Learn how Kitty 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 Kitty 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.
Both tools have similar popularity levels, with Kitty having 34,411 stars and WezTerm having 28,373 stars on GitHub. In terms of developer contributions, WezTerm has 1,677 forks, indicating strong developer engagement.
WezTerm is growing faster, adding 747 stars in the last 30 days (+2.7%) against adding 505 stars for Kitty (+1.5%). 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 Kitty last updated 15 hours ago and WezTerm 11 hours ago.
Both tools share common technology foundations, being built with JavaScript, CSS, Bash, Python, C, Objective-C, GLSL. However, they differ in their additional technology choices: Kitty uses Golang, MATLAB while WezTerm leverages Rust.
Kitty has been in development longer, starting 10 years ago, compared to WezTerm which began 9 years ago. This 1.3-year head start suggests Kitty may have more mature features and established processes.
WezTerm uses the MIT license, which is more permissive than Kitty's GPL-3.0 license, potentially offering greater flexibility for commercial use and integration.
Both tools serve similar use cases in Terminal Emulators. However, they also have distinct specializations: WezTerm extends into Terminal Multiplexers.
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Sent – A unified API for sending messages across SMS, RCS, and apps like WhatsApp.
