head to head · open source
Ghostty vs iTerm 2
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars, 3,461 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. iTerm 2 has 18,067 stars, 1,496 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghostty leads on adoption by 239% (61,231 vs 18,067 stars). Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT; iTerm 2 is written in Objective-C under GPL-2.0. Ghostty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, iTerm 2 8%. 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.
← all 8884 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Ghostty | iTerm 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 61K | ★ 18K |
| License | MIT | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ghostty if
- You weight community size — 61K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- 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 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 →
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 →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Terminals projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Terminals field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostty or iTerm 2 more popular?
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars and iTerm 2 has 18,067. Ghostty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghostty and iTerm 2 free?
Both are open source. Ghostty is licensed under MIT and iTerm 2 under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ghostty and iTerm 2?
Ghostty is written in Zig 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, Ghostty or iTerm 2?
Choose Ghostty if you want the larger community (61,231 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose iTerm 2 if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.