head to head · open source
tmux vs WezTerm
tmux has 50,123 GitHub stars, 2,985 forks, 44 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. WezTerm has 29,426 stars, 1,848 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. tmux leads on adoption by 70% (50,123 vs 29,426 stars). tmux is written in C under ISC; WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. tmux has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WezTerm 6%. tmux 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 | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 50K | ★ 29K |
| License | ISC | Custom / other |
| Written in | C | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-01 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| 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 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 tmux
Welcome to tmux! tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. tmux may be detached from a screen and continue running in the background, then later reattached. This release runs on OpenBSD, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Linux, macOS and Solaris. Dependencies tmux depends on libevent 2.x, available from this page. It also depends on ncurses, available from this page. To build tmux, a C compiler (for example gcc or clang), make, pkg config and a suitable yacc (yacc or bison) are needed. Installation Binary packages Some platforms provide binary…
About WezTerm
Wez's Terminal A GPU accelerated cross platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust User facing docs and guide at: Screenshot of wezterm on macOS, running vim Installation Getting help This is a spare time project, so please bear with me. There are a couple of channels for support: You can use the GitHub issue tracker to see if someone else has a similar issue, or to file a new one. Start or join a thread in our GitHub Discussions; if you have general questions or want to chat with other wezterm users, you're welcome here! There is a Matrix room via Element.io for…
read the full WezTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is tmux or WezTerm more popular?
tmux has 50,123 GitHub stars and WezTerm has 29,426. tmux has the larger community by that measure.
Are tmux and WezTerm free?
Both are open source. tmux is licensed under ISC, and WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between tmux and WezTerm?
tmux is written in C 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, tmux or WezTerm?
Choose tmux if you want the larger community (50,123 stars) or its ISC licence terms. Choose WezTerm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.