Open-source terminal emulators and multiplexers in 2026
42 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Alacritty leads with 66k stars, ahead of Ghostty. 41 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: MIT (22), GPL-3.0 (10) and Apache-2.0 (4).
New open-source projects
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1
ThinkTerm RoversX
A modern terminal with a built-in multiplexer: close it and your sessions keep running. Run shells and tons of AI agents across your machines, then pick them up from desktop, browser, TUI and more. Written in Rust with no UI framework: interface drawn straight on the GPU. No Electron, GPUI or webview.
Complete system Experimental You run long shells and coding agents on several machines and want to reattach to them from different devices.
★ 233 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
2
OpsDeck LeoAlecksey
DevOps cockpit in one window: terminal with local AI, Kubernetes, SSH, databases, IDE with git, alerts, notes and KeePass. Free, open source, Linux/Windows/macOS. Рабочее место DevOps-инженера в одном окне.
Complete system Experimental You are a DevOps or sysadmin engineer who wants one native app for terminal, cluster and host work instead of switching between several tools.
★ 217 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 4 days ago -
3
ShellRS since2006
High-performance native SSH client in Rust, GPU-rendered with GPUI: host manager, terminal, WinSCP-style SFTP and port forwarding. Rust 编写、GPU 渲染的原生 SSH 客户端。
Complete system Experimental You manage many servers and want one native app that covers host management, SFTP and tunnels, including bastion hosts such as JumpServer.
★ 459 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 4 days ago -
4
Rune unstablebuild
a fast, GPU-accelerated, full-featured IDE and terminal multiplexer, suitable both for automatic and manual programming.
Complete system Experimental You want one native app for editing and terminals that works with coding agents and lets you reach your workstation from a laptop.
★ 1.5k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
5
Termish farlume
Open-source mobile SSH/Mosh terminal and native AI workspace for Android and iOS.
Complete system Experimental You want to check on or steer coding agents on a remote machine from your phone.
★ 523 MIT Kotlin Active, pushed 4 days ago -
6
VelaTerm vlinx-io
VelaTerm = Codex + iTerm2, The Best ADE for AI Coding
Complete system Experimental You want one app that combines split terminals with session management for several coding agents.
★ 336 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 days ago
Open-source terminal emulators and multiplexers
Complete systems you can adopt 16
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1
Netcatty binaricat
SSH workspace, SFTP, and terminals in one
Complete system Usable You manage several servers and want an open-source alternative to Termius with SFTP and AI help in one app.
★ 7.1k GPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed today -
2
OxideTerm AnalyseDeCircuit
AI-native workspace for local shells and remote machines.Zero Webview, zero OpenSSL, zero telemetry, and no app subscription.Written in Rust+GPUI
Complete system Usable You want a free, native all-in-one remote access client without accounts or telemetry, and can use your own AI key.
★ 1.8k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
3
Rune unstablebuild
a fast, GPU-accelerated, full-featured IDE and terminal multiplexer, suitable both for automatic and manual programming.
Complete system Experimental You want one native app for editing and terminals that works with coding agents and lets you reach your workstation from a laptop.
★ 1.5k GPL-3.0 Go Active, pushed today -
4
Nimble Commander mikekazakov
Nimble Commander - dual-pane file manager for Mac
Complete system Production-ready You manage files on a Mac and want a two-pane, keyboard-first file manager instead of Finder.
★ 761 GPL-3.0 C++ Active, pushed 4 days ago -
5
Termish farlume
Open-source mobile SSH/Mosh terminal and native AI workspace for Android and iOS.
Complete system Experimental You want to check on or steer coding agents on a remote machine from your phone.
★ 523 MIT Kotlin Active, pushed 4 days ago -
6
RSSH rssh-org
An SSH tool dedicated to addressing all pain points · (macOS/Windows/Linux/Android/iOS/ohos(mobile&pc))
Complete system Usable You manage servers and containers from several devices and want an SSH client with sync across them and optional AI help.
★ 510 MIT Rust Active, pushed today -
7
Connexio yandanp
Connexio — Project-based Terminal Manager. Organize terminals by project with persistent sessions, task runner, SSH manager, and more.
Complete system Experimental You juggle many projects and lose track of which terminal belongs to which, and want one window that remembers your layout.
★ 485 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 3 months ago -
8
Oryxis wilsonglasser
Rust SSH Client & Terminal Emulator with an encrypted vault, SFTP, port forwarding, cloud discovery, and P2P sync. Windows, macOS, Linux.
Complete system Usable You want a Termius-style SSH client with host management and sync but no vendor account or Electron.
★ 464 AGPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 6 days ago -
9
ShellRS since2006
High-performance native SSH client in Rust, GPU-rendered with GPUI: host manager, terminal, WinSCP-style SFTP and port forwarding. Rust 编写、GPU 渲染的原生 SSH 客户端。
Complete system Experimental You manage many servers and want one native app that covers host management, SFTP and tunnels, including bastion hosts such as JumpServer.
★ 459 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed 4 days ago -
10
FileTerm St0ff3l
A modern, lightweight remote desktop workspace for SSH, SFTP, and FTP/FTPS. Powered by Tauri, Rust, and React.
Complete system Usable You administer servers by SSH and also move files by SFTP or FTP, and want both in one desktop window.
★ 422 MIT Rust Active, pushed yesterday -
11
Calyx yuuichieguchi
A native macOS terminal app built on Ghostty for running and supervising coding agents
Complete system Usable You run multiple coding agents in parallel on an Apple Silicon Mac and keep losing track of which one is waiting for you.
★ 358 MIT Swift Active, pushed 13 days ago -
12
VelaTerm vlinx-io
VelaTerm = Codex + iTerm2, The Best ADE for AI Coding
Complete system Experimental You want one app that combines split terminals with session management for several coding agents.
★ 336 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 2 days ago -
13
Harness robzilla1738
Native macOS terminal with GPU rendering, durable sessions, coding-agent workflows, and SSH connectivity. Session host, daemon, and CLI support Linux; optional MCP and AI summaries.
Complete system Usable You want a Mac terminal whose sessions survive app restarts and that notices when an agent is waiting.
★ 309 MIT Swift Active, pushed 22 days ago -
14
ThinkTerm RoversX
A modern terminal with a built-in multiplexer: close it and your sessions keep running. Run shells and tons of AI agents across your machines, then pick them up from desktop, browser, TUI and more. Written in Rust with no UI framework: interface drawn straight on the GPU. No Electron, GPUI or webview.
Complete system Experimental You run long shells and coding agents on several machines and want to reattach to them from different devices.
★ 233 GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
15
OpsDeck LeoAlecksey
DevOps cockpit in one window: terminal with local AI, Kubernetes, SSH, databases, IDE with git, alerts, notes and KeePass. Free, open source, Linux/Windows/macOS. Рабочее место DevOps-инженера в одном окне.
Complete system Experimental You are a DevOps or sysadmin engineer who wants one native app for terminal, cluster and host work instead of switching between several tools.
★ 217 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 4 days ago -
16
Conduit gwitko
A mobile terminal workspace for Android and iOS with SSH, Mosh, SFTP, hardware-key auth, tmux helpers, and an optional local shell.
Complete system Usable You need to reach servers from your phone without an account or cloud sync, and want Mosh to survive changing networks.
★ 421 Apache-2.0 Dart Slowing, pushed 3 months ago
Building blocks for your own system 1
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1
PyTermTk ceccopierangiolieugenio
Python Terminal Toolkit - a Spiced Up Cross Compatible TUI Library 🌶️
Building block Usable You want a Qt-like widget toolkit for a terminal app in Python.
★ 921 MIT Python Active, pushed 7 days ago
Integrations 1
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1
Terminal for Obsidian polyipseity
Integrate consoles, shells, and terminals.
Integration Usable You use Obsidian for notes or docs and want to run scripts or git without leaving it.
★ 960 AGPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 4 days ago
Developer tools 24
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1
Alacritty alacritty
A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator.
Developer tool Production-ready You pair your terminal with tmux or Zellij for tabs and splits and want the terminal itself to be fast and simple.
★ 66k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 3 days ago
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2
Ghostty ghostty-org
👻 Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration.
Developer tool Production-ready You want a fast terminal that looks and behaves like a native app on macOS or GTK Linux with sensible defaults.
★ 64k MIT Zig Active, pushed today
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3
tmux tmux
tmux source code
Developer tool Production-ready You work on remote servers and need sessions that survive dropped connections, using a tool already packaged on almost every Unix system.
★ 50k ISC C Active, pushed 2 days ago -
4
Zellij zellij-org
A terminal workspace with batteries included
Developer tool Usable You want what tmux does but with on-screen key hints, floating panes and layouts that work without learning a config language.
★ 36k MIT Rust Active, pushed today
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5
kitty kovidgoyal
If you live in the terminal, kitty is made for you! Cross-platform, fast, feature-rich, GPU based.
Developer tool Production-ready You live in the terminal on Linux or macOS and want splits, images and remote control without adding a multiplexer.
★ 36k GPL-3.0 Python Active, pushed today -
6
WezTerm wezterm
A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust
Developer tool Production-ready You want the same scriptable terminal on every operating system, including Windows, with built-in multiplexing.
★ 29k See repository Rust Active, pushed 10 days ago -
7
iTerm2 gnachman
iTerm2 is a terminal emulator for Mac OS X that does amazing things.
Developer tool Production-ready You work on a Mac and want a mature replacement for Terminal.app with deep tmux and SSH features.
★ 18k GPL-2.0 Swift Active, pushed today -
8
Rio raphamorim
A hardware-accelerated GPU terminal emulator focusing to run in desktops and browsers.
Developer tool Usable You want a fast, minimal terminal and are happy with a younger project than Alacritty or Kitty.
★ 7.7k MIT Rust Active, pushed today -
9
TUIOS Gaurav-Gosain
A terminal window manager that knows what your agents are doing. Tiling panes, workspaces, sessions that survive restarts, and one Inbox for every coding agent. Official only at tuios.dev and this repo. tuios has no X/Twitter account.
Developer tool Usable You run several AI coding agents in terminal panes and want a tmux alternative that tracks which one needs you.
★ 6.4k MIT Go Active, pushed today -
10
Kaku tw93
A fast, good-looking, AI-friendly terminal for the Mac.
Developer tool Usable You use a Mac and want WezTerm's engine without writing your own configuration.
★ 6.2k MIT Rust Active, pushed today -
11
Guake Guake
Drop-down terminal for GNOME
Developer tool Production-ready You use GNOME on Linux and want a terminal you can summon and hide with one key.
★ 4.7k GPL-2.0 Python Active, pushed 3 months ago -
12
Pebrel Kuddev
AI-native, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator for Windows with SSH, persistent sessions, split panes, and first-class AI CLI workflows.
Developer tool Experimental You run AI command-line agents on Windows and want sessions, SSH and files in one native app.
★ 3.7k GPL-3.0 Rust Active, pushed today -
13
Ratty orhun
A GPU-rendered terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics 🐀🧀
Developer tool Experimental You want to experiment with 3D graphics in the terminal or build on its rendering ideas.
★ 3.3k MIT Rust Active, pushed 5 days ago -
14
Xed-Editor Xed-Editor
Advanced Text Editor for Android
Developer tool Usable You want to edit code on an Android phone or tablet with more IDE features than a basic text editor.
★ 2.4k GPL-3.0 Kotlin Active, pushed 2 days ago -
15
vterm akermu
Emacs libvterm integration
Developer tool Usable You live in Emacs and need a real terminal for full-screen command-line programs.
★ 2k GPL-3.0 Emacs Lisp Active, pushed 2 months ago -
16
Tty7 l0ng-ai
The terminal that outlives its window. Shells survive quitting the app, agents can drive other agents, and remote machines work the same way. Pure Rust, GPU-rendered.
Developer tool Experimental You want persistent terminal sessions and coding-agent tracking without learning tmux.
★ 1.4k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed 3 days ago -
17
Yazelix Nova Yazelix
Yazelix Nova is a Nix-packaged terminal workspace built from focused first-party components, including Nova Rio, Nova Zellij, Nova Helix, Yazi, Nushell, Ratconfig, popups, status widgets, cursors, and Anima.
Developer tool Usable You want a ready-made terminal IDE around Helix and Zellij and are comfortable with Nix.
★ 1.2k Apache-2.0 Rust Active, pushed yesterday -
18
TTT Editor eugenioenko
TTT Editor (Terminal Text Tool): A real alternative to VS Code, Zed, and Sublime that runs in your terminal. A TUI that feels like GUI. Single binary, zero config.
Developer tool Experimental You edit over SSH or in the terminal and want something that behaves like VS Code rather than Vim, with no configuration.
★ 1.1k MIT Go Active, pushed today -
19
Termio termio-sh
A terminal-first agentic development environment for agentic coding. Build for CLI/TUI agent. Runtime for Coding Agent, Tmux alternative
Developer tool Experimental You run several coding agents on a Mac or on remote servers and want persistent sessions and alerts without tmux.
★ 785 MIT Swift Active, pushed 3 days ago -
20
Horizon peters
GPU-accelerated terminal board that puts all your sessions on an infinite canvas
Developer tool Experimental You juggle many terminals and agents and prefer a spatial board to tabs or tiles.
★ 720 MIT Rust Active, pushed today -
21
ReTerminal RohitKushvaha01
A Simple Android Terminal Emulator
Developer tool Usable You want a simple, modern-looking terminal on Android and do not need Termux's full package ecosystem.
★ 665 MIT C Active, pushed 40 days ago -
22
Kooky iAmCorey
A minimal modern terminal for AI coding experience — Sidebar workspaces; horizontal / vertical split panes; one-click agent launch; per-agent activity readout; live workspace state with one-click Node and branch switching.
Developer tool Experimental You run AI coding agents on a Mac and want a lightweight terminal organised around per-project workspaces.
★ 655 MIT Swift Active, pushed 24 days ago -
23
Better Agent Terminal tony1223
Multi-workspace terminal aggregator with Claude Code AI integration
Developer tool Experimental You run Claude Code or Codex across several projects and want terminals, agents and git views in one window.
★ 519 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed today -
24
Noctty amanthanvi
A fast, native terminal for Windows. Formerly winghostty. 🌙
Developer tool Experimental You are on Windows and want a Ghostty-like terminal now, alongside Windows Terminal.
★ 517 MIT Zig Active, pushed yesterday
Compared head to head
Open-source licenses
- Permissive: 27. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
- Strong copyleft: 12. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.
- Network copyleft: 2. Like GPL, and running a changed version as a web service counts as distributing it, so its users get the source too.
Languages
Rust 16, TypeScript 6, Swift 5, Python 3, Go 3, Zig 2, C 2, Kotlin 2, Emacs Lisp 1, C++ 1 and Dart 1.
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