Learn how Ghostty and WezTerm 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.
Both Ghostty and WezTerm 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.
Ghostty leads in popularity with 59,679 stars vs 28,373 stars for WezTerm. The 110% higher star count indicates stronger community adoption. In terms of developer contributions, Ghostty has 3,276 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.
WezTerm is growing faster, adding 747 stars in the last 30 days (+2.7%) against adding 1,411 stars for Ghostty (+2.4%). WezTerm is the smaller project of the two, so it is closing the gap rather than extending a lead.
Both projects show recent activity, with Ghostty last updated 7 hours ago and WezTerm 11 hours ago.
Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with CSS, Bash, Python, C, Objective-C, GLSL. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Ghostty uses Swift, C++, MATLAB, Zig while WezTerm leverages JavaScript, Rust.
WezTerm has been in development longer, starting 9 years ago, compared to Ghostty which began 4 years ago. This 4.2-year head start suggests WezTerm may have more mature features and established processes.
Both projects use the MIT license, providing identical terms for usage and distribution.
Both tools serve similar use cases in Terminal Emulators. However, they also have distinct specializations: WezTerm extends into Terminal Multiplexers.
Ghosttyvs
iTerm 2Last 30 days
Last commit
Repository age
License
Repository
Last 30 days
Last commit
Repository age
License
Repository
Sent – A unified API for sending messages across SMS, RCS, and apps like WhatsApp.
