Add to Chrome
Add to Edge
Add to Firefox
Add to Opera
Add to Brave
Add to SafariWhen comparing Xfce4 terminal vs ConEmu, the Slant community recommends ConEmu for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” ConEmu is ranked 2nd while Xfce4 terminal is ranked 20th. The most important reason people chose ConEmu is:
ConEmu allows running CMD, PowerShell, Cygwin, PuTTY, TCC/LE, etc.
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Good for systems with low specs
Like other applications included in the Xfce package, this terminal emulator is very lightweight and doesn't require many resources to run. This makes it perfect for systems that have low specs.
Pro True transparency
You can set the transparency of the Xfce4 terminal on any amount you want, out of the box.
Pro Tabs support
Xfce4 fully supports tabs and tab-based navigation.
Pro Almost everything is customizable
You can configure size, color, background, etc.
Pro Composition effects
Xfce4 terminal takes advantage of xfce composition effects.
Pro Fast rendering
Pro Can be switched to a drop-down terminal
You can configure the Xfce-terminal to act as a dropdown terminal if you want, which makes for greater ease of use.
Pro Can be used with any shell
ConEmu allows running CMD, PowerShell, Cygwin, PuTTY, TCC/LE, etc.
Pro Highly customizable
You can configure a plethora of settings, including shortcuts and aesthetics (background image, transparency, colors, and fonts) per software.
Pro Explorer integration
ConEmu integrates well with Explorer.
Pro Highly configurable hotkeys
Hotkeys allow the user to easily trigger an action and can be configured to their liking.
Pro Tab support
ConEmu allows the user to create tabs (Win+W by default) for separate instances of the terminal window, allowing them to have both multiple shells and multiple instances of the same shell open. The user can also set up a startup directory for each tab and run each tab as a specific user or rights.
Pro Run DOS applications with DosBox
If you have both ConEmu and DosBox installed, you can run DOS applications (and games) within a 64-bit OS environment.
Pro Integrates with FarManager
ConEmu was originally designed as an updated front-end specifically for the FarManager, which means it has increased functionality.
Pro Progress Bar integration
ConEmu permits the user to check up on the progress of an operation with a quick glance at the taskbar, without needing to bring the app to the foreground.
Pro Useful status bar details
Not only does the status bar show detailed information out-of-the-box, it can be configured for your specific needs.
Pro Free and open source
ConEmu is licensed under New BSD which is a class of very simple and liberal software licenses.
Pro Dynamically resize the window
You can change the width and height of the console window without having to reset your session.
Pro Run simple GUI apps within a ConEmu tab
With -new_console and -cur_console switches you can run simple GUI apps in a ConEmu tab (or split).
Pro Transparent, Quake-style mode
You can set up ConEmu as a transparent, Quake-style console by following these instructions.
Pro Supports borderless mode
To put ConEmu in borderless mode:
Set Main -> Appearance -> Frame Width to 0Pro Supports Jump Lists
ConEmu allows pinning commands to Jump Lists (available in Windows 7 & 8; accessed by right-clicking the application in the taskbar), giving you quick access to common tasks and configurations.
Pro Search in console input/output history
ConEmu supports searching in all text that has been printed or entered in the console history.
Pro Actively developed
ConEmu is under active development. Updates roll out almost daily with bugfixes and new features.
Pro Box selection
ConEmu offers multiple, configurable ways of interacting with text, including an ability to select text in a rectangular way.
Pro Built-in screenshot tool
The screenshot tool allows the user to capture their computer desktop or anything shown on their computer screen in a static image file.
Pro Auto discovers your shells
Zero config gets you all your installed shells.
Pro Closest replacement for iTerm2 users
Supports many of the features that iTerm users have become accustom to (like multiple tabs, highlighting, configurable scroll bars, decent support for themed color pallets to support basic/solarized/etc.).
Pro Works well with Vim/Neovim on Windows
There were issues before that forced me to use graphical versions of Vim/Neovim, but latest versions of Conemu + Neovim, seem to be working much better on Windows now.
Pro Works well with WSL/Tmux/Neovim/SSH
There were issues before in the WSL usage scenario that forced me to use an X gui terminal using X forwarding, but now Conemu is working great, and is the only terminal I use from Windows/WSL.
Cons
Con Cannot set text color for character under cursor to background color
Suppose you have a dark background with a light cursor and light foreground color: the light cursor will cover up whatever character it is on, so that you cannot read it. There is no option to set the foreground color for the character under the cursor to what is normally the background color. Such an option would allow you to read the character under the cursor.
Con Execution in xfce4-terminal - e mode is not always functional
Con Resizing text resizes window
Con No profiles
There's no profiles or profile-based customization in Xfce-terminal.
Con Can't scroll on spamming text
When text generates too fast, you can't scroll it, so you just can't read anything in such moments.
Con Does not support sixel images
Con Default look is somewhat unpleasant
In order to get a more pleasant look and feel, you may need to customize ConEmu yourself.
Con Layering of features per tab works with limited functionality
Can't do all of this, but it can theme colors per terminal:
Tab 1: I want it transparent, with a fixed background, with a certain color scheme, running powershell
Tab 2: Similar thing, but different bg, theme, and running posh as admin
Tab 3: Similar thing, but different bg, theme, and running cygwin
Con Bad scrolling support
The mouse wheel scroll doesn't transfer to terminal applications by default. It moves to the blank space instead of scrolling actual text content. This is especially true for ConEmu where there doesn't seem to be a way to make it work better.
Con It is slow
If you have a console process that outputs a lot, ConEmu will be the slowest option. Everything else will be faster. Even Terminus, which is, common, a packed web browser app. In my tests if ConEmu takes one unit of time, Terminus and Windows Terminal will be 0.6, FluentTerminal 0.35, Alacritty 0.3.
Con Poor performance with WSL
Con Screen scrapes from real console
ConEmu always runs the standard Windows console - ‘real console’, but it is hidden most of time.
This adds overhead, introduces another layer of complexity, and frequently creates irritating strange glitches (lost keys, messed up spacing) for heavy users.
Con Only simple, black and white emoji
It's not much, but is sad we can't get colored emojis. May change soon, I'm working on a PR.
Con No remote connections
A terminal emulator should emulate a terminal, i.e. a local input/output device to a remote computer. ConEmu can only run local processes in a window (albeit nicer than the local command shell window).
