Alternatives to Ghostty
Mitchell Hashimoto's fast native terminal
Ghostty ranks #7 of 9 in Terminal emulators, with an Alt Score of 73. It is licensed under MIT, free and available on macOS and Linux. 8 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Developers and power users who live in the terminal and want both high performance and a UI that feels native to their OS, rather than a cross-platform toolkit look.
A GPU-accelerated terminal emulator built on the shared libghostty core, with native tabs, splits, and windowing on macOS and Linux. It supports modern terminal standards like the Kitty graphics protocol, synchronized rendering, and hyperlinks, plus OS-level touches like automatic light/dark theme switching and macOS Quick Look integration. It's open source and created by Mitchell Hashimoto.
Install the native macOS or Linux app, then configure behavior, keybindings, and appearance through a plain-text config file. Ghostty runs your normal shell inside its GPU-rendered, standards-compliant terminal, using native platform APIs for windows, tabs, and splits instead of a custom cross-platform UI toolkit.
Why people leave Ghostty
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 | Ghostty | 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 Ghostty is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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License MIT verified 2026-07-11
MIT License Copyright (c) 2024 Mitchell Hashimoto, Ghostty contributors
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/LICENSE -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-11
Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/LICENSE -
Platforms macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-11
Cross-platform: Ghostty runs on macOS and Linux. It uses native UI components on each platform to provide an idiomatic experience. Windows support is planned for the future.
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
GPU acceleration Yes verified 2026-07-11
GPU-accelerated rendering: Ghostty uses Metal on macOS and OpenGL on Linux to render the terminal screen.
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
Tabs & splits Yes verified 2026-07-11
Windows, tabs, and splits: Ghostty supports multiple windows, each with its own tabs and splits. These are all rendered using native UI components.
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
Ligatures support Yes verified 2026-07-11
Ligatures: You can use fonts that have ligatures and Ghostty will render them correctly. You can also specify specific font features to enable or disable.
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
Configuration format Yes verified 2026-07-11
Ghostty is configured using a text-based configuration file.
https://ghostty.org/docs/config -
Session restore Partial verified 2026-07-11
Whether to enable saving and restoring window state. Window state includes their position, size, tabs, splits, etc. Some window state requires shell integration, such as preserving working directories
https://ghostty.org/docs/config/reference#window-save-state -
Themes Yes verified 2026-07-11
Themes: Ghostty ships with hundreds of themes that can be selected with a single line of configuration. Themes can be switched automatically based on system dark/light mode. Users can author their own
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
Cross-platform Partial verified 2026-07-11
Cross-platform: Ghostty runs on macOS and Linux. It uses native UI components on each platform to provide an idiomatic experience. Windows support is planned for the future.
https://ghostty.org/docs/features -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-11
MIT License Copyright (c) 2024 Mitchell Hashimoto, Ghostty contributors
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/LICENSE
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.