head to head · open source
Alacritty vs iTerm 2
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars, 3,613 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. iTerm 2 has 18,067 stars, 1,496 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Alacritty leads on adoption by 264% (65,752 vs 18,067 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; iTerm 2 is written in Objective-C under GPL-2.0. Alacritty has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, iTerm 2 8%. iTerm 2 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 | iTerm 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 18K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-08-31 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 iTerm 2 if
- You want the iTerm 2 feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Objective-C
- You evaluated both and iTerm 2 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 iTerm 2
iTerm 2 is a terminal emulator for macOS, written in Objective C and licensed under GPL 2.0. It replaces the default macOS terminal with an interface for shells, tabs, panes, and remote sessions. The project lives in the macOS developer tools ecosystem, where command line work, SSH sessions, tmux sessions, and shell history need one persistent client.
read the full iTerm 2 overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or iTerm 2 more popular?
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars and iTerm 2 has 18,067. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and iTerm 2 free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0 and iTerm 2 under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Alacritty and iTerm 2?
Alacritty is written in Rust and iTerm 2 in Objective-C. 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 iTerm 2?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (65,752 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose iTerm 2 if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.