare Exa and Starship across features, pricing, integrations, and community metrics. Exa / Starship.

Feature

Exa

Dev Tools

Starship

Dev Tools

Side-by-side comparison of developer tools
Modern replacement for ls
Cross-shell prompt
GitHub Stars
⭐ 24,450
⭐ 60,447
Contributors
👥 163
👥 696
Pricing
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
✓ Free
Enterprise: Contact sales
Languages
Rust
Rust
Features
  • • Command Line
  • • Files
  • • Ls
  • • Rust
  • • Bash
  • • Fish
  • • Fish Prompt
  • • Fish Theme
  • • Oh My Zsh
Integrations
No integrations listed
  • • prometheus
Momentum Score
13/100 (stable)
36/100 (slowing)
Community Health
19/100 (needs-attention)
67/100 (moderate)
Maturity Index
24/100 (experimental)
59/100 (growing)
Innovation Score
22/100 (traditional)
69/100 (progressive)
Risk Score (higher is safer)
23/100 (high)
60/100 (low)
Developer Experience
25/100 (poor)
68/100 (fair)
Links

Exa Strengths

Starship Strengths

  • ✓ More popular (60,447 stars)
  • ✓ Larger community (696 contributors)
  • ✓ More features (5 listed)

When to Use Exa vs Starship

Use Exa when its strengths align better with your stack and team needs, and choose Starship when its ecosystem, integrations, or cost profile is a better fit.

Data source: GitHub API

Last updated: 10/25/2026