head to head · open source
Alacritty vs Kitty
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars, 3,613 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. Kitty has 34,947 stars, 1,513 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Alacritty leads on adoption by 88% (65,752 vs 34,947 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Kitty is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Alacritty has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Kitty 4%. Kitty was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (opengl, terminal, terminal-emulators), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Kitty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 35K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| 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 Kitty if
- You want the Kitty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Kitty 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 Kitty
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.
read the full Kitty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or Kitty more popular?
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars and Kitty has 34,947. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and Kitty free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Kitty under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Alacritty and Kitty?
Alacritty is written in Rust and Kitty in Python. 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 Kitty?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (65,752 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Kitty if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.