Alternatives to Alacritty
A deliberately minimal OpenGL terminal that leaves multiplexing and tabs to other programs and just draws text fast. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Alacritty
A deliberately minimal OpenGL terminal that leaves multiplexing and tabs to other programs and just draws text fast.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Alacritty.
WezTerm
A GPU-accelerated terminal that is also a multiplexer, configured in Lua and the same on every platform.
WezTerm adds built-in multiplexing of panes, tabs and windows with Lua configuration across Windows, macOS and Linux, but is largely maintained by one person with infrequent stable releases.
kitty
GPU-accelerated terminal with tabs, splits, graphics and a kitten scripting system.
kitty adds tabs, splits, inline image display and kittens for scripting, but drops Windows support and keeps configuration in a text file with no graphical settings.
Ghostty
A GPU-accelerated terminal that uses the real native interface of the platform instead of drawing its own.
Ghostty uses native window chrome with GPU rendering on macOS and Linux, but has no Windows build and, like Alacritty, no built-in multiplexer.
Windows Terminal
Microsoft’s tabbed terminal for Windows, hosting Command Prompt, PowerShell and WSL in one GPU-rendered window.
Windows Terminal adds tabs, split panes and hosting for Command Prompt, PowerShell and WSL, but runs only on Windows 10 or 11 and uses JSON settings.
iTerm2
macOS terminal replacement with split panes, search and session restore.
iTerm2 adds split panes, session restore and native tmux control mode, but runs only on macOS and is licensed GPL-2.0 instead of Apache-2.0.
Contour Terminal
Run shell sessions in a GPU-rendered terminal emulator.
Contour Terminal keeps GPU rendering and Apache-2.0 licensing across Windows, macOS and Linux, and adds terminal tabs and font ligatures that Alacritty leaves out.
Rio
Use a configurable terminal emulator across desktop platforms.
Rio is an MIT-licensed terminal emulator for Windows, macOS and Linux with a modern interface, though the roster lists no equivalent to Alacritty's Vi mode or scrollback search.
Hyper
A terminal built on web technologies, extended with JavaScript plugins and themed with CSS.
Hyper adds CSS themes and npm plugins across all three desktop platforms, but as an Electron app it uses more memory and renders heavy output more slowly.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Alacritty as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
COSMIC Terminal
The terminal emulator for the COSMIC desktop, with GPU rendering, ligatures and bidirectional text.
Alacritty provides the terminal emulation core COSMIC Terminal builds on, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, but has no tabs by design.
Extraterm
An open-source terminal emulator that frames command output and adds tools for working with it.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal focused on speed, with vi mode and scrollback search but no tabs, images or output framing.
foot
A fast, lightweight and minimalistic terminal emulator built for Wayland on Linux and FreeBSD.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal that also runs on X11, macOS and Windows, but still describes itself as beta.
GNOME Console
A simple, user-friendly terminal emulator that is the default terminal on newer GNOME desktops.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal for Windows, macOS and Linux with no tabs by design, so you pair it with tmux or your window manager.
GNOME Terminal
The long-standing VTE-based terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop on Linux.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal under Apache-2.0 that runs on Windows, macOS and Linux but has no tabs, leaving that to tmux.
Konsole
KDE's terminal emulator for running a command shell, with tabs, profiles, bookmarks and output search.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal with no tabs or profiles, relying on tmux or the window manager for multiplexing.
Mintty
A terminal emulator for Cygwin, MSYS2 and WSL on Windows with thorough xterm compatibility.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal that uses ConPTY on Windows 10 1809 or later, has no tabs, and shares configuration with macOS and Linux.
st
The suckless simple terminal, a minimal X terminal emulator configured by editing its source code.
Alacritty is a minimal Apache-2.0 OpenGL terminal configured through a file rather than source code, running on Linux, macOS, Windows and BSD, with no tabs by design.
Terminology
A terminal emulator for Linux and BSD built on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries, with inline media previews.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal for Windows, macOS, Linux and BSD with Vi mode and search, but no tabs, multiplexer or media previews.
Warp
Rust terminal with block-based output, AI assistance and shared workflows.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal with Vi mode and scrollback search, leaving out tabs, AI and blocks, so you pair it with tmux.
WSLtty
A Windows terminal for Windows Subsystem for Linux based on mintty and wslbridge2.
Alacritty is a minimal cross-platform OpenGL terminal under Apache-2.0 that needs ConPTY on Windows 10 1809 or later and has no tabs either.
Xfce Terminal
The lightweight terminal emulator of the Xfce desktop, with tabs and a drop-down window mode.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal that also runs on Windows and macOS, with Vi mode and search but no tabs or drop-down mode.
xterm
The long-running terminal emulator for the X Window System, with DEC VT and Tektronix compatibility.
Alacritty is a minimal OpenGL terminal for Linux, BSD, macOS and Windows with Vi mode and scrollback search, configured by file rather than X resources.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
tmux
Keeps terminal sessions alive on a server after you disconnect, and splits one window into many.
Zellij
A terminal multiplexer that tells you its own shortcuts on screen, so you can use it on day one.
Nerd Fonts
A collection of programming fonts patched with thousands of icons, plus a patcher for adding them to other fonts.
Gogh
A collection of hundreds of terminal color schemes, installed into your terminal with a single command.
Starship
A shell prompt that shows the git branch, language version and other context, configured once and working in every shell.
