Jabba vs vfox
Jabba
github.comvfox
vfox.devSide by side
| Figure | Jabba | vfox |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Development Environment Managers | 8.5 (#8) | 8.0 (#16) |
| License | The repository is licensed under Apache License 2.0. | The site states that vfox is released under the Apache 2.0 License. |
| Purpose | Jabba is a Java version manager inspired by nvm and written in Go. | vfox is a cross-platform version manager for installing and switching between development runtimes and SDKs. |
| Security | GitHub reports that the project has no SECURITY.md policy and no published security advisories. | The multi-user guide recommends group permissions for a shared SDK directory and warns that broad 777 permissions expose it to unauthorized users. |
| Shell support | The README gives shell integration instructions for bash, zsh, and fish. | Supported shells include PowerShell, Git Bash, Bash, ZSH, Fish, CMD, Clink, Cmder, and Nushell; CMD supports only global scope and is not recommended. |
Plans
In their own words
Jabba
Jabba is a free Java version manager written in Go for installing and switching among JDK versions on macOS, Linux and Windows. Its JDK index, powered by DiscoAPI, lists versions for the user's operating system and architecture. The README names distributions including Oracle, Adopt OpenJDK, Zulu, IBM SDK, GraalVM, OpenJDK, Liberica and Amazon Corretto. Users can list remote JDKs, filter versions with semantic version ranges, install versions and switch among those installed. A `.jabbarc` file can specify a project's JDK, while a default alias can select the version used in new terminals. Jabba can link to a system JDK and coexist with an existing Java installation. The README documents shell integration for bash, zsh and fish, plus installation through Homebrew, shell scripts, PowerShell, Scoop or Docker. Custom JDK downloads are also supported. Jabba does not switch Java globally on its own; the README gives manual platform-specific snippets instead. The repository describes Jabba as a community fork that is a work in progress and warns that some README instructions may be outdated. It is licensed under Apache-2.0.
vfox
vfox is a free, Apache 2.0-licensed version manager for development runtimes and SDKs on Linux, macOS and Windows. It supports project, session and global version scopes, and can switch to a project's version when entering its directory. Teams can record tool versions in `.vfox.toml` and share that configuration. A plugin system adds support for tools and environments; its public registry includes community plugins for tools such as Bun, Clang, CMake, Crystal, Dart, Deno and .NET. Plugins that support legacy version files can read formats such as `.nvmrc`, and this capability is enabled by default. Documented shells include PowerShell, Git Bash, Bash, ZSH, Fish, CMD, Clink, Cmder and Nushell. CMD is limited to global scope and is not recommended. For Docker, CI/CD and other non-interactive shells, the documentation recommends `vfox exec` instead of shell activation hooks. The configuration guide lists support for HTTP(S) proxies only. For shared SDK storage on Linux and macOS, the guide recommends group permissions and warns against world-writable access.