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Windows Terminal Alternatives

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

PuTTY

FreeOpen SourceWindowsLinuxBSDPortableApps.comReactOS

PuTTY 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

ConEmu

FreeOpen SourceWindows

Powerful, 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

OpenSSH

FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxiPhoneBSDCygwinHaiku

OpenSSH 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

cmder

FreeOpen SourceWindowsclinkConEmuWindows Command PromptPowerShell

Cmder 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

KiTTY

FreeOpen SourceWindows

KiTTY 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

iTerm2

FreeOpen SourceMac

iTerm2 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

Guake terminal

FreeOpen SourceLinuxBSD

Guake 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

Terminal

FreeMac

The built in terminal window on Mac OS. Totally not bloated, does what it should in a 'lean but mean' way.

Hyper

Hyper

FreeOpen SourceMacWindowsLinuxElectron / Atom Shell

Hyper™ 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

Kitty terminal

FreeOpen SourceMacLinux

Kitty ( 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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