head to head · open source
Alacritty vs WezTerm
Alacritty has 65,753 GitHub stars, 3,613 forks, 340 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. WezTerm has 28,933 stars, 1,744 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Alacritty leads on adoption by 127% (65,753 vs 28,933 stars). Alacritty is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Alacritty has attracted 5% as many forks as stars, WezTerm 6%. WezTerm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (rust, terminal, terminal-emulators), 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.
← all 13541 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Alacritty | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 66K | ★ 29K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-08-31 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.6K | ⑂ 1.7K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Alacritty if
- You weight community size — 66K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WezTerm if
- You want the WezTerm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You evaluated both and WezTerm fits your workflow better
About Alacritty
Alacritty is a cross platform, GPU accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust and released under the Apache License 2.0, aimed at developers and system administrators on BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows who want fast terminal rendering and are willing to let a window manager or terminal multiplexer handle tabs and splits.
read the full Alacritty overview →
About WezTerm
WezTerm is a GPU accelerated, cross platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez in Rust, intended for developers and terminal users who want one terminal configuration and one multiplexing model across every operating system they work on.
read the full WezTerm overview →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Terminals projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Terminals field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Alacritty or WezTerm more popular?
Alacritty has 65,753 GitHub stars and WezTerm has 28,933. Alacritty has the larger community by that measure.
Are Alacritty and WezTerm free?
Both are open source. Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0, and WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Alacritty and WezTerm?
Alacritty is written in Rust and WezTerm 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, Alacritty or WezTerm?
Choose Alacritty if you want the larger community (65,753 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose WezTerm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.