What is the best terminal emulator?

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Considered

User
Recs.

Dec 24, 2023

Last
Updated

KiTTY vs iTerm2 vs Sakura

vs rxvt-Unicode vs ZOC Terminal vs st vs PuTTY vs Alacritty vs WezTerm vs Xshell 6 vs z/Scope Terminal Emulator

Specs

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

macOS

Ligature support

Yes

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

Windows, GNU/Linux

License

MIT

Initial Release

1999-01-22

Latest Release

2021-07-17

com2

0x2f8

serial

/dev/.ttyS1

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Yes

Configurable

Yes, via automatically reloading YAML configuration file

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

Yes, with control over shaping and stylistic sets

GPU Acceleration

Yes

Configurable

Lua based live reloading configuration

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Supported platforms

Ligature support

Platforms

License

Initial Release

Latest Release

com2

serial

Font Ligatures

GPU Acceleration

Configurable

Pros + Cons

Pro
Startup sessions

Support start-up sessions which allow you to specify the window/tab layout, working directories, and programs to run on startup.

Comment

Pro
True Color support

Supports True Color, so software like Vim can display a really nice pallet.

Comment

Pro
Multiple terminal windows

Supports tiling multiple terminal windows side by side in different layouts without needing to use an extra program like tmux.

Comment

Pro
OpenGL for rendering

Offloads rendering work to the GPU for lower system load.

Comment

Pro
Unicode

Uses Unicode for the best character compatibility.

Comment

Con
Not beginner friendly

Kitty requires modifying the config file before being usable for most users. Defaults are unintuitive and cumbersome.

Comment

Pro
Still new

Has no packages for a lot of main distros.

Comment

Pro
Can store login credentials

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Includes additional features over PuTTy

Sessions filter Shortcuts for pre-defined command The session launcher Automatic logon script URL hyperlinks Running a locally saved script on a remote session Send to tray Transparency Quick start of a duplicate session SSH Handler: Internet Explorer integration pscp.exe and WinSCP integration New command-line options

Comment

Pro
Easy keyboard access to browser links

With Ctrl-Shift-E you get a numbered list of the URLs visible on the screen and can select one with that number.

Comment

Pro
Can show the scroll back buffer in less

With Ctrl-Shift-h you can view the scroll back buffer using less and navigate with a bit more comfort.

Comment

Con
Doesn't support RTL

[add description]

Comment

Con
Keycodes are not passed through following Linux standards

If you come from a Linux terminal emulator (Gnome Terminal, Konsole...) and you rely on key-combos that are widely supported in those, porting the same functionality to iTerm is possible but will require a lot of research and configuration on your part, so account for a long painful adoption period.

Comment

Con
Way too many menu items and settings

Finding the right one is like searching for a needle in a haystack.

Comment

Con
Not quite as fast as Alacritty or Kitty

Comparing these 3 terminals on the same machine/config, iTerm stands out as the slowest of the bunch. The difference may not be noticeable to all users.

Comment

Con
Doesn't support Snow Leopard 10.6.8

Some people still use Snow Leopard or other 32-bit systems.

Comment

Pro
Complete out of the box

Unlike most terminal emulators, iTerm2 comes with a pretty complete set of features. It has built-in search, autocompletion, tabbed navigation, Growl support and even a built-in clipboard manager for various API keys and such.

Comment

Pro
Supported by many applications as a terminal app selection

If an application has terminal integration, there is high probability it allows iTerm2 to be selected.

Comment

Pro
Active maintainers

Issues resolved fast by quality contributors.

Comment

Pro
Can immediately open files inside a text editor

You can Command+Click on a file path to open said file in a text editor.

Comment

Pro
Autocomplete is built-in

iTerm has autocomplete features built in. It remembers your past commands and when you are writing something on the terminal, simply pressing Command-; it will show you a drop down menu of suggestions from which to choose.

Comment

Pro
Extremely customizable

Other than being able to customize the various shortcuts, iTerm2 also lets you customize the colorscheme, font, transparency, etc.

Comment

Pro
Fine tuning for fonts

It's possible to choose a font and adjust vertical and horizontal spacing.

Comment

Pro
You only need to type in commands once

iTerm2 can store up to 4M of history of commands you already used. This, coupled with the built-in search features makes it possible to type a command only once and then search for it through the history for subsequent uses.

Comment

Pro
Works well with tmux

The great mouse and clipboard support that are built-in go really well with tmux.

Comment

Pro
Can be configured as a drop-down terminal

Can be configured to work as a drop down terminal like Quake.

Comment

Pro
Works well with powerline fonts

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Completely free and open source

iTerm2 is completely free and open source. It's released under the GPLv2 license.

Comment

Pro
Intuitive

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Cmd+D to split plane vertically

Very handy to use multi-tab.

Comment

Pro
Cmd+Shift+I to Input all

Wanna SSH your server from multiple tabs, here you go.

Comment

Pro
Any key can be mapped to any function

Using the Preferences Menu you can set up hotkeys to map virtually any action you can think of to a single key or a combination of them. This is extremely helpful as it allows you to use shortcuts to edit commands you are typing in the terminal and while most terminal emulators have shortcuts for this sort of thing, few of them let you define your own.

Comment

Pro
Supports mouse actions

Has support for mouse actions like clicking, dragging, selecting, etc.

Comment

Pro
Split panes

Easy to split panes to either horizontal or vertical sections. Makes it easy to observe multiple console windows.

Comment

Pro
Few dependencies

[add description]

Comment

Con
Can occasionally have font spacing issues

[add description]

Comment

Con
No support yet for 24-bit "True Color"

Though this is still not available, you can download the patched version for 24bit, here.

Comment

Con
Unicode rendering is buggy

There are a few references to urxvt's buggy rendering, such as unicode combining characters, which bled through during scrolling.

Comment

Con
No way to change font size with a hotkey/scale event

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Incredibly fast

rxvt-unicode uses very little memory and takes a lightweight approach without losing many important functionalities. A single instance of urxvt takes about 6.5MB-8MB of RAM.

Comment

Pro
Highly configurable via .XResources

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Minimum dependencies and simple text config

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Fast text rendering

rxvt-unicode has very fast text rendering, being able to render hundreds of MB of text in a very short time.

Comment

Pro
High performance

rxvt-unicode is much faster than most alternatives.

Comment

Pro
Handles bold text colour properly

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Built-in Perl interpreter

It has a built-in Perl interpreter, meaning that no install is needed. Simply run urxvtperl.

Comment

Pro
Supports multiple font types

Multiple font types can be displayed flawlessly in rxvt-unicode.

Comment

Con
Unicode characters that are too wide are blanked instead of clipped

If a character in a backup font is wider than the base font, urxvt substitutes the non-displayable character. A large letter space will show the wide characters, but the result is not reasonably spaced. There is a patch from 2014 that the urxvt maintainer will not merge.

Comment

Con
Requires work to look acceptable

Out of the box, rxvt-unicode is not too pleasant to look at. Some understanding of Xresources is required for updating its appearance. That being said, the experience of customizing it can be very rewarding.

Comment

Pro
Low memory usage

Rxvt-unicode uses very little memory and takes a lightweight approach without losing many important functionalities. A single instance of urxvt takes about 6.5MB-8MB of RAM.

Comment

Pro
Tabbed sessions allow for easy navigation

Tabbed sessions mean that multiple items can be contained within a single window and can be easily navigated by the user.

Comment

Pro
Scriptable

Zoc provides complete automation of the client using its macro scripting.

Comment

Pro
Full of features, more than you'll ever need

What's "best" depends on who's answering the question. For some, best = free, for others, best = full of nifty features. ZOC is for the latter.

Comment

Con
Not free

Quite expensive actually.

Comment

Con
Configuration requires recompiling

Though recompilation takes seconds, knowledge of C header files is required for customization.

Comment

Pro
Copyfree licensing

Copyfree licensing implies that the user has the freedom to copy, use, modify, and distribute what he/she possesses.

Comment

Pro
Support for fontconfig

There is full XFT (X Free Type interface library) and fallback font support through fontconfig in st. If your selected font is missing a certain glyph or symbol, but one of your other installed fonts has it, it will be shown.

Comment

Pro
24-bit "True Color" support

st supports color escape sequences for a full 16 million 24-bit color spectrum, instead of the typical 256 colors.

Comment

Pro
Low memory usage

st is built to serve as a lightweight terminal emulator. It's very light and doesn't require many resources to run, making it able to run well on older and low-end machines.

Comment

Pro
Extremely simple architecture

st consists of a single C file that takes seconds to recompile. This also makes it very easy to understand and customize.

Comment

Con
Dated user interface

It looks like a program from the 90s.

Comment

Pro
Does one thing and does it well

Not bloated with features. SSH/Telnet and a good Xterm emulation. What's there, it does well!

Comment

Pro
Free to use

It's very popular, even among professionals and it costs nothing.

Comment

Pro
Looks good

Alacritty looks very slick on Linux, especially with GNOME or i3.

Comment

Pro
Simple configuration

The configuration file is very well made and easy to use. You can fine tune your preferences to perfection in a matter of minutes.

Comment

Pro
Supports multiple windows, tabs, splits/panes

tmux-like functionality with native UI even on Windows systems allows managing multiple terminal sessions how you like.

Comment

Pro
Looks good

Highly customizable appearance and comes with over 240 built-in color schemes.

Comment

Pro
Open Source and Free

[add description]

Comment

Pro
Supports font ligatures and stylistic sets

Ships with JetBrains Mono, a modern programmers font, so that you can enjoy modern typographical features such as contextual ligatures and font variations/stylistic sets in your terminal environment.

Comment