What is the best terminal emulator?

Question

7

Options
Considered

27

User
Recs.

Dec 16, 2019

Last
Updated

Here’s the Deal

7 Options Considered

Best terminal emulator?	Price	Supported platforms	Ligature support
-- iTerm2	-	macOS	Yes
-- rxvt-Unicode	-	-	-
-- ZOC Terminal	$96.79	-	-
-- KiTTY	-	-	-
-- st	-	-	-

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score 5 · Answer 1

iTerm2

Top 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. See More

Specs

Supported platforms:macOS

Ligature support:Yes

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Active maintainers

Issues resolved fast by quality contributors. See More

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Extremely customizable

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

Top Pro

Fine tuning for fonts

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

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Can be configured as a drop-down terminal

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

Top Pro

Works well with powerline fonts

Top Pro

Completely free and open source

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

Top Pro

Intuitive

Top Pro

Cmd+D to split plane vertically

Very handy to use multi-tab. See More

Top Pro

Cmd+Shift+I to Input all

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

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Supports mouse actions

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

Top Pro

Split panes

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

Top Pro

Works well with tmux

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

See All

score 9 · Answer 2

rxvt-Unicode

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Highly configurable via .XResources

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

Minimum dependencies and simple text config

Top Con

No support yet for 24-bit "True Color"

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

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top Pro

High performance

rxvt-unicode is much faster than most alternatives. See More

Top Con

Can occasionally have font spacing issues

Top Pro

Handles bold text colour properly

Top Pro

Built-in Perl interpreter

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

Top Pro

Supports multiple font types

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

See All

score 2 · Answer 3

ZOC Terminal

Top 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. See More

Top Con

Not free

Quite expensive actually. See More

Top Pro

Scriptable

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

Top 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. See More

See All

score 1 · Answer 4

KiTTY

Top Pro

Unicode

Uses Unicode for the best character compatibility. See More

Top Con

Not beginner friendly

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

Top Pro

True Color support

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

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on Linux and macOS. See More

Top Pro

Startup sessions

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

Top Pro

Still new

Has no packages for a lot of main distros. See More

Top Pro

Multiple terminal windows

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

Top Pro

OpenGL for rendering

Offloads rendering work to the GPU for lower system load. See More

Top Pro

Can store login credentials

Top 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 See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 5

st

Top Pro

Copyfree licensing

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

Top Con

Configuration requires recompiling

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

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

Top 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. See More

See All

score 4 · Answer 6

PuTTY

Top Con

Dated user interface

It looks like a program from the 90s. See More

Top 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! See More

Top Pro

Free to use

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

See All

score 1 · Answer 7

z/Scope Terminal Emulator

Top Pro

Keyboard customization

Compatibility and support for a wide range of standard keyboards such as IBM, EXTRA, IRMA and RUMBA. See More

Top Con

Not free

But you can request discount for educational or NPO use. See More

Top Pro

Multisession interface

Open many sessions and emulation modes simultaneously: TN3270, TN5250 and VTxxx. See More

7 Options Considered

My Recommendation for iTerm2

My Recommendation for iTerm2

Complete out of the box

Supported by many applications as a terminal app selection

Active maintainers

Can immediately open files inside a text editor

Autocomplete is built-in

Extremely customizable

Fine tuning for fonts

You only need to type in commands once

Can be configured as a drop-down terminal

Works well with powerline fonts

Completely free and open source

Intuitive

Cmd+D to split plane vertically

Cmd+Shift+I to Input all

Any key can be mapped to any function

Supports mouse actions

Split panes

Works well with tmux

My Recommendation for rxvt-Unicode

My Recommendation for rxvt-Unicode

Incredibly fast

Unicode rendering is buggy

Highly configurable via .XResources

Unicode characters that are too wide are blanked instead of clipped

Minimum dependencies and simple text config

No support yet for 24-bit "True Color"

Fast text rendering

Requires work to look acceptable

High performance

Can occasionally have font spacing issues

Handles bold text colour properly

Built-in Perl interpreter

Supports multiple font types

My Recommendation for ZOC Terminal

My Recommendation for ZOC Terminal

Tabbed sessions allow for easy navigation

Not free

Scriptable

Full of features, more than you'll ever need

My Recommendation for KiTTY

My Recommendation for KiTTY

Unicode

Not beginner friendly

True Color support

Cross-platform

Startup sessions

Still new

Multiple terminal windows

OpenGL for rendering

Can store login credentials

Includes additional features over PuTTy

My Recommendation for st

My Recommendation for st

Copyfree licensing

Configuration requires recompiling

Support for fontconfig

24-bit "True Color" support

Low memory usage

Extremely simple architecture

My Recommendation for PuTTY

My Recommendation for PuTTY

Dated user interface

Does one thing and does it well

Free to use

My Recommendation for z/Scope Terminal Emulator

My Recommendation for z/Scope Terminal Emulator

Keyboard customization

Not free

Multisession interface

Allows macros & navigators

Support for TN3270, TN5250 & Unix/VT hosts

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