head to head · open source
Alacritty vs WezTerm
Alacritty has 66,108 GitHub stars, 3,704 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WezTerm has 29,426 stars, 1,848 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Alacritty leads on adoption by 125% (66,108 vs 29,426 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Alacritty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WezTerm 6%. Alacritty was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (rust, 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 | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.7K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 WezTerm if
- You want the WezTerm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and WezTerm fits your workflow better
About Alacritty
Alacritty A fast, cross platform, OpenGL terminal emulator About Alacritty is a modern terminal emulator that comes with sensible defaults, but allows for extensive configuration. By integrating with other applications, rather than reimplementing their functionality, it manages to provide a flexible set of features with high performance. The supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows. The software is considered to be at a beta level of readiness; there are a few missing features and bugs to be fixed, but it is already used by many as a daily driver. Precompiled binaries are available…
read the full Alacritty overview →
About WezTerm
Wez's Terminal A GPU accelerated cross platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust User facing docs and guide at: Screenshot of wezterm on macOS, running vim Installation Getting help This is a spare time project, so please bear with me. There are a couple of channels for support: You can use the GitHub issue tracker to see if someone else has a similar issue, or to file a new one. Start or join a thread in our GitHub Discussions; if you have general questions or want to chat with other wezterm users, you're welcome here! There is a Matrix room via Element.io for…
read the full WezTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or WezTerm more popular?
Alacritty has 66,108 GitHub stars and WezTerm has 29,426. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and WezTerm free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0, and WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Alacritty and WezTerm?
Alacritty is written in Rust and WezTerm in Rust. 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 WezTerm?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (66,108 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose WezTerm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.