head to head · open source
Warp vs iTerm 2
Warp has 65,069 GitHub stars, 5,563 forks, 5,218 open issues and last shipped yesterday. iTerm 2 has 18,067 stars, 1,496 forks, 73 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Warp leads on adoption by 260% (65,069 vs 18,067 stars). Warp is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; iTerm 2 is written in Objective-C under GPL-2.0. Warp has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, iTerm 2 8%. 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 | iTerm 2 | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 18K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Objective-C |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 5.6K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| 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 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 Objective-C
- You evaluated both and iTerm 2 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 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 Warp or iTerm 2 more popular?
Warp has 65,069 GitHub stars and iTerm 2 has 18,067. Warp has the larger community by that measure.
Are Warp and iTerm 2 free?
Both are open source. Warp is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and iTerm 2 under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Warp and iTerm 2?
Warp is written in Rust and iTerm 2 in Objective-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 iTerm 2?
Choose Warp if you want the larger community (65,069 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose iTerm 2 if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.