Zenity vs whiptail

Struggling to choose between Zenity and whiptail? Both products offer unique advantages, making it a tough decision.

Zenity is a Development solution with tags like gui, dialogs, notifications, progress-bars.

It boasts features such as Display message boxes, Display progress bars, Display file selection dialogs, Display calendar selection dialogs, Display text entry dialogs, Display list selection dialogs, Display check box dialogs, Display radio button dialogs and pros including Lightweight and fast, Easy to use from shell scripts, Good for simple GUIs, Bundled with many Linux distros.

On the other hand, whiptail is a Development product tagged with shell, dialog, user-interface.

Its standout features include Create dialog boxes, menus, progress bars, and more for shell scripts, Lightweight user interface for terminal/console applications, Display informational messages, warnings, error messages, Get input from users through text prompts, checkboxes, radioboxes, Validate user input, Modular and customizable UI components, and it shines with pros like Easy to add interactivity to shell scripts, Works in text terminals/consoles, Lightweight and fast, Good for prototyping and creating simple UIs, Widely available on Linux distros.

To help you make an informed decision, we've compiled a comprehensive comparison of these two products, delving into their features, pros, cons, pricing, and more. Get ready to explore the nuances that set them apart and determine which one is the perfect fit for your requirements.

Zenity

Zenity

Zenity is an open source command line utility for Linux that allows creating simple graphical user interfaces from shell scripts or command line. It is useful for writing scripts that need to display messages, show progress bars, display dialogs to collect user input, and more.

Categories:
gui dialogs notifications progress-bars

Zenity Features

  1. Display message boxes
  2. Display progress bars
  3. Display file selection dialogs
  4. Display calendar selection dialogs
  5. Display text entry dialogs
  6. Display list selection dialogs
  7. Display check box dialogs
  8. Display radio button dialogs

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Lightweight and fast

Easy to use from shell scripts

Good for simple GUIs

Bundled with many Linux distros

Cons

Limited functionality compared to full GUI toolkits

Text-only, no rich graphical interfaces

Not as feature-rich as other tools like Yad


whiptail

whiptail

Whiptail is a lightweight user interface shell for shell scripts. It allows creating dialog boxes, menus, progress bars and more to interact with users through a text terminal.

Categories:
shell dialog user-interface

Whiptail Features

  1. Create dialog boxes, menus, progress bars, and more for shell scripts
  2. Lightweight user interface for terminal/console applications
  3. Display informational messages, warnings, error messages
  4. Get input from users through text prompts, checkboxes, radioboxes
  5. Validate user input
  6. Modular and customizable UI components

Pricing

  • Open Source

Pros

Easy to add interactivity to shell scripts

Works in text terminals/consoles

Lightweight and fast

Good for prototyping and creating simple UIs

Widely available on Linux distros

Cons

Limited UI capabilities compared to GUI toolkits

Text-only, not graphical

Somewhat arcane syntax

Limited customization options

Not as full-featured as other TUI libraries