iTerm2 VS alacritty

Compare iTerm2 vs alacritty and see what are their differences.

iTerm2

iTerm2 is a terminal emulator for Mac OS X that does amazing things. (by gnachman)
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iTerm2 alacritty
169 352
14,533 52,639
- 2.2%
9.6 9.3
2 days ago 6 days ago
Objective-C Rust
GNU General Public License v3.0 only Apache License 2.0
The number of mentions indicates the total number of mentions that we've tracked plus the number of user suggested alternatives.
Stars - the number of stars that a project has on GitHub. Growth - month over month growth in stars.
Activity is a relative number indicating how actively a project is being developed. Recent commits have higher weight than older ones.
For example, an activity of 9.0 indicates that a project is amongst the top 10% of the most actively developed projects that we are tracking.

iTerm2

Posts with mentions or reviews of iTerm2. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-16.
  • Level Up Your Dev Workflow: Conquer Web Development with a Blazing Fast Neovim Setup (Part 1)
    12 projects | dev.to | 16 Mar 2024
    iterm2…
  • Terminal commands I use as a frontend developer
    4 projects | dev.to | 9 Mar 2024
    I am using iTerm2 on my macOS. Other available options are Hyper and VS Code’s inbuilt terminal, which I sometimes use for quick tests. You can open a terminal in VS Code by using the keyboard shortcut CMD + J or CTRL + J on Windows, or View → Terminal.
  • I Just Wanted Emacs to Look Nice – Using 24-Bit Color in Terminals
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jan 2024
    IME, this is like the golden age of terminal apps in general and macOS-compatible ones in particular. There are several really good terminals for macOS:

    [iTerm2 app](https://iterm2.com/)

    [Kitty terminal](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/)

    [WezTerm terminal](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html)

    [Alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty)

    My daily driver is WezTerm…

    - Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows 10 and FreeBSD

    - [Multiplex terminal panes, tabs and windows on local and remote hosts, with native mouse and scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/multiplexing.html)

    - [Ligatures](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode#fira-code-monospaced-font...), Color Emoji and font fallback, with true color and [dynamic color schemes](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/appearance.html#colors).

    - [Hyperlinks](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/hyperlinks.html)

    - [Searchable Scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/scrollback.html) (use mouse wheel and `Shift-PageUp` and `Shift PageDown` to navigate, Ctrl-Shift-F to activate search mode)

    - xterm style selection of text with mouse; paste selection via `Shift-Insert` (bracketed paste is supported!)

    - SGR style mouse reporting (works in vim and tmux)

    - Render underline, double-underline, italic, bold, strikethrough (most other terminal emulators do not support as many render attributes)

    - Configuration via a [configuration file](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/files.html) with hot reloading

    - Multiple Windows (Hotkey: `Super-N`)

    - Splits/Panes (Split horizontally/vertically: `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-%` and `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-"`, move between panes: `Ctrl-Shift-ArrowKey`)

    - Tabs (Hotkey: `Super-T`, next/prev: `Super-Shift-[` and `Super-Shift-]`, go-to: `Super-[1-9]`)

    - [SSH client with native tabs](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/ssh.html)

    - [Connect to serial ports for embedded/Arduino work](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/serial.html)

    - Connect to a local multiplexer server over unix domain sockets

    - Connect to a remote multiplexer using SSH or TLS over TCP/IP

    - iTerm2 compatible image protocol support, and built-in [imgcat command](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/imgcat.html)

    - Kitty graphics support

    - Sixel graphics support (experimental: starting in `20200620-160318-e00b076c`)

  • Show HN: Shelly: Write Terminal Commands in English
    6 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 13 Jan 2024
  • My MacBook Setup For Development 2024
    5 projects | dev.to | 9 Jan 2024
    Over the past few years, my coding journeys have been accompanied by the reliable iTerm2, offering a seamless experience without any fuss. It seemed like I had everything I needed until I came across Warp. Exploring this innovative terminal emulator over the past few weeks has been a delightful revelation, bringing a fresh perspective and exciting features to my development environment. Website link
  • Pimp your CLI
    13 projects | dev.to | 19 Dec 2023
    A decent terminal application (i.e: iterm2, alacritty, etc.)
  • Everything I install and set up on a new MacBook as a web developer
    6 projects | dev.to | 5 Dec 2023
    I’ve tried other new and fancy terminals, but iTerm2 does the job. I use the Fira Code font (with ligatures enabled), and the Dracula colour palette.
  • The Tools you most needed on Mac
    2 projects | /r/macapps | 19 Nov 2023
    https://iterm2.com/ better terminal
  • Am I missing out on something?
    6 projects | /r/macapps | 1 Nov 2023
    Currently installed apps: Alfred for searching applications/files and launching websites quickly i Stat menus to monitor my hardware Geo Gebra Classic 6 for school Rectangle for better window management Obsidian for note taking Resolve for video editing and all utilities that come with it Bitwarden as my go-to password manager Microsoft Word, Excel PowerPoint and Teams for school Dropover for moving or sending more files quickly Gestimer for work sessions iTerm as a better terminal than the built-in one Python and all things that come with the install Parallels Desktop and all stuff that comes with the install for running windows only applications Visual Studio Code for coding Blender for 3D Image Optim CurseForge for modded Minecraft Minecraft Find any file Mac Updater 3; would love to have the pro version
  • iTerm2: your Mac's terminal, Upgraded!
    1 project | dev.to | 17 Sep 2023
    Introducing iTerm2, the self-proclaimed macOS terminal replacement! With that application installed, you will literally start feeling sad when you accidentally open the traditional macOS terminal!

alacritty

Posts with mentions or reviews of alacritty. We have used some of these posts to build our list of alternatives and similar projects. The last one was on 2024-03-16.
  • Terminal Latency
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 19 Mar 2024
    It's opinionated, which comes with upsides and downsides. I won't blame the maintainer to keep things focused, feature creep (even for worthy features) can kill a FOSS project.

    Another example is sixel support, there's a fork where it all works but is not sufficiently "proven" (code quality just as well as sixel being the best fit for the problem)

    https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/pull/4763#issuecommen...

    It may be annoying but I get the reasoning, and there are other terminals.

  • Level Up Your Dev Workflow: Conquer Web Development with a Blazing Fast Neovim Setup (Part 1)
    12 projects | dev.to | 16 Mar 2024
    alacritty (Linux, Macos & Windows)
  • Alacritty: A cross-platform, OpenGL terminal emulator
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 16 Feb 2024
  • Neovide – a simple, no-nonsense, cross-platform GUI for Neovim
    17 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 31 Jan 2024
    > Ligatures: ok, nice, possible in terms too (hopefully Alacritty one day)

    I wouldn't hold my breath. Seems like its getting the iPad calculator treatment[0]. Which is to say rather than ship something working that can be improved, they're leaving a UX void.

    [0] https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/50

  • I Just Wanted Emacs to Look Nice – Using 24-Bit Color in Terminals
    7 projects | news.ycombinator.com | 30 Jan 2024
    IME, this is like the golden age of terminal apps in general and macOS-compatible ones in particular. There are several really good terminals for macOS:

    [iTerm2 app](https://iterm2.com/)

    [Kitty terminal](https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/)

    [WezTerm terminal](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html)

    [Alacritty](https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty)

    My daily driver is WezTerm…

    - Runs on Linux, macOS, Windows 10 and FreeBSD

    - [Multiplex terminal panes, tabs and windows on local and remote hosts, with native mouse and scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/multiplexing.html)

    - [Ligatures](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode#fira-code-monospaced-font...), Color Emoji and font fallback, with true color and [dynamic color schemes](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/appearance.html#colors).

    - [Hyperlinks](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/hyperlinks.html)

    - [Searchable Scrollback](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/scrollback.html) (use mouse wheel and `Shift-PageUp` and `Shift PageDown` to navigate, Ctrl-Shift-F to activate search mode)

    - xterm style selection of text with mouse; paste selection via `Shift-Insert` (bracketed paste is supported!)

    - SGR style mouse reporting (works in vim and tmux)

    - Render underline, double-underline, italic, bold, strikethrough (most other terminal emulators do not support as many render attributes)

    - Configuration via a [configuration file](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/config/files.html) with hot reloading

    - Multiple Windows (Hotkey: `Super-N`)

    - Splits/Panes (Split horizontally/vertically: `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-%` and `Ctrl-Shift-Alt-"`, move between panes: `Ctrl-Shift-ArrowKey`)

    - Tabs (Hotkey: `Super-T`, next/prev: `Super-Shift-[` and `Super-Shift-]`, go-to: `Super-[1-9]`)

    - [SSH client with native tabs](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/ssh.html)

    - [Connect to serial ports for embedded/Arduino work](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/serial.html)

    - Connect to a local multiplexer server over unix domain sockets

    - Connect to a remote multiplexer using SSH or TLS over TCP/IP

    - iTerm2 compatible image protocol support, and built-in [imgcat command](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/imgcat.html)

    - Kitty graphics support

    - Sixel graphics support (experimental: starting in `20200620-160318-e00b076c`)

  • alacritty-themes not working any more!!!
    6 projects | dev.to | 7 Jan 2024
    # We use Alacritty's default Linux config directory as our storage location here. mkdir -p ~/.config/alacritty/themes git clone https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty-theme ~/.config/alacritty/themes
  • The Linux graphics stack in a nutshell, part 2
    1 project | news.ycombinator.com | 29 Dec 2023
    if by 'in the terminal' you mean 'in a program emulating an ascii terminal' then no, because ascii terminals don't support anything that looks better than ascii art. they don't support sixel either. there are a variety of proposals for how to add graphics to ascii terminal emulators in a backwards-compatible way, such as mgr and notty https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/51

    but the 'terminal' that a terminal emulator is emulating is a device which provides a user access to a remote computer. normally nowadays this is a laptop or cellphone. in that case, yes, you can use x-windows, xpra, vnc, or a web browser

  • Pimp your CLI
    13 projects | dev.to | 19 Dec 2023
    A decent terminal application (i.e: iterm2, alacritty, etc.)
  • What GPU Accelerated terminal do you recommend for Linux
    1 project | /r/neovim | 11 Dec 2023
    I have been having random input lags with Alacritty. Initially I thought it was my custom neovim config. After some investigation, I have found an Alacritty github issue where users are reporting the same issue: https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/6844
  • Keypress delay
    1 project | /r/neovim | 11 Dec 2023
    Thank you for your suggestions. I have now narrow it down to my terminal emulator. Alacritty. More precisely this issue: https://github.com/alacritty/alacritty/issues/6844

What are some alternatives?

When comparing iTerm2 and alacritty you can also consider the following projects:

WindTerm - A professional cross-platform SSH/Sftp/Shell/Telnet/Serial terminal.

kitty - Cross-platform, fast, feature-rich, GPU based terminal

wezterm - A GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written by @wez and implemented in Rust

HomeBrew - 🍺 The missing package manager for macOS (or Linux)

Warp - Warp is a modern, Rust-based terminal with AI built in so you and your team can build great software, faster.

exa - A modern replacement for ‘ls’.

starship - ☄🌌️ The minimal, blazing-fast, and infinitely customizable prompt for any shell!

Karabiner-Elements - Karabiner-Elements is a powerful utility for keyboard customization on macOS Sierra (10.12) or later.

FiraCode - Free monospaced font with programming ligatures

ohmyzsh - 🙃 A delightful community-driven (with 2,300+ contributors) framework for managing your zsh configuration. Includes 300+ optional plugins (rails, git, macOS, hub, docker, homebrew, node, php, python, etc), 140+ themes to spice up your morning, and an auto-update tool so that makes it easy to keep up with the latest updates from the community.

neofetch - 🖼️ A command-line system information tool written in bash 3.2+