When comparing KiTTY vs ROXTerm, the Slant community recommends KiTTY for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for UNIX-like systems?” KiTTY is ranked 2nd while ROXTerm is ranked 21st. The most important reason people chose KiTTY is:
- 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
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
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
Pro Source Code Available
Source code is available so you could modify or review changes.
Pro Startup sessions
Support start-up sessions which allow you to specify the window/tab layout, working directories, and programs to run on startup.
Pro Can store login credentials
Ability to store passwords/passphrases locally.
Pro Clickable URLs
URLs are parsed and can be clicked.
Pro Auto login script
Automatic processing of commands after conncetion was made.
Pro True Color support
Supports True Color, so software like Vim can display a really nice pallet.
Pro Portable version available
Pro Background image
Ability to overlay the terminal background with an image.
Pro Unicode
Uses Unicode for the best character compatibility.
Pro Drag and drop
ROXTerm supports dragging and dropping items into the Terminal window.
Pro Advanced D-Bus usage
In ROXTerm, users can use D-Bus to configure terminals from other applications, allowing for communication between multiple computer programs.
Pro Includes a configuration manager
ROXTerm includes a configuration manager which can easily be run by selecting Configure...
in the terminal's menu, or by simply running roxterm-config
. You can then easily swap configuration files with other users, manage profiles, and customize things like color schemes or keyboard shortcuts.

Pro Supports GTK3
ROXTerm uses the latest GTK widget set which is great a multi-platform toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces.
Cons
Con No centralized configuration
Each session holds its own configuration of all features. This means that if one wants to change a configuration common to all sessions (say, the terminal font), it has to be changed in each stored session separately.
A better solution would be to have a default configuration and store only the changed elements for each session (both configurations would be merged, with e priority on the specific one).
Con No tabbed sessions
No built-in support for tabbed sessions. Requires an add-on.
Con No mouse support in alternative screens
Like vim, less, etc.
Con Uncertain future
The original developer, Tony Houghton, declared the death of Roxterm on 2016-05 at https://sourceforge.net/p/roxterm/discussion/422638/thread/60da6975/?limit=25#3fc9.
In 2018, work began to resume on Github rather than Sourceforge (https://github.com/realh/roxterm/issues/1) but the future maintenance is uncertain.
Con Not for regular users
ROXTerm is made for power users who spend most of their time on the terminal. For a regular user using ROXTerm it would be an overkill.
