head to head · open source
WezTerm vs WaveTerm
WezTerm has 29,426 GitHub stars, 1,848 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. WaveTerm has 22,641 stars, 1,183 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WezTerm leads on adoption by 30% (29,426 vs 22,641 stars). WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence; WaveTerm is written in Go under Apache-2.0. WezTerm has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, WaveTerm 5%. WaveTerm was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (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.
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Side by side
| WezTerm | WaveTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 23K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-10-26 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.8K | ⑂ 1.2K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick WezTerm if
- You weight community size — 29K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick WaveTerm if
- You want the WaveTerm feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and WaveTerm fits your workflow better
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 →
About WaveTerm
Wave Terminal English 한국어 繁體中文 Wave is an open source, AI integrated terminal for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It works with any AI model. Bring your own API keys for OpenAI, Claude, or Gemini, or run local models via Ollama and LM Studio. No accounts required. Wave also supports durable SSH sessions that survive network interruptions and restarts, with automatic reconnection. Edit remote files with a built in graphical editor and preview files inline without leaving the terminal. Key Features Wave AI Context aware terminal assistant that reads your terminal output, analyzes widgets, and performs file operations…
read the full WaveTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is WezTerm or WaveTerm more popular?
WezTerm has 29,426 GitHub stars and WaveTerm has 22,641. WezTerm has the larger community by that measure.
Are WezTerm and WaveTerm free?
Both are open source. WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry, and WaveTerm is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between WezTerm and WaveTerm?
WezTerm is written in Rust and WaveTerm in Go. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, WezTerm or WaveTerm?
Choose WezTerm if you want the larger community (29,426 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose WaveTerm if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.