head to head · open source
Ghostty vs Zellij
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars, 3,461 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zellij has 35,445 stars, 1,452 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Ghostty leads on adoption by 73% (61,231 vs 35,445 stars). Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT; Zellij is written in Rust under MIT. Ghostty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Zellij 4%. 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 | Zellij | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 61K | ★ 35K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Zig | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
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 Zellij more popular?
Ghostty has 61,231 GitHub stars and Zellij has 35,445. Ghostty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghostty and Zellij free?
Both are open source. Ghostty is licensed under MIT and Zellij under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ghostty and Zellij?
Ghostty is written in Zig 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, Ghostty or Zellij?
Choose Ghostty if you want the larger community (61,231 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Zellij if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.