head to head · open source
Alacritty vs Zellij
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars, 3,613 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 18 days ago. Zellij has 35,445 stars, 1,452 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Alacritty leads on adoption by 86% (65,752 vs 35,445 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Zellij is written in Rust under MIT. Alacritty has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, Zellij 4%. Zellij was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (terminal), 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 | Zellij | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 35K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-08-31 | 2026-09-14 |
| 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 Zellij if
- You want the Zellij feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and Zellij 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 Zellij
Zellij is a terminal workspace and multiplexer written in Rust that gives developers, operations engineers, and anyone who loves the terminal built in layouts, tabs, panes, and a WebAssembly plugin system, built so that simplicity and power do not have to be traded against each other.
read the full Zellij overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or Zellij more popular?
Alacritty has 65,752 GitHub stars and Zellij has 35,445. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and Zellij free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Zellij under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Alacritty and Zellij?
Alacritty is written in Rust and Zellij 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 Zellij?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (65,752 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Zellij if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.