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Best Terminal for Mac: Download Terminal Alternatives

Compare the best terminal apps for Mac: Warp, Ghostty, iTerm2, WezTerm, Kitty, Alacritty and other macOS Terminal alternatives. Choose a terminal for Mac and download it.

A terminal application gives you a command-line interface (CLI) to your Mac. You type commands, and the terminal runs them in the Unix command line, or shell. Apple includes a terminal application with macOS. Many developers replace it with one that is faster, easier to customize, or built for AI coding tools.

For more about the terminal and how to use it, see the article Mac Terminal. Choosing a terminal is one step in setting up your Mac for development. See the complete Mac setup checklist.

This comparison reflects each app's website, latest version and price on September 27, 2026.

Recommended Terminal for Mac

Apple includes the Mac terminal but I prefer Warp Terminal. Warp is an easy-to-use terminal application, with AI assistance to help you learn and remember terminal commands. Download Warp Terminal now; it's FREE and worth a try.

Compare the best terminal apps for Mac

My evaluation is based on my own experience, discussion with my team members on software engineering projects, and opinions from developers on Hacker News. Here are the short summaries. Each app has its own detailed review below.

  • Warp: best for beginners and for working with AI coding agents. Its command line can be edited like a text document, and its AI help can explain commands as you work, which makes Unix commands easier to learn. The terminal is free; AI use needs credits, a paid plan or your own AI key.
  • Ghostty: a fast, native Mac app that works well with no setup. Free and open source.
  • iTerm2: a long-time favorite for people who work in the terminal all day, with tmux integration (explained below) and many settings for custom configuration. Free and open source.
  • Apple Terminal: already on your Mac. Many developers continue to use it out of habit, though lack of editing makes it cumbersome.
  • Kitty and WezTerm: for developers who want to script and extend their terminal. Free and open source.
  • cmux: a new app built on Ghostty for keeping track of several AI coding agents at once. Free and open source.

Ghostty vs iTerm2

Ghostty and iTerm2 are both free, open source and GPU-accelerated. Ghostty is newer and feels like a native Mac app. It works with no configuration, and it added search and scrollbars in 2026. Its settings are a short text file. Ghostty may need a one-time fix before it works with an older server; see the section on server errors below.

iTerm2 has more features for people who work on servers. It shows a server's tmux sessions as native Mac tabs, can switch its colors for each server you connect to, and can open a file in your editor when you Command-click its path. It also has triggers that act on terminal output, and a password manager. The cost is a large settings window that new users find hard to navigate. Choose Ghostty for a clean, fast terminal, and iTerm2 if you need its power-user features.

Warp vs Ghostty and iTerm2

Ghostty and iTerm2 are conventional terminals: a stream of text you scroll through. Warp changes how the terminal works. Its command line edits like a text document: you can click anywhere in a long command to fix a typo, select text with Shift and the arrow keys, and write a command over several lines. It groups each command and its output into a block. Its built-in agent can suggest, explain and run commands, so you learn Unix commands while you work. You can turn off the AI features in Warp's settings if you prefer. Choose Warp if you want easier command editing and AI help while you learn the command line. Choose Ghostty or iTerm2 if you want the shell to work the way it always has.

Terminal features

These are the features that matter most when you compare terminal applications. Some of them are explained in more detail further down the page.

  • Entering and editing commands: You type a command at the prompt and press Return to run it. Warp lets you edit a command like a text document, with the mouse and familiar Mac shortcuts, while most other terminals rely on arrow keys and keyboard shortcuts.
  • AI assistance: When you don't know which command to use, describe what you want in plain English, and the AI in Warp, Wave or iTerm2's AI plugin suggests one. AI also helps with the syntax of complex commands, such as several commands chained together with pipes, finding solutions you might not have thought of.
  • Blocks: Warp groups each command with its output, so you can find, copy or rerun a single step. Classic terminals show one continuous stream of text.
  • Tabs and split panes: Tabs and panes let you work in several sessions side by side in one window. Nearly every terminal has tabs, and most have split panes; Alacritty leaves splits to tmux.
  • Search and scrollback: The scrollback keeps output that has scrolled off the screen. Search, usually Command-F, finds an error message or a line in a long log.
  • Configuration: You can change colors, fonts, themes and keyboard shortcuts. Apple Terminal, iTerm2 and Warp have a settings window, while Ghostty, Kitty, WezTerm and Alacritty use a text file that you edit.
  • Tmux: Tmux runs several terminal sessions in one window and keeps your programs running on a server after a dropped connection. It works in any terminal, and iTerm2 shows tmux sessions as native Mac tabs. This is most useful for a system administrator.
  • Remote servers: Any terminal connects to a server with the ssh command. Tabby and ZOC add a connection manager that saves your servers, and iTerm2 can change its colors for each server.
  • Notifications: Most modern terminals can alert you when a long command or an AI coding agent finishes or needs your input. cmux and iTerm2 also mark the waiting session on its tab.
  • Drop-down window: A keyboard shortcut slides a terminal down from the top of the screen, over any app, and hides it again. iTerm2 calls it the hotkey window and Ghostty the Quick Terminal; Warp and Kitty have one too.
  • Speed: Most alternatives to Apple Terminal use the GPU (the Mac's graphics processor) to draw text, which keeps typing and scrolling responsive even with a large amount of output. For everyday work, any modern terminal feels fast.
  • Session restore: Some terminals reopen your windows, tabs and folders after you quit the app or restart your Mac. This restores the layout only; to keep a program running on a server, use tmux.

Choose a terminal application for Mac

Think first about how you use the terminal. Beginners, "live in the terminal" developers, system administrators, or developers using coding agents need different things.

Beginners

Beginners often use Apple's Terminal because it is already installed and convenient, once you learn How to Open Terminal. But beginners are often frustrated and confused that the Apple Terminal command line can't be edited like text in other applications. Highlighting and clicking text with a mouse to replace it doesn't work; you can only edit commands with arrow keys and keyboard shortcuts, or reposition the cursor with Option-click. A command line that edits like a text document makes a terminal easier to use.

Beginners also need help when they are learning. Most Unix commands have man pages that explain what they do and how to use them (type man <command> to see them). But AI assistance is better at suggesting commands based on guessing or saying what you want, so you learn Unix commands as you use them.

"Live in the terminal" developers

Some developers have learned to "live in the terminal" rather than use a graphical interface. They prefer speed and customization, such as fonts, colors, themes and keyboard shortcuts, never taking their hands off the keyboard (when they are working, that is). Ghostty, Kitty and WezTerm are popular choices, and each one is configured with a text file.

System Administrators

System administrators who work on remote servers every day need tmux integration, SSH tools and many panes. iTerm2 is the classic choice. It shows a server's tmux sessions as native Mac tabs, and your programs on the server keep running if the connection drops. Tabby adds a built-in SSH connection manager.

Developers using AI coding agents

Developers who use AI coding agents, such as Claude Code, can run them in any terminal. Terminals help in two ways: some help you work with an agent, and others help you keep track of several. Warp includes its own agent and a layout for managing several agents at once. iTerm2 and cmux show which session is waiting for you, and Ghostty sends a notification when an agent needs you. Many developers also run agents inside tmux, which keeps them running on a server after you disconnect, or in their code editor's terminal, next to the code the agent changes.

Try a terminal before you switch

A short test with your own work tells you more than any comparison. Install the terminal, then try these challenging tasks:

  • Edit a long command in the middle, without retyping it.
  • Copy only the output of a command.
  • Search back through a long log.
  • Connect to a remote server.
  • Quit and reopen the app, and see what comes back.
  • If you use AI coding agents, run two and see how quickly you find the one waiting for you.

Download a terminal alternative for macOS

These terminal applications are actively maintained and will run on a Mac with Apple Silicon.

Apple Terminal

Apple includes Terminal with macOS, in the Applications > Utilities folder. See how to open a terminal application. Some users prefer the Mac Terminal for its simplicity and speed. Recent versions of macOS added 24-bit color, built-in Powerline symbols for custom prompts, and new themes. Terminal also can mark each command you run: Command-Up Arrow jumps back to the previous command, and Shift-Command-A selects the text between marks, such as a command's output. You have to learn these shortcuts; they are not intuitive. For users with basic needs, the default Terminal is often enough. However, it has no AI assistance and no blocks.

If you rarely use Terminal, macOS may block a command you paste from a website with a "Possible malware, Paste blocked" alert; Apple explains the alert and when it is safe to click Paste Anyway.

Warp Terminal

Warp Terminal is a terminal application written in Rust, with GPU rendering for speed. It is known for blocks, AI assistance and collaboration features for teams. Its command line works like a text editor, with mouse clicks, familiar Mac shortcuts for selecting text, and commands that span several lines. Warp became open source in April 2026. Warp is a great choice for beginners and a popular choice among professional developers.

Warp's built-in agent can write, explain and run commands for you. Each explanation shows you what a command does, which makes Unix commands easier to learn and remember. Warp also runs other coding agents, such as Claude Code, Codex and Gemini CLI, with your existing subscription to those tools. Warp now describes itself as an "agentic development environment" though it is still a full terminal application.

The terminal is free, and its core features work without an account. New tabs open as a plain terminal, and you can turn off all AI features in Warp's settings. AI use needs purchased credits, a paid plan (from $20 a month), or your own API key from an AI provider such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google.

Ghostty

Ghostty is a free, open-source terminal created by Mitchell Hashimoto. The core is written in Zig, the Mac interface is native Swift code, and it uses Metal (Apple's graphics system) for GPU rendering. It works well with no configuration, and its settings are simple key = value lines in a text file. There is no settings window: Command-comma opens that file in a text editor.

Features include tabs, splits, ligatures, search (Command-F), scrollbars, hundreds of built-in themes, automatic light and dark switching, and a Quick Terminal that drops down from the top of the screen. Ghostty left private beta with version 1.0 in December 2024. The project is a non-profit supported by donations. Ghostty's core engine is also available as a library, libghostty, which developers use to build their own terminal applications, such as cmux, or to add a terminal to other apps so you will see Ghostty in other apps.

iTerm2

iTerm2 is a long-time favorite of developers who work all day in the terminal. It is free, open source and updated often; version 3.7.3 came out in September 2026. It offers almost everything imaginable in a traditional terminal, including split panes, a hotkey window, triggers that act on terminal output, inline images, a password manager, and tmux integration for system administrators who work with remote servers. It has extensive control over fonts and colors, and a GPU renderer that uses Metal.

Version 3.7 added a Claude Code integration that shows on each tab whether a session is waiting for you. AI features come as an optional plugin that uses your own API key or a local AI model. iTerm2 keeps AI separate so that nothing leaves your Mac by accident. On the other hand, iTerm2's many settings can overwhelm users who are new to the terminal.

cmux

cmux is a free, open-source Mac terminal built on Ghostty's engine by the company Manaflow. It is designed for running several AI coding agents at once and finding the one that needs you. Vertical tabs show each session's git branch, folder and ports, and a notification ring tells you when an agent needs your attention. It also has split panes, a built-in browser, and session restore after a restart. cmux is written in Swift and reads your Ghostty settings. It is available only for the Mac, launched in 2026 and changes quickly.

WezTerm

WezTerm is a free, open-source, GPU-accelerated terminal written in Rust by Wez Furlong. It has a built-in multiplexer that manages panes, tabs and windows on your Mac or a remote server. Searchable scrollback, a command palette and image support are among its outstanding features. Quick Select lets you copy a file path or URL on the screen by typing the letters shown next to it. You configure it with the Lua programming language, so it is popular with developers who like to script their tools, and one configuration works on Mac, Linux and Windows. On a Mac, WezTerm draws its own tabs instead of using Mac tabs.

Note that the last stable release came out in February 2024. Development continues through nightly builds, and fixes made since then are only in those builds. To install the nightly build with Homebrew, run:

$ brew install --cask wezterm@nightly

Kitty

Kitty is a fast, GPU-based terminal for macOS, Linux and BSD, written by Kovid Goyal and updated often. It created its own graphics protocol for showing images in the terminal, which other terminals now support. It also offers ligatures, tabs, splits, layouts, and a quick access terminal that drops down when you press a key. Small add-on programs called "kittens" add features, such as showing images, comparing files side by side and transferring files over SSH. You can also script Kitty, for example to open the last command's output in a pager or your text editor. You configure Kitty in a text file named kitty.conf. It is free and open source.

Alacritty

Alacritty is a minimal, GPU-accelerated terminal written in Rust. It has no split panes, and on a Mac it uses macOS window tabs. It deliberately leaves out font ligatures and inline images. It suits people whose tmux or window manager already handles their sessions, and many users pair it with tmux. It offers a Vi mode, scrollback search and regex hints, and its developers still describe it as beta.

Note that Homebrew disabled its Alacritty installer on September 1, 2026, because the app fails Apple's Gatekeeper security check. The command brew install --cask alacritty now shows an error, so download the app from the Alacritty website instead. macOS blocks the downloaded app the first time you open it, because its developers have not registered it with Apple; Apple explains the risk and how to open such an app.

Wave

Wave is a free, open-source terminal built with Electron (a framework for building desktop apps with web technologies). Developers often complain that the Electron framework is a liability that adds bloat to an application. In Wave, one window can hold terminal blocks, a file editor, a web browser and AI chat panels. You can preview a Markdown, image, PDF or CSV file, even one on a remote server, without leaving the terminal. SSH sessions reconnect on their own after a network drop, and Wave's wsh run command runs a command in its own block. Wave AI includes credits while it is in beta, or you can connect your own AI provider or a local model. No account is required.

Rio

Rio is a free, open-source terminal written in Rust, with GPU rendering. One app runs on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. It supports split panels, images in the terminal and hyperlinks, and new versions come out often.

Tabby

Tabby (formerly Terminus) is a free, open-source terminal built with Electron. Its strength is connections: it includes an SSH and Telnet client with a connection manager, a serial terminal, SFTP file transfer, split panes and encrypted storage for SSH passwords. Tabby's own documentation says it is not lightweight, and suggests Alacritty if memory use matters.

Choose a terminal for serial and legacy systems

For a simple serial console, such as a network router or a small computer board, you may not need a special app. The screen command is already on your Mac, and the command-line tools picocom, minicom and tio install with Homebrew. CoolTerm is a free serial app, and Tabby and WezTerm include serial support.

The two apps below connect to older systems and hardware that expect a specific terminal type.

ZOC

ZOC is a commercial terminal for macOS and Windows. It also suits people who manage many servers and want a dedicated connection manager. It connects over SSH, Telnet and serial lines, and emulates terminals such as the VT220 and IBM's TN3270. It includes an address book and a scripting language. A license costs US$79.99, with a 30-day free trial.

MacWise

MacWise has emulated Wyse, ADDS and DEC terminals on the Mac since 1996. It became free in July 2025. Its developer says support is limited and may end.

Skip these terminal apps on a Mac

Earlier versions of this page listed three terminals that are no longer a good choice on a Mac:

  • Hyper: an Electron terminal extended with JavaScript plugins. It has had no new release since January 2023.
  • Extraterm: its newest release has no Mac version, and Homebrew disabled its Extraterm installer on September 1, 2026.
  • Terminator: a Java terminal with no current Mac build. The command brew install terminator installs a different app, GNOME Terminator.

Compare terminal features for beginners

These features are especially useful for beginners.

AI assistance

AI assistance helps you learn and remember terminal commands. You describe what you want in plain English, and the AI suggests a command, explains it, or helps fix an error. Each explanation teaches you a little more about Unix commands, so you learn them while you work. Examine a suggested command before you run it, because AI suggestions can be wrong. Some terminals include AI use in the price. Others connect to an AI provider with your own API key (a secret code from a company such as OpenAI, Anthropic or Google), and the provider bills you for use. Warp's AI needs purchased credits, a paid plan, or your own key. Wave includes AI credits while its AI feature is in beta. iTerm2's AI plugin uses your own key or a local model.

Blocks

The traditional terminal offers a linear, or streamed, interface. You type each command on a new line, and the output appears immediately below it. Commands and their outputs follow a strict sequential flow. Modern terminals support mouse selection and copy-paste, but keep the linear interface as a continuous stream of text.

Blocks became popular recently, and they leave the linear interface behind. They organize commands and their outputs into distinct sections, so you can find, copy and share a specific task. The clear separation of commands and outputs improves readability, especially for complex tasks with multiple steps. Instead of scrolling back and copy-pasting to re-enter commands, you can reuse blocks and jump back and forth among command sequences. Blocks are a significant improvement in terminal usability, especially for beginners, though some experienced users prefer the continuous stream of a classic terminal. Warp puts every command in a block, and Wave can run a command in its own block.

Compare terminal features for advanced users

These features may be unfamiliar to beginners.

Tmux support

Tmux is an open-source terminal multiplexer. It lets you access several terminal sessions at the same time in a single window, and run more than one command-line program at once. On a server, it keeps your programs running after a dropped connection, so you can reconnect and pick up where you left off. System administrators rely on it for remote work, but beginners rarely need it. You can run tmux in any terminal, and iTerm2 goes further: it shows tmux sessions as native Mac tabs and windows. WezTerm has its own built-in multiplexer, which replaces tmux on your Mac rather than working with it.

Ligature support

In typography, ligatures are special character combinations where two or more letters or symbols combine into a single glyph to improve readability. For example, a programming font can display the character sequence => as a single arrow, ⇒. Terminals that support ligatures can display these combinations, making it easier to tell similar-looking symbols apart. Ghostty, iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm and Tabby support ligatures; Alacritty does not. Ligatures are a matter of taste, and some developers turn them off to see exactly the characters they typed.

Fix terminal errors when you connect to a server

Ghostty and Kitty identify themselves to a server with their own terminal type. An older server that doesn't recognize the type shows an error such as missing or unsuitable terminal: xterm-ghostty, and programs such as less or vim misbehave. In Ghostty, add this line to its settings file, and Ghostty fixes the problem each time you connect to a server:

shell-integration-features = ssh-env,ssh-terminfo

In Kitty, connect with kitten ssh instead of ssh, and Kitty copies what the server needs. For other fixes, see Ghostty's guide to terminfo errors.

Use a terminal in VS Code or other editors

Many developers use a terminal inside their code editor. Visual Studio Code and Zed include one, as does the Claude Desktop or ChatGPT Desktop application. You can run commands directly from the editor, without switching between applications, and see the output of your commands alongside your code. The editor's terminal window behaves like a regular terminal: you can run commands, navigate directories, and perform other terminal tasks.

An editor terminal keeps a project's commands next to its code. Many developers run an AI coding agent there, so they can review its changes as it works. The main drawback is screen space. The terminal panel takes room away from your code but shows only a few lines of terminal output. Sometimes it is better to switch applications and give each one the full screen.

Many software developers prefer a separate terminal application that they customize. System administrators and DevOps engineers generally prefer standalone terminal applications for their advanced features and customization options.

Continue setting up your Mac

If you are developing software on the Mac, after upgrading your terminal application, you should:

For programming languages, I provide guides to installing Java, Python, and Ruby.

Don't miss the full visual roadmap and checklist that shows how to set up a Mac for software development, with all the essential tools and settings you might not yet know about.