Best Terminal Emulators for Linux
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Compare the Top Terminal Emulators for Linux as of July 2025
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What are Terminal Emulators for Linux?
Terminal emulators are software programs that replicate the functionality of a traditional terminal or command-line interface (CLI) within a graphical environment. These tools allow users to interact with their computer's operating system using text-based commands, offering access to system functions, file management, and programming tasks. Terminal emulators are commonly used by developers, system administrators, and power users for running scripts, managing servers, or debugging applications. They often support features such as tabbed windows, color schemes, customizable key bindings, and integration with remote systems through protocols like SSH. By providing a flexible and efficient way to work with the command line, terminal emulators enhance productivity in both local and remote computing environments. Compare and read user reviews of the best Terminal Emulators for Linux currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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1
Rio Terminal
Rio Terminal
Rio is a terminal application that’s built with Rust, WebGPU, Tokio runtime. It targets to have the best frame per second experience as long you want, but is also configurable to use as minimal from GPU. The terminal renderer is based on redux state machine, lines that has not updated will not suffer a redraw. Looking for the minimal rendering process in most of the time. Rio is also designed to support WebAssembly runtime so in the future you will be able to define how a tab system will work with a WASM plugin written in your favorite language. Rio uses WGPU, which is an implementation of WebGPU for use outside of a browser and as backend for Firefox’s WebGPU implementation. WebGPU allows for more efficient usage of modern GPU’s than WebGL. -
2
WhippyTerm
WhippyTerm
WhippyTerm is a modern terminal application designed for use on contemporary operating systems like Windows and Linux. It features a sleek, user-friendly interface and supports communication protocols commonly used by embedded developers. The software supports serial communication standards such as RS232, RS485, RS422, and TTL UART, as well as TCP/IP and UDP. Unique capabilities include built-in hex dumps, bookmarks, and extensibility through plugins. WhippyTerm also offers native support for binary protocols and can send blocks of binary or ASCII data. It supports terminal emulations like ANSI by default, with options to add others such as VT100 via plugins.Starting Price: $0 -
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PuTTY
PuTTY
PuTTY is a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. PuTTY is a client program for the SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and SUPDUP network protocols. These protocols are all used to run a remote session on a computer, over a network. PuTTY implements the client end of that session, the end at which the session is displayed, rather than the end at which it runs. In really simple terms, you run PuTTY on a Windows machine, and tell it to connect to (for example) a Unix machine. PuTTY opens a window. Then, anything you type into that window is sent straight to the Unix machine, and everything the Unix machine sends back is displayed in the window. So you can work on the Unix machine as if you were sitting at its console, while actually sitting somewhere else. All of PuTTY's settings can be saved in named session profiles. You can also change the default settings that are used for new sessions.Starting Price: Free -
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Muon SSH Terminal
Subhra Das Gupta
An easy and fun way to work with remote servers over SSH. Muon is a graphical SSH client. It has an enhanced SFTP file browser, SSH terminal emulator, remote resource/process manager, server disk space analyzer, remote text editor, huge remote log viewer, and lots of other helpful tools, which makes it easy to work with remote servers. Muon provides functionality similar to web-based control panels but, it works over SSH from the local computer, hence no installation is required on the server. It runs on Linux and Windows. Muon has been tested with several Linux and UNIX servers, like Ubuntu server, CentOS, RHEL, OpenSUSE, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and HP-UX. The application is targeted mainly toward web/backend developers who often deploy/debug their code on remote servers and are not overly fond of complex terminal-based commands. It could also be useful for sysadmins as well who manage lots of remote servers manually.Starting Price: Free -
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Wave Terminal
Command Line Inc
Wave is an open-source, AI-native terminal built for seamless developer workflows with inline rendering, a modern UI, and persistent sessions. Features Include: - Render almost anything in line with plugins for images, Markdown, audio/video, and more. - Edit code quickly with the same editor that powers VSCode locally and remotely. - Persistent sessions, searchable universal history, and workspaces across local and remote sessions. - Native AI integration with ChatGPT, with plans to allow users to bring their own AI (BYOLLM) in the future. - Licensed under the Apache 2.0 license, with packages available for both macOS and Linux.Starting Price: $0 -
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Alacritty
Alacritty
Alacritty is a modern, cross-platform terminal emulator powered by OpenGL that delivers GPU-accelerated performance with sensible defaults and extensive configuration. Rather than reimplementing functionality, it integrates seamlessly with other applications to provide a flexible feature set without sacrificing speed. Supported on BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows, Alacritty is considered beta and still under active development, yet it already serves many users as their daily driver terminal. Key features include Vi Mode for moving around and creating selections using vi bindings; a Search function for querying text within the scrollback buffer; Regex Hints that mark patterns for mouse or keyboard interaction; and Multi-Window support to improve resource usage by running on a single process.Starting Price: Free -
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Ghostty
Ghostty
Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, cross-platform terminal emulator that uses platform-native UI and GPU acceleration to deliver speed, features, and familiarity without compromise. Ghostty provides fully standards-compliant emulation, drawing on ECMA-48 and xterm conventions, to ensure compatibility with existing shells and software, while its multi-renderer architecture leverages OpenGL (with ligature support) to sustain smooth rendering up to 60 fps under heavy load and minimal I/O jitter via a dedicated I/O thread. It offers modern windowing capabilities such as multi-window, tabbing, and splits, and embraces native platform experiences through SwiftUI and GTK4, all built atop a shared core written in Zig (“libghostty”) that can be embedded via a C API. Users benefit from basic customizability (fonts, backgrounds, colors), an opt-in feature set for interactive CLI tools, and performance competitive with leading terminal emulators.Starting Price: Free -
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xterm
invisible-island
xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System, first released to emulate DEC VT102 and Tektronix 4014 hardware and provide a windowed interface for applications that cannot access X directly. Each xterm window runs as a separate process, locally or remotely, while sharing keyboard and mouse input with only the focused window receiving events. It implements ANSI/ISO color support via the “new” color model for background erase and recognizes most VT220 control sequences, along with select features from VT320, VT420, and VT520 devices. Over its history, xterm’s terminal description evolved from VT102 (pre-1996) to VT220 (1996–2012) and, since 2012, to VT420, ensuring compatibility with modern applications. Xterm remains actively maintained and extensible through companion tools like luit for encoding support and the X Toolkit for resource configuration, making it a complete, standards-compliant emulator for Unix-based environments.Starting Price: Free -
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tmux
tmux
tmux is a terminal multiplexer that enables multiple terminals to be created, accessed, and controlled from a single screen. It allows sessions to be detached so they continue running in the background and later reattached exactly as left. tmux implements each window as a separate client process, supports ANSI/ISO color via VT220 (and later) control sequences, and is configurable through its example tmux.conf file and man page. Built atop minimal dependencies, libevent 2.x and ncurses, it requires only a C compiler, make, pkg-config, and a Yacc for building. tmux’s lightweight, single-screen architecture, extensive documentation, and cross-platform support make it a robust, standards-compliant solution for managing terminal workflows efficiently.Starting Price: Free -
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WezTerm
WezTerm
WezTerm is a high-performance, cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer built in Rust that delivers GPU-accelerated rendering, including ligatures, color emoji, true color, dynamic color schemes, and hyperlinks, and modern windowing controls such as panes, tabs, and multiple windows on both local and remote hosts. Its single-process multiplexer provides scrollback, searchable history, mouse integration, Quick Select mode for rapid selection, Copy mode, shell integration, support for the iTerm image protocol, SSH connectivity, serial ports, Arduino devices, and workspace/session management via Lua-configurable scripts. Configuration is handled through a wezterm.lua file with hot-reload support, while a rich command-line interface (wezterm cli) lets you spawn programs, manipulate tabs and panes, and set domains. WezTerm adheres to ECMA-48 and xterm conventions for full ANSI/ISO compliance and offers native UI integration using platform-specific APIs.Starting Price: Free -
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Zellij
Zellij
Zellij is a workspace aimed at developers, ops-oriented people, and terminal enthusiasts, designed around the philosophy that one must not sacrifice simplicity for power, delivering a great out-of-the-box experience together with advanced features. Geared toward both beginners and power users, it offers deep customizability and personal automation through layouts, true multiplayer collaboration, unique UX elements such as floating and stacked panes, and an innovative resizing algorithm that automatically places new panes in the optimal location. A plugin system enables creation of custom pane types in any language compiling to WebAssembly, while a comprehensive CLI introduces Command Panes for running and rerunning commands in dedicated panes and provides actions like run, edit, and rename-pane. Zellij’s single-process core ensures responsive performance, and its batteries-included approach gives users a terminal workspace with everything needed for modern development workflows.Starting Price: Free -
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PowerTerm InterConnect
Ericom
The PowerTerm InterConnect Series is comprised of several robust terminal emulation applications supporting the host access needs of large and small organizations. It allows enterprises to standardize on a single host access solution. PowerTerm InterConnect products provides fast and reliable access to data residing on the broadest range of hosts, such as IBM Mainframe zSeries, IBM AS/400 iSeries, UNIX, OpenVMS, Tandem, HP. Each of the PowerTerm InterConnect products enables terminal emulation via various communication modes. PowerTerm InterConnect offers a flexible and extensive feature set to maximize users' time while providing a wide range of options. Using Power Script Language, users can automate tasks and increase efficiency. PowerTerm InterConnect's small footprint makes it a simple, fast and effective means of running legacy applications and it is easily installable on any PC. -
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kitty
kitty
kitty is designed for power keyboard users. To that end all its controls work with the keyboard (although it fully supports mouse interactions as well). Its configuration is a simple, human editable, single file for easy reproducibility (I like to store configuration in source control). The code in kitty is designed to be simple, modular and hackable. It is written in a mix of C (for performance sensitive parts) and Python (for easy hackability of the UI). It does not depend on any large and complex UI toolkit, using only OpenGL for rendering everything. Finally, kitty is designed from the ground up to support all modern terminal features, such as unicode, true color, bold/italic fonts, text formatting, etc. It even extends existing text formatting escape codes, to add support for features not available elsewhere, such as colored and styled (curly) underlines. One of the design goals of kitty is to be easily extensible so that new features can be added in the future. -
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SecureCRT
VanDyke Software
SecureCRT client for Windows, Mac, and Linux provides rock-solid terminal emulation for computing professionals, raising productivity with advanced session management and a host of ways to save time and streamline repetitive tasks. SecureCRT provides secure remote access, file transfer, and data tunneling for everyone in your organization. Whether you are replacing Telnet or Terminal, or need a more capable secure remote access tool, SecureCRT is an application you can live in all day long. With the solid security of SSH, extensive session management, and advanced scripting, SecureCRT will help raise your productivity to the nth degree. Highlight individual words, phrases, or substrings in the session window to identify errors in log files or streaming output and to highlight prompts. Regular expressions are also supported, making it easier to highlight strings like IP addresses. Keyword display attributes (bold, reverse video, and color) can be combined. -
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Terminator
Terminator
Terminator Terminal Emulator is a powerful tool that allows users to manage multiple GNOME terminals within a single window. Originally developed in 2007 by Chris Jones as a compact Python script, it has evolved into a flexible terminal management application inspired by tools like Iterm2 and Tilix. Terminator lets users combine and rearrange terminal windows to suit their workflow, making it ideal for those who frequently work with multiple remote machines or command-line sessions. The emulator supports various themes, including light and dark modes, to enhance usability. It is well-suited for developers, system administrators, and command-line enthusiasts who need to manage several terminals simultaneously. Terminator streamlines terminal management, increasing productivity and reducing desktop clutter.Starting Price: Free -
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StayLinked
StayLinked
StayLinked enables you to migrate to state-of-the-art devices, measure and optimize productivity with cutting-edge business intelligence, and interface with ground-breaking technologies in the areas of automation, robotics, augmented reality, and location-based services. Keeping employees on the job is a key part of productivity. The architecture of traditional terminal emulation solutions often leads to erratic application connectivity and performance. This results in end users spending time troubleshooting issues with the help desk rather than performing important application tasks. By eliminating dropped or lost sessions, providing centralized application configuration and management, and delivering highly efficient help desk tools, StayLinked keeps applications and end users running at peak performance. StayLinked Terminal Emulation (TE) is the fastest TE solution available for mobile devices. Traditional terminal emulation products send all telnet/SSH traffic to the mobile device. -
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Flynet Viewer TE
Flynet
Flynet Viewer™ TE (Terminal Emulation) provides a browser based, terminal emulator to access key business systems. Access Mainframe, iSeries, Unix, VMS or MultiValue systems, on any device with zero client software. The terminal emulator is installed in a server environment, either on-premise or in the cloud, and centrally managed via the Flynet Viewer administration centre. Flynet Viewer works on all browsers and devices with no Java or ActiveX plugins. Flynet Viewer has all the features you would expect in an enterprise terminal emulator, including client and server-side macro creation, file transfer, single sign-on, MFA and keyboard remapping. Flynet Viewer Terminal Emulation provides the same level of functionality that is associated with a full fat desktop Terminal Emulation client but is delivered over the web and served up via a browser. Flynet Viewer Terminal Emulation will run on any device regardless of operating system or indigenous browser. -
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HostAccess
Perforce
HostAccess is PC terminal emulation software. It offers a suite of terminal emulation tools for Microsoft Windows users. This allows secure access to various platforms, including Linux, Unix, IBM, Windows, etc. The main usage of the HostAccess is to connect to PICK (multivalue) system, such as UniVerse, UniData, D3, ONware, etc., and use own package of programs written in PICK Basic. These programs provide APIs for data exchange and expansive GUI capabilities. Produce reports quickly and integrate data with Windows applications. Connect to multiple systems within one integrated environment. HostAccess offers all the key terminal emulation software features you need in a single page. So, whether you’re looking for asynchronous/synchronous connections, server-based administration, concurrent users, or multiple session access, HostAccess is an ideal solution for you. -
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GNOME Terminal
GNOME
Terminal is a terminal emulator application for accessing a UNIX shell environment which can be used to run programs available on your system. Terminal supports escape sequences that control cursor position and colors. A terminal is a text input point in a computer that is also called the Command Line Interface (CLI). IBM 3270, VT100 and many others are hardware terminals that are no longer produced as physical devices. To emulate these terminals, there are terminal emulators. Any input entered in the Terminal to be executed is referred to as a command. You can run both command line and graphical user interface (GUI) programs from the terminal. If you have a program that ends abruptly without any warning or error, you may want to run it in Terminal. This will allow the program to output any error or debugging messages to the Terminal window. This information can be helpful when filing a bug report. -
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Yakuake
KDE
Yakuake is a drop-down terminal emulator based on KDE Konsole technology. Smoothly rolls down from the top of your screen. Tabbed interface, configurable dimensions and animation speed, skinnable, sophisticated D-Bus interface. After Yakuake has started you can click on configure Yakuake by clicking on the Open Menu button (middle button on the bottom right hand side of the interface) and select Configure Shortcuts to change the hotkey to drop/retract the terminal automatically, by default it is set to F12. While most configuration options can be changed from Yakuake GUI, there are some options only accessible from modifying the configuration file. Yakuake allows to control itself at runtime by sending the D-Bus messages. Thus it can be used to start Yakuake in a user defined session. You can create tabs, assign names for them and also ask to run any specific command in any opened tab or just to show/hide Yakuake window. -
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OpenText Reflection for the Web
OpenText
Configure sessions with hotspots, keyboard mapping, color settings, and more. Build web frameworks around mainframe applications. Centrally install and deploy for instant availability. Once you make updates, users automatically download the new version when they connect. Connect to any major GDS. Use the Airlines Printer component to generate tickets, baggage tags, and boarding passes. Connect to host systems, making IBM, UNIX, Unisys, OpenVMS, and HP data instantly available to browser users, no matter where they are, without the need for Java. The new Reflection for the Web Launcher enables end users to continue access to mainframe and host applications while removing any requirements for Oracle Java. Allow users to work the way that they work best providing terminal sessions, printing, and file transfer. -
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FlexTerm
FlexTerm
FlexTerm is written entirely in C# .NET, providing a new user interface that is long overdue for the terminal emulation community. The user interface utilizes the modern ribbon command bar to organize the program's features into a series of tabs at the top of the window. This increases discover-ability of features and functions, enables quicker learning of the program, and makes users feel more in control of their experience with the program. The ribbon replaces both the traditional menu bar and toolbars and is now fully customizable, allowing users to create their own custom tabs and tab groups. A FlexTerm workspace can consist of a single session, or any number of sessions, which may be docked and displayed as tabs and/or floating. Sessions within each workspace can be easily arranged using drag-and-drop functionality. -
23
Guake Terminal
Guake Terminal
Imagine you are working in your favorite text editor and want to execute some commands, like execute the unit test of your code, check a man page, or edit some configuration file. You can do it at lightning speed without leaving your keyboard. Just press your predefined "Show Guake" hotkey, execute your command, and repress it to hide the terminal and go back to your work. Guake supports Multimonitor setup. Open it on the monitor where your mouse is, or in a dedicated screen. Use Several named tabs, with names automatically set from the running command, or easily customized. Start Guake automatically at login, and define a script that will be executed on Guake launch, in order to configure Guake tabs.Starting Price: Free -
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OpenText Host Access for the Cloud
OpenText
Quickly deliver browser-based access from a central location – without the need to manage Java runtime environments. Make sure you know who is accessing your mainframe, and ensure that only authorized users get to the login screen. Leverage enterprise credentials to move from a potentially unsecure eight-character password, to a one-time pass ticket. Why reinvent the wheel? Provision terminal emulation like other corporate resources, through the corporate user directory. Quickly deploy secure, customized browser-based sessions, with supporting keyboards, quick keys, and macros. Provide HTML5 access to 3270, 5250, VT, Unisys and Airline host applications from a central location – without the need to manage workstation dependencies, or Java runtime environments. -
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TTerm Connect
Turbosoft
Turbosoft's terminal emulation software supports over 80 different emulations for systems such as IBM, HP, OpenVMS, Unix, HP NonStop, Unisys, Wyse & more. Choose from TTerm Connect, our web-based HTML5 offering, TTWin4 for Windows desktops, TTerm for Linux, or, for developers integrating terminal emulation, TTerm for .NET. TTerm Connect, our web-based terminal emulator offers flexible, powerful terminal emulation with nothing more than a web browser. TTerm Connect offers all the features you would expect from a desktop terminal emulator in a lightweight web application. Centrally configured and managed, TTerm Connect requires no client-side installation and can be deployed with its own web client or integrated with your existing website. Any host, any device. Available for any modern web browser and client device and with options for Windows or Linux based servers. Flexible & capable of servicing the terminal emulation needs of thousands of concurrent users. -
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WoTerm
aoyiduo
A powerful open source cross-platform security terminal simulation software, it supports SSH/SFTP/TELNET/RDP/VNC and other mainstream protocols. Support multiple key authentication methods, support SFTP session data backup and synchronization, support multiple sets of skin interface, support tunnel management, support script design, support multiple labels and floating Windows, support administrator mode, support 4K remote desktop, compatible with various VNC remote desktop, support session group management. -
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Ivanti
Ivanti
Ivanti offers integrated IT management solutions designed to automate and secure technology across organizations. Their Unified Endpoint Management platform provides intuitive control from a single console to manage any device from any location. Ivanti’s Enterprise Service Management delivers actionable insights to streamline IT operations and improve employee experiences. The company also provides comprehensive network security and exposure management tools to protect assets and prioritize risks effectively. Trusted by over 34,000 customers worldwide, including Conair and City of Seattle, Ivanti supports secure, flexible work environments. Their solutions enable businesses to boost productivity while maintaining strong security and operational visibility. -
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Konsole
KDE
Konsole is also integrated into multiple other KDE Applications making it easier to reach and more convenient. For example, KDevelop, Kate and Dolphin all use Konsole as an integrated terminal emulator. Want to make Konsole better? Consider getting involved in Konsole development and help us make Konsole the best terminal emulator!
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