Windows Terminal Alternatives
Windows Terminal
Windows Terminal is a new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal application for command-line users. It includes many of the features most frequently requested by the Windows command-line community including support for tabs, rich text, globalization, configurability, theming & styling, and more.
The Terminal will also need to meet our goals and measures to ensure it remains fast, and efficient, and doesn't consume vast amounts of memory or power.
The Windows console host, conhost.exe, is Windows' original command-line user experience. It implements Windows' command-line infrastructure, and is responsible for hosting the Windows Console API, input engine, rendering engine, and user preferences. The console host code in this repository is the actual source from which the conhost.exe in Windows itself is built.
Console's primary goal is to remain backwards-compatible with existing console subsystem applications.
Since assuming ownership of the Windows command-line in 2014, the team has added several new features to the Console, including window transparency, line-based selection, support for ANSI / Virtual Terminal sequences, 24-bit color, a Pseudoconsole ("ConPTY"), and more.
However, because the Console's primary goal is to maintain backward compatibility, we've been unable to add many of the features the community has been asking for, and which we've been wanting to add for the last several years--like tabs!
These limitations led us to create the new Windows Terminal.
While overhauling the Console, we've modernized its codebase considerably. We've cleanly separated logical entities into modules and classes, introduced some key extensibility points, replaced several old, home-grown collections and containers with safer, more efficient STL containers, and made the code simpler and safer by using Microsoft's WIL header library.
Best Windows Terminal Alternatives
Looking for a program that is like Windows Terminal? We have our top picks here. If you need another program that has some of the features of Windows Terminal on your device, read what we recommend in this post.
PuTTY
FreeOpen SourceWindowsLinuxBSDPortableApps.comReactOSPuTTY is a free and open-source terminal emulator, serial console and network file transfer application. It supports several network protocols, including SCP, SSH...
Features:
- SSH
- Built-in SSH client
- Telnet client
- Host management
- Support for SFTP
- Configurable
- Download Accelerators
- Lightweight
- Session management
- Tabbed interface
- Terminal emulator
- Xterm emulation
ConEmu
FreeOpen SourceWindowsPowerful, fast and reliable Windows terminal that can run any console WinAPI or Unix PTY app.
Features:
- Tabbed interface
- Quake-style
- Command line
- Customizable
- Multi-tabs
- Multiple window layouts
- Shell integration
- Split-screen view
- ANSI color support
- Create SSH users
- Developer Tools
- Support for Keyboard Shortcuts
- Kubernetes
- Portable
- Programmatic Tab and Window Management
- Remote Debugging
- Tabs
OpenSSH
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxiPhoneBSDCygwinHaikuOpenSSH is a free version of the SSH connectivity tools that technical users rely on. OpenSSH encrypts all traffic (including passwords) to effectively eliminate...
Features:
- Encryption
- File transfer
- Jailbreak required
- Bundled with macOS
- Networking
- Support for SFTP
- SSH
cmder
FreeOpen SourceWindowsclinkConEmuWindows Command PromptPowerShellCmder is an open-source replacement for the Windows command-line. It relies on ConEmu , extending it with the power of...
Features:
- Terminal emulator
- ANSI color support
- Built-in SSH client
- Command line/bash
- Command line interface
- Customizable
- Developer Tools
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Lightweight
- Portable
- Tabbed interface
- Terminal emulator
KiTTY
FreeOpen SourceWindowsKiTTY is an opensource terminal emulator, forked from PuTTY , that adds many extra features to the original software. The very...
Features:
- Portable
- SSH
- Ssh tunnel
- Auto-saving
- Auto-login
- Built-in editor
- Support for Keyboard Shortcuts
- Multiple Browser Tabs
- Session management
- Terminal emulator
iTerm2
FreeOpen SourceMaciTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.10 or newer. iTerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features...
Features:
- Customizable
- Annotate history
- Clean design
- Dropdown terminal
- Dual Pane Support
- Growl integration
- Integrated Search
- Key binding
- Multiple languages
- Quake-style
- Split windows
- SSH
- Terminal emulator
Guake terminal
FreeOpen SourceLinuxBSDGuake is a top-down terminal for Gnome (in the style of Yakuake for KDE, Tilda or the terminal used in Quake). Guake is already package by a number of distribution...
Features:
- Dropdown terminal
- Quake-style
- You can edit preferences without restart
- Built-in Terminal
- Split tabs
- Tabbed interface
- Terminal-based
- Terminal emulator
Terminal
FreeMacThe built in terminal window on Mac OS. Totally not bloated, does what it should in a 'lean but mean' way.
Hyper
FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxElectron / Atom ShellHyper™ is a beautiful and extensible, cross-platform terminal built on open web standards. It provides an elegant command-line experience that is consistent across all...
Features:
- Extensible by Plugins/Extensions
- Split-screen view
- Tiling Panes
- Clean design
- Command line interface
- Customizable
- Divisible
- Electron based
- Multiple Font Colors
- Plugin API
- Skinnable
- Terminal emulator
- Support for Themes
- Uses Packages
Kitty terminal
FreeOpen SourceMacLinuxKitty ( not to be confused with KiTTY ) is a powerful, cross-platform GPU-based terminal emulator. It offloads rendering to the GPU...
Features:
- Font Ligature Support
- Command line
- GPU based
- Split-screen view
- Terminal emulator
- Tiling Layouts
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