When comparing Xonsh (The Xonsh Shell) vs Hy, the Slant community recommends Hy for most people. In the question“What are the best languages to learn for someone coming from Python?” Hy is ranked 11th while Xonsh (The Xonsh Shell) is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose Hy is:
Hy compiles to Python's abstract syntax trees. Python can import Hy modules, and Hy can import Python modules.
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Pros
Pro Easy to understand, Python-like syntax
Xonsh uses a syntax which is a superset of Python 3.4 plus some additional shell primitives. Because of the similarity to Python, which is famously an easy to understand programming language, the syntax of Xonsh is pretty easy to grasp too, even more so for Python programmers.
Pro Extensible
Most parts of xonsh are extensible. You can change tab-completer, prompt, history backend, aliases, functions and pack it to special package (called "xontrib") and put it on Github. The logic are clear and documented well.
Pro Portable
The xonsh shell has AppImage that makes it Linux-portable.
Pro Command history on steroids - including output
Xonsh has one feature that can be considered particularly unique. It stores not just the commands you type, but their output, and doing a search on your history (configurably) can search the output as well.
Pro Cross platform support
Xonsh has native cross-platform support.
Pro Python interop
Hy compiles to Python's abstract syntax trees. Python can import Hy modules, and Hy can import Python modules.
Pro Easier to read
Distinguished between arrays (or vectors) and function calls by using [] and (), respectively.
Pro Copyfree and open source
Uses the MIT (expat) license.