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
⭐ 24,431
⭐ 58,610
Contributors
👥 163
👥 675
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
12/100 (stable)
43/100 (slowing)
Community Health
18/100 (needs-attention)
68/100 (moderate)
Maturity Index
23/100 (experimental)
60/100 (growing)
Innovation Score
21/100 (traditional)
69/100 (progressive)
Risk Score (higher is safer)
22/100 (high)
53/100 (low)
Developer Experience
25/100 (poor)
68/100 (fair)
Links

Exa Strengths

Starship Strengths

  • ✓ More popular (58,610 stars)
  • ✓ Larger community (675 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: 7/2/2026