head to head · open source
Ghostty vs Kitty
Ghostty has 63,286 GitHub stars, 3,827 forks, 251 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kitty has 35,510 stars, 1,581 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Ghostty leads on adoption by 78% (63,286 vs 35,510 stars). Ghostty is written in Zig under MIT; Kitty is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Ghostty has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, Kitty 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.
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Side by side
| Ghostty | Kitty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 63K | ★ 36K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Zig | Python |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.8K | ⑂ 1.6K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Ghostty if
- You weight community size — 63K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Zig
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Kitty if
- You want the Kitty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Kitty fits your workflow better
About Ghostty
Ghostty Fast, native, feature rich terminal emulator pushing modern features. A native GUI or embeddable library via libghostty . About · Download · Documentation · Contributing · Developing About Ghostty is a terminal emulator that differentiates itself by being fast, feature rich, and native. While there are many excellent terminal emulators available, they all force you to choose between speed, features, or native UIs. Ghostty provides all three. libghostty is a cross platform, zero dependency C and Zig library for building terminal emulators or utilizing terminal functionality (such as style parsing). Anyone…
read the full Ghostty overview →
About Kitty
= kitty the fast, feature rich, cross platform, GPU based terminal If you live in the terminal, kitty is made for you ! See kitty website]. image: status", link=" Asked Questions] To ask other questions about kitty usage, use either the on GitHub] or the community] Packaging status in various repositories: image: status", link="
read the full Kitty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Ghostty or Kitty more popular?
Ghostty has 63,286 GitHub stars and Kitty has 35,510. Ghostty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Ghostty and Kitty free?
Both are open source. Ghostty is licensed under MIT and Kitty under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Ghostty and Kitty?
Ghostty is written in Zig and Kitty in Python. 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 Kitty?
Choose Ghostty if you want the larger community (63,286 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Kitty if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.