Apps similar to Zellij include tmux, which is free and open source. Other options are Herdr, Terminator, GNU Screen and RMUX. You can choose from more than 10 Terminal Emulators like Zellij for Linux, Mac and Windows.
tmux is a terminal multiplexer: it enables a number of terminals (or windows), each running a separate program, to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. tmux may be detached from a screen and continue running in the background, then later reattached.
Handle multiple coding agents in real terminals with instant status tracking, persistent sessions that survive disconnects, SSH/mobile reattachment, keyboard and mouse controls, plugin support, and lightweight operation as a Rust binary for enhanced workflows.
Türkiye
Terminator enables the user to run and manage multiple terminal emulators side-by-side in the same window. The main focus is arranging terminals in a grid. (Tabs is the most common default method, which Terminator also supports.
United Kingdom
Offers full-screen terminal multiplexing with independent windows, VT100 emulation, scrollback, and copy-paste. Supports ANSI standards, detaching, and persistent background process execution for shells or commands across Unix-like systems.
United States
Universal Rust multiplexer for the agentic era: detachable, scriptable, and inspectable, with a tmux-compatible CLI, daemon-backed SDK, and native Ratatui integration.
Byobu is a GPLv3 open source text-based window manager and terminal multiplexer. It was originally designed to provide elegant enhancements to the otherwise functional, plain, practical GNU Screen , for the Ubuntu server distribution.
United States
shpool is a service that enables session persistence by allowing the creation of named shell sessions owned by shpool so that the session is not lost if the connection drops. shpool can be thought of as a lighter weight alternative to tmux or GNU screen.
dtach is a tiny program that emulates the detach feature of screen, allowing you to run a program in an environment that is protected from the controlling terminal and attach to it later. dtach does not keep track of the contents of the screen, and thus works best with programs...
Twin is a windowing environment with mouse support, window manager, terminal emulator and networked clients, all inside a text display.
abduco provides session management i.e. it allows programs to be run independently from their controlling terminal. That is programs can be detached - run in the background - and then later reattached. Together with dvtm it provides a simpler and cleaner alternative to tmux or...
