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Indie alternatives to macOS Terminal

5 products made by independent developers and small teams that do what macOS Terminal does, 5 of them with a free plan. Free and open-source options come first.

At a glance

Product	Price	Open source	Self-host	Platforms
Ghostty	Free	Yes	–	Mac, Linux
iTerm2	Free	Yes	–	Mac
kitty	Free	Yes	–	Mac, Linux
WezTerm	Free	Yes	–	Mac, Windows, Linux
Warp	Free plan	–	–	Mac, Windows, Linux

The alternatives

1. Ghostty

Fast, native, feature-rich terminal emulator

Ghostty is an open-source terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration.

Free · Mac, Linux · Website ↗

2. iTerm2

Feature-rich terminal replacement for macOS

iTerm2 is a free, open-source terminal for macOS with split panes, search, autocomplete, profiles and shell integration.

Free · Mac · Website ↗

3. kitty

Fast, feature-rich GPU terminal emulator

kitty is a GPU-based terminal with tabs, splits, graphics protocol and scriptable extensions called kittens.

Free · Mac, Linux · Website ↗

4. WezTerm

GPU-accelerated terminal and multiplexer

WezTerm is a cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer configured in Lua.

Free · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

5. Warp

Modern terminal with built-in AI agents

Warp is a terminal with IDE-style input editing, command blocks, shared workflows and AI agents for coding tasks.

Free plan · Mac, Windows, Linux · Website ↗

Questions

Is there a free alternative to macOS Terminal?

Yes. 5 of the 5 indie alternatives listed here have a free plan or are free: Ghostty, iTerm2, kitty, WezTerm and 1 more.

Is there an open-source alternative to macOS Terminal?

Ghostty, iTerm2, kitty and WezTerm are open source.

Which macOS Terminal alternatives work on Mac, Windows, iPhone or Android?

On Windows: WezTerm and Warp. On Linux: Ghostty, kitty, WezTerm and 1 more.

What makes these alternatives to macOS Terminal “indie”?

They are built by independent developers or small teams rather than large companies. Each one is listed because it does the same core job as macOS Terminal.

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