head to head · open source
Warp vs tmux
Warp has 65,423 GitHub stars, 5,627 forks, 5,218 open issues and last shipped yesterday. tmux has 49,900 stars, 2,942 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Warp leads on adoption by 31% (65,423 vs 49,900 stars). Warp is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; tmux is written in C under ISC. Warp has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, tmux 6%. Warp 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
| Warp | tmux | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 50K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | ISC |
| Written in | Rust | C |
| Last push | 2026-10-11 | 2026-10-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 2.9K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Warp if
- You weight community size — 65K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick tmux if
- You want the tmux feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the ISC license terms
- Your stack matches C
- You evaluated both and tmux fits your workflow better
About Warp
Warp is an agentic development environment, born out of the terminal, built for developers and teams who want a modern shell on Linux and macOS with AI coding agents working inside it.
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.
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Frequently asked questions
Is Warp or tmux more popular?
Warp has 65,423 GitHub stars and tmux has 49,900. Warp has the larger community by that measure.
Are Warp and tmux free?
Both are open source. Warp is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and tmux under ISC. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Warp and tmux?
Warp is written in Rust and tmux in C. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Warp or tmux?
Choose Warp if you want the larger community (65,423 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose tmux if its feature set, stack or ISC licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.