What is the main difference between Alacritty and Kitty?

Alacritty and Kitty are both terminal emulators but differ in their approach, features, and target audience. Compare their GitHub stats, technology stack, and community adoption to make the best choice.

Which is better: Alacritty or Kitty?

The choice between Alacritty and Kitty depends on your specific needs, technical requirements, and team preferences. Both are quality open source solutions with active communities.

Can I migrate from Alacritty to Kitty?

Migration between Alacritty and Kitty is possible but requires careful planning. Consider data export/import capabilities, feature parity, and potential workflow changes.

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Alacritty vs Kitty

Learn how Alacritty and Kitty differ in their key features, development activity, technology stack and community adoption, so you can decide which of these terminal emulators is best for you.

Alacritty

Modern cross-platform terminal emulator with OpenGL acceleration, extensive configuration options, and vi mode support for enhanced productivity.

Visit Alacritty Read more

65,885stars+274(+0.4%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
1 month ago
Repository age
11 years
Version
v0.17.0
License
Apache-2.0
Repository
alacritty/alacritty

Kitty

High-performance terminal emulator with GPU acceleration, graphics support, and advanced scripting capabilities for developers and system administrators.

Visit Kitty Read more

35,152stars+410(+1.2%)

Last 30 days

Last commit
6 hours ago
Repository age
10 years
Version
v0.49.2
License
GPL-3.0
Repository
kovidgoyal/kitty

Sponsor Kitty ongithub.com

Detailed Comparison

Both Alacritty and Kitty have their unique strengths and serve similar purposes effectively. Consider your specific needs regarding popularity, growth, activity, technology, maturity, licensing and features when making your decision.

Alacritty wins

Community & Popularity

Alacritty leads in popularity with 65,885 stars vs 35,152 stars for Kitty. The 87% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, Alacritty has 3,630 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.

Kitty wins

Growth Momentum

Kitty is growing faster, adding 410 stars in the last 30 days (+1.2%) against adding 274 stars for Alacritty (+0.4%). Kitty is the smaller project of the two, so it is closing the gap rather than extending a lead.

Kitty wins

Development Activity

Kitty shows more recent development activity with its last commit 6 hours ago, while Alacritty was last updated 1 month ago. This suggests Kitty is being more actively maintained.

Comparable

Technology Stack

Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with Bash, GLSL. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Alacritty uses Rust while Kitty leverages JavaScript, CSS, Python, Golang, C, Objective-C, MATLAB.

Comparable

Project Maturity

Both projects started around the same time, with Alacritty beginning 11 years ago and Kitty 10 years ago.

Comparable

Licensing

The projects use different licenses: Alacritty is licensed under Apache-2.0 while Kitty uses GPL-3.0. Consider the licensing requirements when choosing for your project.

Comparable