Alternatives to Windows Terminal
Microsoft's modern open source terminal
Windows Terminal ranks #5 of 9 in Terminal emulators, with an Alt Score of 82. It is licensed under MIT, free and available on Windows. 10 of 10 checklist rows are verified against a public source.
Developers, sysadmins, and power users on Windows who work in the command line and want a modern alternative to the legacy Console host.
A single application that hosts multiple shells—Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL distros—in tabs and split panes. It offers GPU-accelerated text rendering, Unicode/emoji and 24-bit color support, and customizable profiles, themes, and keybindings via a JSON settings file.
Install it from the Microsoft Store, via winget (Microsoft.WindowsTerminal), or from GitHub releases; on launch it opens configured shell profiles in tabs/panes that you customize through its settings file or UI.
Why people leave Windows Terminal
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 | Windows Terminal | 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 Windows Terminal 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
https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/blob/main/LICENSE -
Platforms Windows verified 2026-07-11
Windows 10 version 19041.0 or higher
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701 -
Pricing model Free verified 2026-07-11
Free download and install on Windows
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701 -
Status active verified 2026-07-11
Windows Terminal Preview v1.25.1322.0
https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/releases -
GPU acceleration Yes verified 2026-07-11
a GPU accelerated text rendering engine
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701 -
Tabs & splits Yes verified 2026-07-11
Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering engine, and custom themes, styles, and configurations.
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701 -
Ligatures support Yes verified 2026-07-11
Enables ss01 and disables ligatures
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/customize-settings/profile-appearance -
Configuration format Yes verified 2026-07-11
If you prefer to configure your Windows Terminal settings using code, rather than the graphic user interface, you can edit the settings.json file.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/install -
Session restore Partial verified 2026-07-11
persistedWindowLayout", this enables Windows Terminal to save the layout of open windows on close and restore all saved windows on starting a new session."
When set to
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/customize-settings/startup -
Search in scrollback Yes verified 2026-07-11
Windows Terminal includes a search feature that lets you look through the text buffer for a specific keyword.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/search -
Themes Yes verified 2026-07-11
Windows Terminal lets you define your own color schemes, either by using the built-in preset schemes, or by creating your own scheme from scratch.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/customize-settings/color-schemes -
Multiplexer built in Partial verified 2026-07-11
Panes give you the ability to run multiple command-line applications next to each other within the same tab.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/terminal/panes -
Cross-platform No verified 2026-07-11
Windows 10 version 19041.0 or higher
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701 -
Open source Yes verified 2026-07-11
This is an open source project and we welcome community participation.
https://apps.microsoft.com/detail/9n0dx20hk701
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.