Alternatives to Terminator
A Linux terminal emulator that arranges several GNOME terminals in grids of split panes within one window. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
Terminator
A Linux terminal emulator that arranges several GNOME terminals in grids of split panes within one window.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as Terminator.
Tilix
A tiling terminal emulator for Linux using GTK 3, with split panes and saved sessions.
Tilix also offers horizontal and vertical split panes on Linux using GTK 3, and adds saved, restorable session layouts, though the project is looking for new maintainers.
Konsole
KDE's terminal emulator for running a command shell, with tabs, profiles, bookmarks and output search.
Konsole brings tabs, profiles, bookmarks, output search and activity monitoring, is designed around KDE Plasma rather than GTK, and has less common macOS and Windows builds.
kitty
GPU-accelerated terminal with tabs, splits, graphics and a kitten scripting system.
kitty is GPU-accelerated with tabs, splits, inline images and kittens for scripting, runs on macOS and Linux, and is configured through a text file with no graphical settings.
WezTerm
A GPU-accelerated terminal that is also a multiplexer, configured in Lua and the same on every platform.
WezTerm is GPU-accelerated, has built-in panes, tabs and remote multiplexing over SSH, runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and is configured in Lua instead of preferences.
GNOME Terminal
The long-standing VTE-based terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop on Linux.
GNOME Terminal is the VTE-based terminal Terminator builds on, integrated with GNOME, but you lose the grid of split panes and get a more conservative feature set.
Deepin Terminal
A Qt terminal emulator from the Deepin desktop with workspaces, remote server management and quake mode.
Deepin Terminal offers workspaces with split panes plus built-in remote server management and a quake mode, built on Qt 5 around the Deepin desktop.
QTerminal
A lightweight Qt terminal emulator maintained by the LXQt desktop project.
QTerminal is a lighter Qt terminal from LXQt with tabs, split panes and a drop-down mode, though it has fewer features than larger terminals.
Ghostty
A GPU-accelerated terminal that uses the real native interface of the platform instead of drawing its own.
Ghostty is a GPU-accelerated MIT-licensed terminal with native window chrome on macOS and Linux, has no built-in multiplexer, and is configured with a single readable text file.
Also worth comparing
These listings name Terminator as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
GNOME Console
A simple, user-friendly terminal emulator that is the default terminal on newer GNOME desktops.
Terminator arranges several GNOME terminals in grids of split panes within one window and can be scripted through remotinator, fitting GTK desktops best.
Ptyxis
A GNOME terminal designed for container-oriented desktops with Podman, Toolbox and Distrobox support.
Terminator arranges several GNOME terminals in grids of split panes on Linux and can be scripted through remotinator, but it lacks container integration.
Xfce Terminal
The lightweight terminal emulator of the Xfce desktop, with tabs and a drop-down window mode.
Terminator arranges several terminals in grids of split panes within one window, is scriptable through remotinator, and fits GTK desktops best.
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.
GNU Screen
A terminal multiplexer that runs several shell sessions in one window and keeps them alive after disconnecting.
Byobu
Friendly configuration layer over tmux or GNU Screen.
Guake
A Python-based drop-down terminal for GNOME, modelled on the console in Quake.
Tilda
A GTK drop-down terminal for Linux that slides in from the screen edge on a hotkey.
