head to head · open source
Zellij vs WaveTerm
Zellij has 35,445 GitHub stars, 1,452 forks, 1,915 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. WaveTerm has 22,302 stars, 1,131 forks, 574 open issues and last shipped 8 days ago. Zellij leads on adoption by 59% (35,445 vs 22,302 stars). Zellij is written in Rust under MIT; WaveTerm is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Zellij has attracted 4% as many forks as stars, WaveTerm 5%. 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.
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Side by side
| Zellij | WaveTerm | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 35K | ★ 22K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Rust | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-14 | 2026-09-10 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.5K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 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 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 WaveTerm
Wave Terminal is an open source, AI integrated terminal for macOS, Linux, and Windows. It lives in the developer tools and terminal emulator ecosystem, and it is written in Go under the Apache 2.0 license.
read the full WaveTerm overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Zellij or WaveTerm more popular?
Zellij has 35,445 GitHub stars and WaveTerm has 22,302. Zellij has the larger community by that measure.
Are Zellij and WaveTerm free?
Both are open source. Zellij is licensed under MIT and WaveTerm under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Zellij and WaveTerm?
Zellij 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, Zellij or WaveTerm?
Choose Zellij if you want the larger community (35,445 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose WaveTerm if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.