head to head · open source
Ghostty vs WaveTerm
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars, 3,461 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WaveTerm has 22,302 stars, 1,131 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Ghostty leads on adoption by 175% (61,231 vs 22,302 stars). Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT; WaveTerm is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Ghostty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WaveTerm 5%. 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.
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Side by side
| Ghostty | WaveTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 61K | ★ 22K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 WaveTerm if
- You want the WaveTerm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and WaveTerm 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 WaveTerm
Wave Terminal is an open source, AI integrated terminal for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It lives in the developer tools and terminal emulator ecosystem, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license.
read the full WaveTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostty or WaveTerm more popular?
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars and WaveTerm has 22,302. Ghostty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghostty and WaveTerm free?
Both are open source. Ghostty is licensed under MIT and WaveTerm under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ghostty and WaveTerm?
Ghostty is written in Zig and WaveTerm in Go. 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 WaveTerm?
Choose Ghostty if you want the larger community (61,231 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WaveTerm if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.