Life & fun · alternatives · 2026
24 alternatives to Purl – A Simple Tool for Text Processing
Hello HN community, I'm excited to share a new command-line tool I developed called purl, inspired by the simplicity of Perl one-liners for efficient text processing. Purl features include Perl-like regex that simplifies text manipulation, it's cross-platform so works equally well on macOS, Linux, etc., and it's quick and easy to install. The tool also supports simple commands such as -replace, -filter, and -exclude, and offers optional color output to enhance readability. Purl is a practical alternative to traditional tools like sed and grep, designed to address some of their common…
Purl is a command-line tool for text processing that uses Perl-like regular expressions to simplify common operations like replacing, filtering, and excluding text. It runs on macOS, Linux, and other platforms… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Prices are shown for the 1 we have checked on their own sites, 1 of them free or with a free tier. Purl – A Simple Tool for Text Processing launched in 2024; newer entries below may have overtaken it.
- 1
Hurl, run and test HTTP requests with plain text and curl. Hurl can run fast automated integration tests.
2021 · hurl.dev · its alternatives →
- 2
Simple SQL-like syntax on top of Perl text processing. - andrewbihl/bsed
2019 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 3
A hackable, minimal, fast TUI file explorer. Contribute to sayanarijit/xplr development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 4
Describes Prig, which is for Processing Records In Go. It's a text processing tool like AWK, but it uses Go as the scripting language.
2022 · benhoyt.com · its alternatives →
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- 6
Personal URL Shortener. Contribute to hq6/purls development by creating an account on GitHub.
2018 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 7
Parsing HTML at the command line. Contribute to ericchiang/pup development by creating an account on GitHub.
2014 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 8
Substage▲183Hey all! I’m a solo indie dev and I’ve been working on Substage – a Mac app that docks under your Finder window and lets you interact with your files using natural language. Stuff like: • Convert to webp • zip these up • Author of this PDF? • Download this file: • Is this really a PNG? • What's 5 foot 9 in cm? • Open in TextMate Substage converts your prompt into a Terminal command using an LLM (GPT-4o, Claude, Gemini, Mistral, or your own local model), runs it, and summarises the output. If it detects something risky, it’ll pause for confirmation before running. Commands run locally on your…
2025 · selkie.design · its alternatives →
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- 10CL
2021 · learnbyexample.github.io · its alternatives →
- 11
I originally was just messing with pi-autoresearch. Gave it a sample task to build the most portable coding agent. First cut was 6 KB of shell. Great for one-shots, unusable interactively. I was shocked it actually worked. Started building up -- adding features — but with a self-imposed rule: no new dependencies, and sub 500 LOC. This thing had to be truly portable. Just sh, curl, awk. System primitives only. Which means I did some genuinely disgusting things in awk, including JSON parsing and the OpenAI Responses tool loop with reasoning items carried across turns. It's now ~400 lines. In…
Apr 2026 · pu.dev · its alternatives →
- 12
Hi HN! I've created a CLI tool called "ell" that allows you to interact with LLMs directly from your terminal. Designed with the Unix philosophy in mind, ell is simple, modular, and extensible. You can easily pipe input and output to integrate with other tools. Its templates and hook-based plugins enable you to customize and extend its functionality to suit any needs. Check out the README for usage instructions and examples. I developed this tool because existing solutions often felt too heavy, with many dependencies, or they weren't friendly to piping and customization. I, on the contrary,…
2024 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 13
An extension of regular expressions for text editing, with a grep-like command-line tool. If you, like me, struggle with group logic in regular expressions, you might find it useful. I wanted to do this for a very long time. It is more of a sketch or prototype. I'd really appreciate your feedback!
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
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- 15NI
2019 · nevod.nezaboodka.com · its alternatives →
- 16
A human-friendly and fast alternative to cut (and sometimes awk) - theryangeary/choose
2020 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 17
There are multiple programs for working with log files, both inside and outside of the terminal. These tools are feature rich and functional and offer lots of control to the user. However, a lot of the time I found myself just opening raw log files in `less`. I enjoy the simplicity of quickly skimming through the logs, but it was difficult when the wall of text was in one color. For this reason, I created a command line tool called `tailspin` (the name is a take on the `tail` command) that did one thing: highlighting of log files. It is configurable, but requires no setup. It defaults to…
2023 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 18IW
My book on "GNU grep and ripgrep" is free to download today and tomorrow [1][2] Code snippets, example files and sample chapters are available on GitHub [3] The book uses plenty of examples and regular expressions are also covered from scratch. The book is suitable for beginners as well as serves as a reference. Hope you find it useful, I would be grateful for your feedback and suggestions. I used pandoc+xelatex [4] to generate the pdf. [1] https://gumroad.com/l/gnugrep_ripgrep [2] https://leanpub.com/gnugrep_ripgrep [3]…
2019 · its alternatives →
- 19
Hey HN! I'm excited to share f2, a command-line tool I built for fast and flexible bulk renaming of files. It's cross-platform (Linux, macOS, Windows), executes a dry-run by default, supports undo, and provides incredible flexibility in file renaming with several built-in variables and Exiftool integration. If you've ever struggled with renaming large batches of files or wished for more control and speed when managing file names, this might be just what you need. I hope you find it useful!
2025 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 20PI
For far to long ingredient parsers been unavailable to the public. Either due to obsene complexity: https://github.com/nytimes/ingredient-phrase-tagger Or because of the dreaded paywall: https://github.com/mtlynch/zestful-client Wait no longer, I introduce PyIng. An easy to use python package for changing this "2 ounces of spicy melon" into this {name: melon, unit: ounces, qty: 2.0}. https://github.com/whitew1994WW/PyIng
2022 · its alternatives →
- 21
A sharp cut(1) clone. Contribute to sstadick/hck development by creating an account on GitHub.
2021 · github.com · its alternatives →
- 22
PugSQL is a Python library for interacting with your database the way the gods intended.
2019 · pugsql.org · its alternatives →
- 23
Map, clean and validate messy data on Google Sheets
2024 · workspace.google.com · its alternatives →
- 24
Rephrase▲128Fix grammar and format text instantly on Mac
Dec 2025 · rephrase.space · its alternatives →
Also compare
- Hurl – Run and test HTTP requests with plain text, curl and Rust alternatives
- Bsed – Simple, English syntax on top of Perl text processing alternatives
- Xplr – A hackable, minimal, fast TUI file explorer alternatives
- Prig – like AWK, but uses Go for “scripting” alternatives
- Grep by Vercel alternatives
- Purls – Personal URL Shortener alternatives
Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →