head to head · open source
Zellij vs Kitty
Zellij has 35,445 GitHub stars, 1,452 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. Kitty has 34,947 stars, 1,513 forks, 12 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Zellij leads on adoption by 1% (35,445 vs 34,947 stars). Zellij is written in Rust under MIT; Kitty is written in Python under GPL-3.0. Zellij has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, Kitty 4%. Kitty 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
| Zellij | Kitty | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 35K |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.5K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Zellij if
- You weight community size — 35K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Kitty if
- You want the Kitty feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and Kitty fits your workflow better
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 →
About Kitty
Kitty is a GPU accelerated terminal emulator designed for power users who spend most of their time in the command line. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows, leveraging OpenGL for rendering to achieve high performance and responsiveness. Built in Python with performance critical components in C, it replaces slower, legacy terminal emulators by providing a modern, efficient foundation for interactive shell workflows.
read the full Kitty overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zellij or Kitty more popular?
Zellij has 35,445 GitHub stars and Kitty has 34,947. Zellij has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zellij and Kitty free?
Both are open source. Zellij is licensed under MIT and Kitty under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zellij and Kitty?
Zellij is written in Rust and Kitty in Python. 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 Kitty?
Choose Zellij if you want the larger community (35,445 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Kitty if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.