Alternatives to xterm
The long-running terminal emulator for the X Window System, with DEC VT and Tektronix compatibility. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
xterm
The long-running terminal emulator for the X Window System, with DEC VT and Tektronix compatibility.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as xterm.
st
The suckless simple terminal, a minimal X terminal emulator configured by editing its source code.
st is the suckless minimal X11 terminal with true color and UTF-8, configured by editing C source and recompiling, with scrollback needing third-party patches.
GNOME Terminal
The long-standing VTE-based terminal emulator for the GNOME desktop on Linux.
GNOME Terminal is a VTE-based terminal integrated with the GNOME desktop, adding a modern interface but not xterm's Tektronix emulation.
Konsole
KDE's terminal emulator for running a command shell, with tabs, profiles, bookmarks and output search.
Konsole adds tabs, profiles, bookmarks and output search, is designed around KDE Plasma, and has builds beyond Linux for macOS and Windows.
Xfce Terminal
The lightweight terminal emulator of the Xfce desktop, with tabs and a drop-down window mode.
Xfce Terminal is a lightweight terminal with tabs, a drop-down mode and a shortcut editor, configured through preferences instead of X resources.
Alacritty
A deliberately minimal OpenGL terminal that leaves multiplexing and tabs to other programs and just draws text fast.
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.
foot
A fast, lightweight and minimalistic terminal emulator built for Wayland on Linux and FreeBSD.
foot is a fast, minimal terminal for Wayland rather than X11, so moving to it also means running a Wayland desktop on Linux or FreeBSD.
kitty
GPU-accelerated terminal with tabs, splits, graphics and a kitten scripting system.
kitty is a GPU-accelerated terminal for macOS and Linux with tabs, splits, inline images and kittens, configured through a plain text file.
LXTerminal
A lightweight VTE-based terminal emulator from the LXDE project with tab support.
LXTerminal is a lightweight VTE terminal from LXDE with tabs and low memory use, without xterm's Tektronix emulation.
Also worth comparing
These listings name xterm as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.
cool-retro-term
A terminal emulator that imitates the look of old cathode-ray tube screens.
xterm offers precise DEC VT and Tektronix emulation on X11 without visual effects, configured through X resources.
Terminology
A terminal emulator for Linux and BSD built on the Enlightenment Foundation Libraries, with inline media previews.
xterm offers very thorough DEC VT and Tektronix emulation on X11, configured through X resources, with no tabs, split panes or Wayland support.
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.
GNU Screen
A terminal multiplexer that runs several shell sessions in one window and keeps them alive after disconnecting.
Mintty
A terminal emulator for Cygwin, MSYS2 and WSL on Windows with thorough xterm compatibility.
Nerd Fonts
A collection of programming fonts patched with thousands of icons, plus a patcher for adding them to other fonts.
