Terminal Emulator
Comparison
Tracking things I care about in a some terminal emulators I use.
iTerm2 | kitty | alacritty | cool-retro-term | Ghostty | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Multiple Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Select a rectangle | cmd-opt | No | ctrl-opt | No | opt |
Tabs | cmd-t | No | Yes | No | cmd-t |
Panes | cmd-d / cmd-shift-d | No | No | No | cmd-d / cmd-shfit-d |
Broadcast input | opt-cmd-i | No | No | No | No (discussion) |
Speed | medium | fast | fast | slow | fast |
Easily export prefs | Decent | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
Cross-platform | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Fancy graphics effects | No | No | No | Yes | Yes |
Search scrollback | Yes | Yes (docs) | Yes | No | No (issue) |
Links
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terminal_emulators
- https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/performance: Performance comparison of several popular terminal emulators comopared to kitty
- https://jvns.ca/blog/2024/10/01/terminal-colours: "Terminal colours are tricky"
- https://poor.dev/blog/terminal-anatomy: "Anatomy of a Terminal Emulator"