xterm Alternatives

xterm is described as 'The xterm program is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. It provides DEC VT102 and Tektronix 4014 compatible terminals for programs that can't use the window system directly' and is a terminal emulator in the os & utilities category. There are more than 50 alternatives to xterm for a variety of platforms, including Linux, Mac, Windows, BSD and Android apps. The best xterm alternative is Ghostty, which is both free and Open Source. Other great apps like xterm are Tabby, Termux, Windows Terminal and iTerm2.

Copy a direct link to this comment to your clipboard
xterm alternatives page was last updated

Alternatives list

  1. KillerShell icon
     1 like

    KillerShell puts a file browser, a terminal and a text editor in one window, on one tab strip and one set of keys, so you stop alt-tabbing.

    Cost / License

    Platforms

    • Windows
     
  2. Cool Retro Term icon
     40 likes

    Terminal emulator which mimics the look and feel of the old cathode tube screens, designed for eye-candy with lots of graphic options.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
     
  3. iTerm icon
     30 likes

    iTerm is a full featured terminal emulation program written for OS X using Cocoa. We are aiming at providing users with best command line experience under OS X. The letter i represents a native Apple look and feel of the program interface, and an emphasis on complete...

    89 iTerm alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  4. Automatically tiles and organizes all terminal sessions in one native macOS window, scaling layouts from fullscreen to grid, grouping sessions by project with color-coding, enabling instant filtering, supporting any CLI tool, and requiring zero configuration.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  5. Xfce4-Terminal icon
     38 likes

    Xfce Terminal is a lightweight and easy to use terminal emulator application with many advanced features including drop down, tabs, unlimited scrolling, full colors, fonts, transparent backgrounds, and more.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • BSD
    • Xfce
     
  6. Otty icon
     1 like

    Native GPU-accelerated terminal with keyboard-first design, agent compatibility, Unicode, ligatures, inline images, true color, tabs, panes, splits, session recovery, rich color schemes, real-time notifications, fuzzy search, custom layouts, and quick navigation.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
     
  7. QTerminal icon
     7 likes

    QT-based multitab terminal emulator.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Snapcraft
     
    |
    1
    QTerminal vs xterm Comments
    Guest
    Positive
    0

    Split windows and tabbing available built on Qt.

    • QTerminal is Free and Open Sourcexterm is also Free and Open Source
    • QTerminal is Lightweightxterm is not according to our users
  8. Tilix icon
     32 likes

    Tilix is a tiling terminal emulator which uses the VTE GTK+ 3 widget with the following features:

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
     
  9. Rumus icon
     2 likes

    An AI-native terminal for developers. Manage servers, automate commands, and run agentic tasks — all in one beautifully designed, cross-platform workspace.

    Cost / License

    • Freemium
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Windows
    • Linux
    • Online
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
     
You are at page 3 of xterm alternatives