{"slug": "alacritty", "name": "Alacritty", "category": "terminal", "category_name": "Terminal and shell", "description": "A GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal emulator written in Rust, focused on simplicity and performance.", "recommenders": 6, "commenters": 18, "warners": 2, "score": 5.949, "rising": -0.64, "first": "2025-11-03", "latest": "2026-10-30", "why": "HN commenters like Alacritty as a simple, reliable terminal they use across Windows, Linux and macOS, usually paired with tmux or Zellij, and it showed low typing latency in one user's benchmark.", "why_is_quote": false, "has_verdict": true, "sentiment": {"recommend": 6, "neutral": 8, "compare": 2, "warn": 2}, "spark": [1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1], "listed": true, "loved": ["Multiplexer pairing", "Low latency"], "caveat": "Config-file setup", "short_quote": "My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS.", "icon": false, "domain": null, "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://alacritty.org", "pricing": "open source", "aliases": ["Alacritty"], "verdict": [{"text": "HN commenters like Alacritty as a simple, reliable terminal they use across Windows, Linux and macOS", "cites": [{"id": 760777409, "item_id": 47548588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47548588", "by": "caderosche", "date": "2026-03-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS.", "excerpt": "I just run Claude Code in tmux+alacritty. My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS. I use the same setup across Windows, Linux, and Mac machines. Great setup for constantly using different OSs.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your desktop setup optimized to work with AI?"}]}, {"text": ", usually paired with tmux or Zellij", "cites": [{"id": 783538016, "item_id": 48971126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971126", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery", "excerpt": "If you're looking for a non-ghostty recommendation (not that I have anything against ghostty) I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery, I certainly get good battery usage on both my work and home laptops.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code uses Bun written in Rust now"}, {"id": 764201955, "item_id": 47762622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762622", "by": "ramon156", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point", "excerpt": "I love that most tmux features are programmatic and unix-oriented. > # reload config file (change file location to your the tmux.conf you want to use) > bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf Just seems fun. That said, I still use zellij. I like the scroll info, the default bindings, and the fact it plays nicely with my setup of fish+alac. I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point, but this works for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Make Tmux Pretty and Usable"}, {"id": 743806465, "item_id": 46487904, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487904", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using Wayland on Debian 12 since 2023. On an Apple Studio Display (5K) over thunderbolt (the built-in camera, speakers, etc work fine) I screen share and video call with Slack and Google Meet. I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal. I use chromium as my browser, vscode and sublime text as code editors. Slack, Spotify, my studio mic, my Scarlett 2i2, 10gbe networking, thunderbolt, Logitech unifying receiver", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}, {"id": 745034544, "item_id": 46564659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46564659", "by": "AugustoCAS", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I run when I open a new terminal window (Alacritty).", "excerpt": "This is not an issue for me due to my workflow. I have a script for each of my projects that I run when I open a new terminal window (Alacritty). The scripts set up tmux with 3-8 terminals, each terminal launches a components, utility or just sits in a folder from which I later run commands. Having said that, I use only a few zsh plugins, and have a theme configured to not run commands that add extra latency.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "You probably don't need Oh My Zsh"}]}, {"text": ", and it showed low typing latency in one user's benchmark.", "cites": [{"id": 769649200, "item_id": 48103075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48103075", "by": "gryffyn", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g", "context": "Arch Linux user on i3 and X11", "use_case": "terminal latency benchmark", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux Terminal Memory Usage"}]}, {"text": " The most common caveat is its minimalism: no built-in pane splitting, and settings that live only in a config file.", "cites": [{"id": 804269569, "item_id": 50266848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266848", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "If you\u2019re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I\u2019d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn\u2019t find one I like (Alacritty doesn\u2019t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn\u2019t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow\u2026). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804232224, "item_id": 50264514, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264514", "by": "skhameneh", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal.", "excerpt": "I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s better, because that\u2019s very subjective, but it is more \u201cfeature complete\u201d. Alacritty is very minimal and rejects community PRs for features often driven by their general ethos. libghostty supports a lot of features I don\u2019t foresee making their way into Alacritty. I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal. I don\u2019t have a great reason for not using or trying Ghostty other than I have a minor aversion to Zi", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 777268178, "item_id": 48579261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48579261", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything", "excerpt": "It's a positive and a negative. I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden. Every so often if I need something I toggle them on with Control + Shift + M, but it's once in a blue moon that I need that. I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything right when you're starting out with the terminal was just not worth the time investment in my eyes.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 804220209, "item_id": 50263763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263763", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago.", "excerpt": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago. Ghostty was slightly faster, but then Ptyxis was also faster. Since I preferred to configure my terminal with GUI, I have switched to Ptyxis.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU-accelerated terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}], "praise": [{"label": "Multiplexer pairing", "summary": "Commenters run it with tmux or Zellij and say the setup works well.", "quotes": [{"id": 783538016, "item_id": 48971126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971126", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery", "excerpt": "If you're looking for a non-ghostty recommendation (not that I have anything against ghostty) I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery, I certainly get good battery usage on both my work and home laptops.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code uses Bun written in Rust now"}, {"id": 764201955, "item_id": 47762622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762622", "by": "ramon156", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point", "excerpt": "I love that most tmux features are programmatic and unix-oriented. > # reload config file (change file location to your the tmux.conf you want to use) > bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf Just seems fun. That said, I still use zellij. I like the scroll info, the default bindings, and the fact it plays nicely with my setup of fish+alac. I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point, but this works for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Make Tmux Pretty and Usable"}, {"id": 743806465, "item_id": 46487904, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487904", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using Wayland on Debian 12 since 2023. On an Apple Studio Display (5K) over thunderbolt (the built-in camera, speakers, etc work fine) I screen share and video call with Slack and Google Meet. I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal. I use chromium as my browser, vscode and sublime text as code editors. Slack, Spotify, my studio mic, my Scarlett 2i2, 10gbe networking, thunderbolt, Logitech unifying receiver", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}]}, {"label": "Low latency", "summary": "One user's latency benchmark put it at or near the top, and another used it for its GPU acceleration.", "quotes": [{"id": 769649200, "item_id": 48103075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48103075", "by": "gryffyn", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g", "context": "Arch Linux user on i3 and X11", "use_case": "terminal latency benchmark", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux Terminal Memory Usage"}, {"id": 804220209, "item_id": 50263763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263763", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago.", "excerpt": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago. Ghostty was slightly faster, but then Ptyxis was also faster. Since I preferred to configure my terminal with GUI, I have switched to Ptyxis.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU-accelerated terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "Hackable", "summary": "Users have modified it to add the Kitty image protocol and have built on its Rust libraries.", "quotes": [{"id": 798873473, "item_id": 49929592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49929592", "by": "octoberfranklin", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I modified my terminal (Alacritty) to support the Kitty image protocol", "excerpt": "Extensively, almost as much as I use my editor. I have eight or nine custom extensions at varying levels of maturity, some nearing the point where sharing them becomes useful. One is a simple but obvious Eoka extension for Pi. I modified my terminal (Alacritty) to support the Kitty image protocol (it already spoke sixel; Pi understandably uses the superior Kitty protocol). And a toolcall that lets the LLM put an imag", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pi 1.0"}, {"id": 775408211, "item_id": 48463013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48463013", "by": "rockmeamedee", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cool Rust libraries enable this like alacritty for the terminal", "excerpt": "https://github.com/amedeedaboville/mish A mosh clone that uses QUIC as the transport layer so it can do both \u201cunreliable datagrams\u201d like UDP and also a TCP-like reliable stream, so it has scrollback buffer. Also QUIC means the crypto is handled for me, no need to trust the LLM to hand roll its own crypto. Cool Rust libraries enable this like alacritty for the terminal, and being able to have russh (rust implementatio", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulation library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI"}]}, {"label": "Cross-platform", "summary": "Praised as simple and reliable, with the same setup on Windows, Linux and macOS.", "quotes": [{"id": 760777409, "item_id": 47548588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47548588", "by": "caderosche", "date": "2026-03-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS.", "excerpt": "I just run Claude Code in tmux+alacritty. My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS. I use the same setup across Windows, Linux, and Mac machines. Great setup for constantly using different OSs.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your desktop setup optimized to work with AI?"}]}, {"label": "Battery life", "summary": "One user says it doesn't seem to hurt laptop battery life.", "quotes": [{"id": 783538016, "item_id": 48971126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971126", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery", "excerpt": "If you're looking for a non-ghostty recommendation (not that I have anything against ghostty) I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery, I certainly get good battery usage on both my work and home laptops.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code uses Bun written in Rust now"}]}, {"label": "Key handling", "summary": "A macOS Colemak user found it the closest to getting custom Emacs keybindings working.", "quotes": [{"id": 738846960, "item_id": 46177935, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177935", "by": "jsw", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just tried this and Alacritty. It\u2019s the closest I\u2019ve got to fully working.", "excerpt": "MacOS user here. So many times over the last decade I\u2019ve journeyed to get terminal Emacs working with my litany of weird keybindings. But I always end up back in the GUI. I switched to Colemak about 15 years ago and thought it would be a good idea to rethink all my Emacs keybindings, since my muscle memory was shot in that transition. (I don\u2019t recommend this in hindsight.) I have yet to get a terminal working fully l", "context": "macOS user, Colemak layout", "use_case": "terminal Emacs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Term-keys \u2013 Lossless keyboard input for Emacs"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "Config-file setup", "summary": "Everything is configured in a file, which some newcomers and GUI-config fans find not worth the effort.", "quotes": [{"id": 777268178, "item_id": 48579261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48579261", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything", "excerpt": "It's a positive and a negative. I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden. Every so often if I need something I toggle them on with Control + Shift + M, but it's once in a blue moon that I need that. I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything right when you're starting out with the terminal was just not worth the time investment in my eyes.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 804220209, "item_id": 50263763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263763", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago.", "excerpt": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago. Ghostty was slightly faster, but then Ptyxis was also faster. Since I preferred to configure my terminal with GUI, I have switched to Ptyxis.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU-accelerated terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "Minimal features", "summary": "It has no pane splitting and often rejects feature PRs because of its minimalist ethos.", "quotes": [{"id": 804269569, "item_id": 50266848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266848", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "If you\u2019re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I\u2019d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn\u2019t find one I like (Alacritty doesn\u2019t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn\u2019t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow\u2026). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804232224, "item_id": 50264514, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264514", "by": "skhameneh", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal.", "excerpt": "I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s better, because that\u2019s very subjective, but it is more \u201cfeature complete\u201d. Alacritty is very minimal and rejects community PRs for features often driven by their general ethos. libghostty supports a lot of features I don\u2019t foresee making their way into Alacritty. I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal. I don\u2019t have a great reason for not using or trying Ghostty other than I have a minor aversion to Zi", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "Rivals faster", "summary": "One user found Ghostty and Ptyxis faster and switched away.", "quotes": [{"id": 804220209, "item_id": 50263763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263763", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago.", "excerpt": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago. Ghostty was slightly faster, but then Ptyxis was also faster. Since I preferred to configure my terminal with GUI, I have switched to Ptyxis.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU-accelerated terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}]}, {"label": "Editing shortcuts", "summary": "One user found its navigation shortcuts clashed with the rest of their tools, as with other terminals.", "quotes": [{"id": 804922482, "item_id": 50307655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307655", "by": "albertgoeswoof", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "After trying out all the others ghostty, alacritty etc. I still found it incredibly annoying", "excerpt": "I got used to warp\u2019s terminal, with really nice text editing, but it\u2019s gotten so slow and weird, that I can\u2019t stand it anymore. After trying out all the others ghostty, alacritty etc. I still found it incredibly annoying to have to navigate with different shortcuts from the rest of my stack, sometimes copying and pasting commands back and forth into my text editor just to edit and run them. So I wrote this, and I\u2019m d", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Prompt \u2013 A New, Beautiful Terminal"}]}], "who": [{"by": "jsw", "context": "macOS user, Colemak layout", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177935", "date": "2025-12-06"}, {"by": "embedding-shape", "context": "Arch/CachyOS user", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45801316", "date": "2025-11-03"}], "tags": ["for tmux/Zellij users", "cross-platform", "for Linux users", "for minimalists"], "use_cases": ["terminal emulator", "terminal", "gpu-accelerated terminal", "terminal emulation library", "terminal latency benchmark", "terminal emacs on macos"], "compared": [{"slug": "ghostty", "name": "Ghostty", "co": 9, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "kitty", "name": "Kitty", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "tmux", "name": "tmux", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "konsole", "name": "Konsole", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "ptyxis", "name": "Ptyxis", "co": 1, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "zellij", "name": "Zellij", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "wezterm", "name": "WezTerm", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "visual-studio-code", "name": "Visual Studio Code", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50261998", "title": "Ghostty 1.4", "mentions": 4}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307568", "title": "Show HN: Prompt \u2013 A New, Beautiful Terminal", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49926069", "title": "Pi 1.0", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48966569", "title": "Claude Code uses Bun written in Rust now", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48555755", "title": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48449187", "title": "Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {"neutral": 2}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-04": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-05": {"compare": 1}, "2026-06": {"neutral": 1, "recommend": 1, "warn": 1}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"recommend": 1, "neutral": 3, "warn": 1, "compare": 1}}, "quotes": [{"id": 804922482, "item_id": 50307655, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50307655", "by": "albertgoeswoof", "date": "2026-10-30", "stance": "compare", "quote": "After trying out all the others ghostty, alacritty etc. I still found it incredibly annoying", "excerpt": "I got used to warp\u2019s terminal, with really nice text editing, but it\u2019s gotten so slow and weird, that I can\u2019t stand it anymore. After trying out all the others ghostty, alacritty etc. I still found it incredibly annoying to have to navigate with different shortcuts from the rest of my stack, sometimes copying and pasting commands back and forth into my text editor just to edit and run them. So I wrote this, and I\u2019m d", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Show HN: Prompt \u2013 A New, Beautiful Terminal"}, {"id": 804269569, "item_id": 50266848, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50266848", "by": "thiht", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "warn", "quote": "", "excerpt": "If you\u2019re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I\u2019d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn\u2019t find one I like (Alacritty doesn\u2019t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn\u2019t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow\u2026). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804232224, "item_id": 50264514, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264514", "by": "skhameneh", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal.", "excerpt": "I wouldn\u2019t say it\u2019s better, because that\u2019s very subjective, but it is more \u201cfeature complete\u201d. Alacritty is very minimal and rejects community PRs for features often driven by their general ethos. libghostty supports a lot of features I don\u2019t foresee making their way into Alacritty. I use Alacritty and GNOME Terminal. I don\u2019t have a great reason for not using or trying Ghostty other than I have a minor aversion to Zi", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804224193, "item_id": 50264012, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50264012", "by": "railka", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Alacritty -> Ghostty -> tty7", "excerpt": "My experience with terminals was like this - Alacritty -> Ghostty -> tty7. The last one implements exactly what I had in mind when I used Alacritty and Ghostty. Only it doesn't hype much (the author apparently doesn't strive for that much), maybe that's for the better.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 804220209, "item_id": 50263763, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50263763", "by": "kccqzy", "date": "2026-10-27", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago.", "excerpt": "I have been using Alacritty for its GPU acceleration long ago. Ghostty was slightly faster, but then Ptyxis was also faster. Since I preferred to configure my terminal with GUI, I have switched to Ptyxis.", "context": "", "use_case": "GPU-accelerated terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ghostty 1.4"}, {"id": 798873473, "item_id": 49929592, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49929592", "by": "octoberfranklin", "date": "2026-10-02", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I modified my terminal (Alacritty) to support the Kitty image protocol", "excerpt": "Extensively, almost as much as I use my editor. I have eight or nine custom extensions at varying levels of maturity, some nearing the point where sharing them becomes useful. One is a simple but obvious Eoka extension for Pi. I modified my terminal (Alacritty) to support the Kitty image protocol (it already spoke sixel; Pi understandably uses the superior Kitty protocol). And a toolcall that lets the LLM put an imag", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Pi 1.0"}, {"id": 783538016, "item_id": 48971126, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48971126", "by": "benrutter", "date": "2026-07-19", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery", "excerpt": "If you're looking for a non-ghostty recommendation (not that I have anything against ghostty) I use alacritty + zellij and it works fantastic. It doesn't seem to impact battery, I certainly get good battery usage on both my work and home laptops.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Claude Code uses Bun written in Rust now"}, {"id": 777268178, "item_id": 48579261, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48579261", "by": "KetoManx64", "date": "2026-06-17", "stance": "warn", "quote": "I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything", "excerpt": "It's a positive and a negative. I use Konsole daily and have all the toolbars hidden. Every so often if I need something I toggle them on with Control + Shift + M, but it's once in a blue moon that I need that. I've tried Kitty and Alacritty but the fact that you have to dive into the config file for everything right when you're starting out with the terminal was just not worth the time investment in my eyes.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "KDE Plasma 6.7 Released"}, {"id": 775408211, "item_id": 48463013, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48463013", "by": "rockmeamedee", "date": "2026-06-09", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cool Rust libraries enable this like alacritty for the terminal", "excerpt": "https://github.com/amedeedaboville/mish A mosh clone that uses QUIC as the transport layer so it can do both \u201cunreliable datagrams\u201d like UDP and also a TCP-like reliable stream, so it has scrollback buffer. Also QUIC means the crypto is handled for me, no need to trust the LLM to hand roll its own crypto. Cool Rust libraries enable this like alacritty for the terminal, and being able to have russh (rust implementatio", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulation library", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What are tools you have made for yourself since the advent of AI"}, {"id": 774660372, "item_id": 48416273, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48416273", "by": "throwaway888abc", "date": "2026-06-05", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "also replaced Alacritty + Zellij", "excerpt": "Recently ditched VSCODE completely and switched from development on local machine to remote \"vps\" cloud. Currrent setup: Zed + Terminal threads (love this!) + Remote machine Devcontainers + Claude + Pi [1] Zed https://zed.dev/ [2] Terminal threads https://zed.dev/blog/terminal-threads [3] Pi https://pi.dev/ As sort of byproduct also replaced Alacritty + Zellij (i just don't have the need to use more, 3 weeks of new s", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What is your (AI) dev tech stack / workflow? (June 2026)"}, {"id": 769649200, "item_id": 48103075, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48103075", "by": "gryffyn", "date": "2026-05-11", "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I was curious to see what the actual latency was, so I used Pavel Fatin's https://pavelfatin.com/typometer/. Notes: This system is running Arch, with kernel 7.0.3, scx_bpfland, and i3 on X11. Primary GPU is an integrated Intel GPU. Using picom: Terminal Min Max Avg SD alacritty 20.1 111.4 43.8 18.0 xfce4-terminal 19.1 112.5 49.1 17.9 xterm 12.3 152.6 53.1 26.4 wezterm 28.3 106.0 56.2 15.4 kitty 25.3 115.9 57.2 18.5 g", "context": "Arch Linux user on i3 and X11", "use_case": "terminal latency benchmark", "switched_from": "", "story": "Linux Terminal Memory Usage"}, {"id": 764201955, "item_id": 47762622, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47762622", "by": "ramon156", "date": "2026-04-14", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point", "excerpt": "I love that most tmux features are programmatic and unix-oriented. > # reload config file (change file location to your the tmux.conf you want to use) > bind r source-file ~/.tmux.conf Just seems fun. That said, I still use zellij. I like the scroll info, the default bindings, and the fact it plays nicely with my setup of fish+alac. I might swap alacritty with ghostty at some point, but this works for me.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "Make Tmux Pretty and Usable"}, {"id": 760777409, "item_id": 47548588, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47548588", "by": "caderosche", "date": "2026-03-27", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS.", "excerpt": "I just run Claude Code in tmux+alacritty. My favorite terminal is alacritty because it\u2019s simple reliable and in every OS. I use the same setup across Windows, Linux, and Mac machines. Great setup for constantly using different OSs.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ask HN: What's your desktop setup optimized to work with AI?"}, {"id": 745034544, "item_id": 46564659, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46564659", "by": "AugustoCAS", "date": "2026-01-10", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I run when I open a new terminal window (Alacritty).", "excerpt": "This is not an issue for me due to my workflow. I have a script for each of my projects that I run when I open a new terminal window (Alacritty). The scripts set up tmux with 3-8 terminals, each terminal launches a components, utility or just sits in a folder from which I later run commands. Having said that, I use only a few zsh plugins, and have a theme configured to not run commands that add extra latency.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "You probably don't need Oh My Zsh"}, {"id": 743806465, "item_id": 46487904, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46487904", "by": "whalesalad", "date": "2026-01-04", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal.", "excerpt": "I\u2019ve been using Wayland on Debian 12 since 2023. On an Apple Studio Display (5K) over thunderbolt (the built-in camera, speakers, etc work fine) I screen share and video call with Slack and Google Meet. I use alacritty/zsh/tmux as my terminal. I use chromium as my browser, vscode and sublime text as code editors. Slack, Spotify, my studio mic, my Scarlett 2i2, 10gbe networking, thunderbolt, Logitech unifying receiver", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal", "switched_from": "", "story": "Can I start using Wayland in 2026?"}, {"id": 738846960, "item_id": 46177935, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46177935", "by": "jsw", "date": "2025-12-06", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "just tried this and Alacritty. It\u2019s the closest I\u2019ve got to fully working.", "excerpt": "MacOS user here. So many times over the last decade I\u2019ve journeyed to get terminal Emacs working with my litany of weird keybindings. But I always end up back in the GUI. I switched to Colemak about 15 years ago and thought it would be a good idea to rethink all my Emacs keybindings, since my muscle memory was shot in that transition. (I don\u2019t recommend this in hindsight.) I have yet to get a terminal working fully l", "context": "macOS user, Colemak layout", "use_case": "terminal Emacs on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Term-keys \u2013 Lossless keyboard input for Emacs"}, {"id": 734417904, "item_id": 45901119, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901119", "by": "usrbinbash", "date": "2025-11-12", "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I'll happily keep using alacritty, konsole and xterm", "excerpt": "Yeah, sorry, but if the user friendly alternative to the VT100 emulators is anything like Jupyter, then I'll happily keep using alacritty, konsole and xterm, thanks.", "context": "", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "The terminal of the future"}, {"id": 732821056, "item_id": 45801316, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45801316", "by": "embedding-shape", "date": "2025-11-03", "stance": "neutral", "quote": "with what I use day-to-day (Alacritty)", "excerpt": "Which one is that about specifically? Maybe the author could fix it. Compared the results (https://ucs-detect.readthedocs.io/results.html#general-tabulated-summary) with what I use day-to-day (Alacritty) and seems the results were created with the same version I have locally installed, from Arch/CachyOS repos, namely 0.16.1 (42f49eeb).", "context": "Arch/CachyOS user", "use_case": "terminal emulator", "switched_from": "", "story": "State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions"}]}