When comparing Console2 vs ZOC Terminal, the Slant community recommends ZOC Terminal for most people. In the question“What are the best terminal emulators for Windows?” ZOC Terminal is ranked 3rd while Console2 is ranked 13th. The most important reason people chose ZOC Terminal is:
ZOC has a modern design.
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Pros
Pro Customizable aesthetics
Console2 comes with multiple window styles out of the box and allows the user to configure fonts, colors, and transparency to their liking.
Pro Easy-to-use text selection
Console2's text selection is intuitive and easy to use.
Pro Highly configurable hotkeys
Hotkeys allow the user to easily trigger an action and can be configured to their liking.
Pro Borderless mode minimizes crashes
Borderless windowed mode is basically a fullscreen mode but with a super fast alt tab option and seamless task switching without the risk of crashes or freezes.
Pro Transparency support
Console2 supports transparency. You can adjust how transparent the background should be.
Pro Dynamically resize window
You can change the width and height of the console window without having to reset your session.
Pro Supports fullscreen mode
Console2 supports fullscreen mode, making for greater visibility.
Pro Can run any existing shell
Console2 facilitates the running of CMD, PowerShell, Cygwin, PuTTY, etc.
Pro Free and open source
Console2 is licensed under MPL 1.1/GPL 2.0/LGPL 2.1, making it free and open source.
Pro Tabbed
Console2 allows the user to create tabs for separate instances of the terminal, allowing them to have both multiple shells and multiple instances of the same shell open.
Pro Modern look
ZOC has a modern design.
Pro An actual "Terminal Emulator"
It's an actual terminal emulator (in the sense that it emulates a terminal) and not just a local console window app.
Pro Scriptable
Zoc provides complete automation of the client using its macro scripting.
Pro Flexibility in platform support
Originally developed for OS/2 (as Zap-O-Comm), Zoc is currently available for Windows and Macintosh.
Pro Can view and send to all sessions at once
Offers a thumbnail view of all session in thumbnails and type commands to all sessions at the same time.
Pro Supports serial and dial-up connections
In addition to telnet, ssh, and rlogin, ZOC supports direct serial connections, modem dialing, and named pipes.
Pro Tabbed sessions allows for easy navigation
Tabbed sessions mean that multiple items can be contained within a single window and can be easily navigated by the user.
Pro Hideable UI
Zoc allows for every UI component except the title bar to be hidden. All features are accessible through the context menu.
Pro Auto-Highlight feature
Feature to search for text bits in the data stream and highlight them with color/background.
Cons
Con Not maintained
The development of Console2 has been abandoned. The latest change was made in 2013.
Con Stopping a script closes the tab
Usually when a script is running and you try to stop it with Ctrl-c, it stops and shows the empty command prompt waiting to get a new command. In Console2 this does not happen: instead the whole tab where the script is running is closed.
Con Hard to configure
It does not detect the installed shells (PowerShell, CMD, etc) automatically.
Con Options creep
It has so many options that it's hard to find the one you need.
Con Not free
Zoc requires a commercial license in order to use it, implying that it's not free.