When comparing robbyrussell vs Powerlevel9K, the Slant community recommends Powerlevel9K for most people. In the question“What's the best theme for Oh My Zsh?” Powerlevel9K is ranked 5th while robbyrussell is ranked 8th. The most important reason people chose Powerlevel9K is:
While notably more complex than most other oh-my-zsh themes, the developer has taken care to ensure that the two function naturally together, though the implementation can appear unwieldy at first.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro The default theme for oh my zsh
You don't need to change anything to use this. It's the default theme.
Pro Very simple
Shows the folder you are in and if there's a git repository it shows the current branch.
Pro Nice color
Nice color codes.
Pro Interfaces seamlessly with oh-my-zsh
While notably more complex than most other oh-my-zsh themes, the developer has taken care to ensure that the two function naturally together, though the implementation can appear unwieldy at first.
Pro Excellent documentation
Not only are all the possible variables clearly defined, most have visual examples as well. The gallery of screenshots shared by users is also well-curated and provides no end of inspiration for what you yourself might want.
Pro Support for all major families of patched font methods
Not only are the standard Powerline fonts supported, but so too are the Awesome fonts and the Nerd fonts, all offering a different approach to adding more glyphs to your standard mono-spaced terminal typography.
Pro Keeps terminal responsiveness high
One sad realization often encountered shortly after testing a new terminal theme or framework is that suddenly a noticeable lag is present when working in it. While it can happen with Powerlevel9k too, if you're deliberate in the elements you place in your prompt, it can also be mostly sidestepped.
Pro Plays well with almost every existing zsh framework or add-on
Powerlevel9k lists step-by-step instructions for integrations into a plain zsh shell, as well as how to intergrate it with: oh-my-zsh, NixOS, Prezto, antigen, Zplug, Zgen, Antibody, ZPM, and zim. No matter what you've already found to enhance your zsh terminal, this theme will complement rather than displace them.
Pro Sensitive to an extremely broad set of contextual environments
Powerlevel is capable of recognizing all of the following conditions and altering your prompt automatically to alert you or provide more relevant information to suit them: logged in as default user, logged in via SSH, low battery, background jobs running, whether the working directory is read-only or writable, VPN in use, operating with elevated privileges (sudo), vi mode (editing), working in a version-controlled directory tree, logged into AWS profile, dynamic display of Wi-Fi signal strength in the prompt itself, current partition free space, and so many more it's nearly obscene.
Cons
Con Does not show your current directory
Plain PROMPT='%~ '
has a big advantage over this theme.
Con Slow when working with large Git repositories
Con Prompt screws up cursor
The right arrow used in the prompt seems to be larger than 1 character, but slightly smaller than two. As such, your cursor will either be very slightly offset, or so offset that it is unworkable.
Con Very slow
Powerlevel10k is a fast reimplementation of this theme.
Con Project seems dead
GitHub issues don't get attention. No new features added in the last year.
Con Does not support 24-bit true color
