Alternatives to Alacritty
GPU-accelerated minimal terminal
Alacritty ranks #8 of 9 in Terminal emulators, with an Alt Score of 64. It is licensed under Apache-2.0, free and available on Windows, macOS and Linux. 9 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Alacritty is for developers and power users who live in the terminal and want the fastest, lowest-latency emulator available, at the cost of configuring features themselves rather than getting them built in.
A GPU-accelerated terminal emulator focused on raw performance and simplicity, running natively on Linux, macOS, Windows, and BSD. It includes vi mode for keyboard-driven navigation and selection, scrollback search, and regex-based hints for interacting with URLs or other text patterns. It deliberately avoids features like tabs or split panes, expecting you to pair it with a terminal multiplexer (e.g. tmux) or window manager instead.
You install the Alacritty binary and configure it by editing a TOML file (alacritty.toml) that controls fonts, colors, key bindings, and behavior. Changes to the config are picked up live, and the terminal itself is meant to be combined with external tools (multiplexers, shells) rather than handling window/tab management on its own.
Why people leave Alacritty
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
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Ranked alternatives
Ordered by Alt Score. Click any score to see the breakdown.
Feature comparison
Rows come from the Terminal emulators checklist (14 rows). Human-verified cells only. ? means the value has not been verified.
| Terminal emulators checklist | Alacritty | WezTerm | kitty | Tabby | iTerm2 | Warp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | ||||||
| Starts at | ||||||
| License | ||||||
| Platforms | ||||||
| GPU acceleration | ||||||
| Tabs & splits | ||||||
| Ligatures support | ||||||
| Configuration format | ||||||
| Session restore | ||||||
| Search in scrollback | ||||||
| Themes | ||||||
| Multiplexer built in | ||||||
| Cross-platform | ||||||
| Open source |
Every fact and feature listed for Alacritty is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Platforms Windows, macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-11
The supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/README.md -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
0.17.0 ... April 6, 2026
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/releases -
License Apache-2.0 verified 2026-07-11
Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/LICENSE-APACHE -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-11
each Contributor hereby grants to You a perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive, no-charge, royalty-free, irrevocable copyright license
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/LICENSE-APACHE -
GPU acceleration Yes verified 2026-07-11
A fast, cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/README.md -
Tabs & splits No verified 2026-07-11
you won't find things like tabs or splits (which are best left to a window manager or terminal multiplexer)
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/README.md -
Ligatures support No verified 2026-07-11
I do see that alacritty does not support ligatures.
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/6580 -
Configuration format Yes verified 2026-07-11
Alacritty's configuration file uses the TOML format.
https://alacritty.org/config-alacritty.html -
Search in scrollback Yes verified 2026-07-11
Vi mode for regex search, copying text, and opening links
https://alacritty.org/changelog_0_5_0.html -
Themes Yes verified 2026-07-11
Available colorschemes in an appropriate format for Alacritty can be found in the [alacritty-theme](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme) repository.
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/wiki/Color-schemes -
Multiplexer built in No verified 2026-07-11
you won't find things like tabs or splits (which are best left to a window manager or terminal multiplexer)
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/README.md -
Cross-platform Yes verified 2026-07-11
The supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/README.md -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-11
Apache License Version 2.0, January 2004
https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/blob/master/LICENSE-APACHE
FAQ
Yes. WezTerm, kitty and Tabby have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
WezTerm, kitty and Tabby — every license claim links its source.