replacing iTerm2

Open Source iTerm2 Alternatives

Terminal emulator for macOS — iTerm2 pricing: Free, closed source. Below: 3 free, self-hostable open source projects that cover the same ground, ranked by real GitHub adoption.

There are 3 open source iTerm2 alternatives tracked on this registry, against iTerm2 pricing of Free, closed source. The most-adopted is Alacritty with 66,115 GitHub stars under Apache-2.0, written in Rust. Together the set has 131,083 stars across 2 languages and 2 licences. All 3 are free to self-host with no licence fee, and 3 of 3 received a commit in the last 90 days. 3 head-to-head iTerm2 comparisons are available.

iTerm2 is free but closed source and macOS-only, so there is no Linux or Windows path and no way to fix or extend it beyond what the maintainer ships. Teams that standardise on it cannot carry the same configuration to a Linux workstation or a container.

Our top 3 iTerm2 alternatives

Alacritty ★ 66K

Alacritty is a terminal emulator built on OpenGL. It ships with sensible defaults but allows extensive configuration, and its stated design principle is integration with other applications rather than reimplementation of their functionality. The project lives in the Rust and OpenGL ecosystem, carries the topics `rust`, `opengl`, `gpu`, `vte`, `terminal-emulators`, `bsd`, `linux`, `macos`, and `windows`, and the README describes the software as being at a beta level of readiness: a few features are missing and bugs remain to be fixed, but many people already use it as a daily driver.

Apache-2.0 · Rust · iTerm2 vs Alacritty →

Kitty ★ 36K

Kitty is a GPU-accelerated terminal emulator designed for power users who spend most of their time in the command line. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, leveraging OpenGL for rendering to achieve high performance and responsiveness. Built in Python with performance-critical components in C, it replaces slower, legacy terminal emulators by providing a modern, efficient foundation for interactive shell workflows.

GPL-3.0 · Python · iTerm2 vs Kitty →

WezTerm ★ 29K

WezTerm is a terminal emulator, meaning it hosts shell sessions and renders terminal output, and it is also a multiplexer, meaning it manages multiple sessions, panes, and windows within the same program. It is written by @wez and implemented in Rust, and it renders through the GPU rather than relying solely on CPU-side drawing. It is cross-platform by design, and it is published as an open-source project on GitHub under the Developer Tools / Terminals category, with user-facing documentation and a guide hosted at https://wezterm.org/.

NOASSERTION · Rust · iTerm2 vs WezTerm →

Alacritty ★ 66K

High-performance terminal with GPU acceleration

rank001 licenseApache-2.0 written inRust

Kitty ★ 36K

GPU-accelerated terminal built for power users

rank002 licenseGPL-3.0 written inPython

WezTerm ★ 29K

GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with multiplexing across all platforms

rank003 licenseNOASSERTION written inRust

last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked

Frequently asked questions

What is the best open source alternative to iTerm2?

Alacritty is the most-starred open source alternative to iTerm2 in this registry, with 66,115 GitHub stars. 3 alternatives are compared here in total.

Are there free alternatives to iTerm2?

Yes. Every project listed on this page is open source and free to self-host — there is no licence fee. Some projects also sell a managed hosted version, but the self-hosted path costs nothing.

What should I look at when replacing iTerm2?

Compare licence terms, community size (stars), primary language and release activity. A fast-moving project with a compatible licence and an active maintainer base matters more than raw star count when you are committing to a migration.