head to head · open source
Ghostty vs WezTerm
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars, 3,461 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WezTerm has 28,933 stars, 1,744 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghostty leads on adoption by 112% (61,231 vs 28,933 stars). Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT; WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Ghostty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WezTerm 6%. 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 | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 61K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Zig | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| 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 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 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 WezTerm
WezTerm is a GPU accelerated, cross platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez in Rust, intended for developers and terminal users who want one terminal configuration and one multiplexing model across every operating system they work on.
read the full WezTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostty or WezTerm more popular?
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars and WezTerm has 28,933. Ghostty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghostty and WezTerm free?
Both are open source. Ghostty is licensed under MIT, and WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Ghostty and WezTerm?
Ghostty is written in Zig 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, Ghostty or WezTerm?
Choose Ghostty if you want the larger community (61,231 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WezTerm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.