head to head · open source
Alacritty vs Ghostty
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars, 3,613 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. Ghostty has 61,231 stars, 3,461 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Alacritty leads on adoption by 7% (65,752 vs 61,231 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT. Alacritty has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Ghostty 6%. Ghostty was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Alacritty | Ghostty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 61K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Zig |
| Last push | 2026-08-31 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 3.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Alacritty if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Ghostty if
- You want the Ghostty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You evaluated both and Ghostty fits your workflow better
About Alacritty
Alacritty is a cross platform, GPU accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust and released under the Apache License 2.0, aimed at developers and system administrators on BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows who want fast terminal rendering and are willing to let a window manager or terminal multiplexer handle tabs and splits.
read the full Alacritty overview →
About Ghostty
Ghostty is a fast, feature rich, cross platform terminal emulator that uses platform native UI and GPU acceleration, written in Zig under the MIT licence and aimed at developers who want speed, features, and a native app experience in one terminal instead of choosing between them.
read the full Ghostty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or Ghostty more popular?
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars and Ghostty has 61,231. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and Ghostty free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Ghostty under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Alacritty and Ghostty?
Alacritty is written in Rust and Ghostty in Zig. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Alacritty or Ghostty?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (65,752 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Ghostty if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.