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KiTTY vs st

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When comparing KiTTY vs st, 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 st is ranked 8th. 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

Common Questions

What are the best terminal emulators for UNIX-like systems?

What is the best terminal emulator?

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
Startup sessions

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

Pro
Source Code Available

Source code is available so you could modify or review changes.

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
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.

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.

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.

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.

Pro
Copyfree licensing

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

Pro
Image previews

Handles image previews (e.g. in ranger) way better than other terminal emulators.

Pro
Patches are great

The patches on the site are great. Scroll back, hide the mouse, etc.

Pro
Minimalist

Hackable and lightweight.

Pro
Blazing fast

it is extremely responsive and fast, even on older computers.

Pro
Clean

The terminal doesn't have any bloated features nobody uses. It is very minimal and extendable.

Ad
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
Configuration requires recompiling

Though recompilation takes seconds, knowledge of C header files is required for customization (though it's pretty easy to do for someone who knows how to edit config files).