head to head · open source
tmux vs iTerm 2
tmux has 49,900 GitHub stars, 2,942 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. iTerm 2 has 18,142 stars, 1,516 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tmux leads on adoption by 175% (49,900 vs 18,142 stars). tmux is written in C under ISC; iTerm 2 is written in Swift under GPL-2.0. tmux has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, iTerm 2 8%. iTerm 2 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
| tmux | iTerm 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 18K |
| License | ISC | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | C | Swift |
| Last push | 2026-10-10 | 2026-10-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.9K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick tmux if
- You weight community size — 50K stars and counting
- You want the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches C
- 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 Swift
- You evaluated both and iTerm 2 fits your workflow better
About tmux
tmux is an open source terminal multiplexer for developers and system administrators who need to create, manage, and return to multiple terminal sessions from a single screen.
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tmux or iTerm 2 more popular?
tmux has 49,900 GitHub stars and iTerm 2 has 18,142. tmux has the larger community by that measure.
Are tmux and iTerm 2 free?
Both are open source. tmux is licensed under ISC and iTerm 2 under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between tmux and iTerm 2?
tmux is written in C and iTerm 2 in Swift. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, tmux or iTerm 2?
Choose tmux if you want the larger community (49,900 stars) or its ISC licence terms. Choose iTerm 2 if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.