head to head · open source
Warp vs Zellij
Warp has 65,069 GitHub stars, 5,563 forks, 5,218 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zellij has 35,445 stars, 1,452 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Warp leads on adoption by 84% (65,069 vs 35,445 stars). Warp is written in Rust under AGPL-3.0; Zellij is written in Rust under MIT. Warp has attracted 9% as many forks as stars, Zellij 4%. Warp was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (terminal), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
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 | Zellij | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 65K | ★ 35K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-14 |
| 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 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 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Warp or Zellij more popular?
Warp has 65,069 GitHub stars and Zellij has 35,445. Warp has the larger community by that measure.
Are Warp and Zellij free?
Both are open source. Warp is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Zellij under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Warp and Zellij?
Warp is written in Rust 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, Warp or Zellij?
Choose Warp if you want the larger community (65,069 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Zellij if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.