Overview

iTerm2

Stacks431

Followers288

Votes7

GitHub Stars16.5K

Forks1.3K

Windows Terminal

Stacks154

Followers175

Votes6

GitHub Stars100.8K

Forks8.9K

Windows Terminal vs iTerm2: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Windows Terminal and iTerm2

Windows Terminal and iTerm2 are popular terminal emulators used by developers for command-line interaction. While they serve the same purpose, they have some key differences that set them apart.

1. User Interface and Customizability:

Windows Terminal: Offers a sleek and modern UI with options to customize colors, fonts, and layouts. It supports multiple tabs and panes, making it convenient for multitasking.
iTerm2: Has a more simplistic UI, but provides extensive customization options, including themes, hotkeys, and status bar configuration. It supports split panes and unlimited scrolling.

2. Platform Compatibility:

Windows Terminal: Designed specifically for Windows systems, providing native support for PowerShell, Command Prompt, and Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL).
iTerm2: Developed for macOS, offering excellent integration with macOS features and applications. It supports macOS shells like Bash and Zsh and provides additional features like OS-level shortcuts and Touch Bar support.

3. Advanced Features and Integration:

Windows Terminal: Supports GPU-accelerated rendering, which enhances performance and visual quality. It also allows integration with Azure Cloud Shell and Windows Command Prompt tools.
iTerm2: Comes with powerful features like split panes, session logging, and instant replay for better workflow management. It integrates well with popular tools like Git and provides extensive automation through AppleScript.

4. Terminal Profiles and Profiles Management:

Windows Terminal: Allows users to create profiles for different shells and environments, making it easy to switch between configurations. It provides a settings UI and a JSON-based configuration file for managing profiles.
iTerm2: Offers similar functionality, allowing users to create multiple profiles with different settings. Profiles can be managed through a settings window and exported/imported as files for easy sharing.

5. Collaboration and Sharing:

Windows Terminal: Offers features like clipboard sharing and remote desktop protocol (RDP) support for collaborating with other users. It also supports the Windows Terminal Preview version, allowing users to test new features before they are released.
iTerm2: Provides native support for mouseless copy and paste, ensuring easy collaboration. Additionally, it allows users to share terminal output as HTML or text files for sharing with others.

6. Integration with Third-Party Tools:

Windows Terminal: Has seamless integration with Visual Studio Code, enabling a quick launch from within the editor. It also supports popular command-line tools and utilities used in the Windows ecosystem.
iTerm2: Offers integration with various macOS tools, including FileMerge, which allows comparison and merging of file changes directly from the terminal. It also supports integration with tmux, a terminal multiplexer.

In summary, Windows Terminal and iTerm2 have their own strengths and unique features. While Windows Terminal excels in Windows platform compatibility and integration with Windows tools, iTerm2 shines with its customization options, macOS integration, and collaboration features. Developers should choose based on their operating system and specific workflow requirements.

Detailed Comparison

iTerm2	Windows Terminal
A replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.12 or newer. iTerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features you never knew you always wanted.	A new, modern, feature-rich, productive terminal application for command-line users. It includes many of the features most frequently requested by the Windows command-line community.
Split Panes; Hotkey Window; Search; Autocomplete; Mouseless Copy; Paste History; Instant Replay; Configurability; 256 Colors (or more!); Readability; Mouse Reporting; Growl Support; Exposé Tab; Tagged Profiles; Multi-Lingual; Triggers; Shell Integration; Automatic Profile Switching; Inline Images; Password Manager	Tabs; Rich text; Rlobalization; Configurability; Theming; Styling
Statistics
GitHub Stars 16.5K	GitHub Stars 100.8K
GitHub Forks 1.3K	GitHub Forks 8.9K
Stacks 431	Stacks 154
Followers 288	Followers 175
Votes 7	Votes 6
Pros & Cons
Pros 5 Themes 2 Tabs	Pros 2 Can be highly customized by using terminal preview 2 Add almost any cli tool using profiles 2 Free
Integrations
GNU Bash	GNU Bash

What are some alternatives to iTerm2, Windows Terminal?

Putty

It is an SSH and telnet client, developed originally by Simon Tatham for the Windows platform. It is open source software that is available with source code and is developed and supported by a group of volunteers.

Alacritty

It is the fastest terminal emulator in existence. Using the GPU for rendering enables optimizations that simply aren't possible without it. It currently supports macOS, Linux, BSD, and Windows.

Hyper Terminal

The goal of the project is to create a beautiful and extensible experience for command-line interface users, built on open web standards. Focus will be primarily around speed and stability.

Cmder

It is a software package created out of pure frustration over the absence of nice console emulators on Windows. It is based on amazing software, and spiced up with the Monokai color scheme and a custom prompt layout.

ConEmu

It aims to be handy, comprehensive, fast and reliable terminal window where you may host any console application developed either for WinAPI (cmd, powershell, far) or Unix PTY (cygwin, msys, wsl bash).

SecureCRT

It 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. It provides secure remote access, file transfer, and data tunneling for everyone in your organization.

Wave Terminal

It is an open-source, AI-native terminal that streamlines developer workflows with inline rendering, a modern UI, and persistent sessions. It offers plugins for rendering various file types, a powerful code editor, seamless local and remote session management, and native AI integration.