Alternatives to kitty
Fast, feature-full, scriptable terminal
kitty ranks #2 of 9 in Terminal emulators, with an Alt Score of 91. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, free and available on macOS and Linux. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Developers and power users who live in the terminal on Linux or macOS and want a faster, more capable terminal emulator than the stock options.
A GPU-accelerated terminal with threaded rendering for low input latency, built-in support for tabs, window splits/layouts, ligatures, emoji, and variable fonts. It has a graphics protocol for displaying images and animations directly in the terminal, plus a scripting and remote-control system extensible via Python-based 'kittens'.
Install a prebuilt binary or build from source, then configure fonts, colors, keybindings, and behavior in a plain-text kitty.conf file. Remote control and kittens let you script the terminal or add custom commands on top of the base setup.
Where kitty stands out
Verified capabilities most alternatives don't have.
Why people leave kitty
Dashed reasons are sourced facts; the rest are opinions. Vendors can dispute.
Sign in to add a reason — new reasons go through moderation before appearing.
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 | kitty | WezTerm | Tabby | iTerm2 | Warp | Windows Terminal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 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 kitty is verified against its own pages. Each alternative is sourced on its own page.
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Platforms macOS, Linux verified 2026-07-11
You can install pre-built binaries of kitty if you are on macOS or Linux using the following simple command:
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/binary/ -
License GPL-3.0 verified 2026-07-11
GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE Version 3, 29 June 2007
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/blob/master/LICENSE -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-11
The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/blob/master/LICENSE -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
v0.47.4
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/tag/v0.47.4 -
GPU acceleration Yes verified 2026-07-11
Cross-platform, fast, feature-rich, GPU based.
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty -
Tabs & splits Yes verified 2026-07-11
kitty is capable of running multiple programs organized into tabs and windows
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/overview/ -
Ligatures support Yes verified 2026-07-11
Choose how you want to handle multi-character ligatures. The default is to always render them.
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/conf/#opt-kitty.disable_ligatures -
Configuration format Yes verified 2026-07-11
A kitty.conf with commented default configurations and descriptions will be created if the file does not exist.
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/conf/ -
Session restore Yes verified 2026-07-11
You can control the tabs, kitty window layout, working directory, startup programs, etc. by creating a session file and using the kitty --session command line flag or the startup_session option in kit
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/overview/#startup-sessions -
Search in scrollback Partial verified 2026-07-11
open the scrollback buffer in your favorite pager program (which is less by default). Colors and text formatting are preserved.
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/overview/#the-kitty-shell -
Themes Yes verified 2026-07-11
The themes kitten allows you to easily change color themes, from a collection of over three hundred pre-built themes available at kitty-themes.
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/kittens/themes/ -
Multiplexer built in Yes verified 2026-07-11
kitty is capable of running multiple programs organized into tabs and windows
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/overview/ -
Cross-platform Partial verified 2026-07-11
You can install pre-built binaries of kitty if you are on macOS or Linux using the following simple command:
https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/binary/ -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-11
The GNU General Public License is a free, copyleft license for software and other kinds of works.
https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/blob/master/LICENSE
FAQ
Yes. WezTerm, Tabby and Warp have a free tier or are fully free. Free-tier limits in the comparison table are verified and dated.
WezTerm, Tabby and iTerm2 — every license claim links its source.