head to head · open source
Zellij vs WezTerm
Zellij has 35,918 GitHub stars, 1,518 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped yesterday. WezTerm has 29,426 stars, 1,848 forks, 1,849 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Zellij leads on adoption by 22% (35,918 vs 29,426 stars). Zellij is written in Rust under MIT; WezTerm is written in Rust under a custom or non-standard licence. Zellij has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, WezTerm 6%. Zellij 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| Zellij | WezTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 36K | ★ 29K |
| License | MIT | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Rust |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-26 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.8K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zellij if
- You weight community size — 36K stars and counting
- You want the MIT 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 Zellij
Zellij [ Installation ] [ Screencasts & Tutorials ] [ Configuration ] [ Layouts ] [ FAQ ] What is this? Zellij is a workspace aimed at developers, ops oriented people and anyone who loves the terminal. Similar programs are sometimes called "Terminal Multiplexers". Zellij is designed around the philosophy that one must not sacrifice simplicity for power, taking pride in its great experience out of the box as well as the advanced features it places at its users' fingertips. Zellij is geared toward beginner and power users alike allowing deep customizability, personal automation through layouts, true multiplayer…
read the full Zellij overview →
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 →
More in Developer Tools
Related comparisons
More Terminals projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Terminals field.
Frequently asked questions
Is Zellij or WezTerm more popular?
Zellij has 35,918 GitHub stars and WezTerm has 29,426. Zellij has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zellij and WezTerm free?
Both are open source. Zellij is licensed under MIT, and WezTerm has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Zellij and WezTerm?
Zellij 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, Zellij or WezTerm?
Choose Zellij if you want the larger community (35,918 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WezTerm if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.