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 65,763 GitHub stars under Apache-2.0, written in Rust. Together the set has 129,703 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 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 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 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 →
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 65,763 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.