WezTerm
A GPU-accelerated, cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer configured with Lua.
Liked for its Lua-scriptable configuration that can be version-controlled and adapted per OS,1234 plus built-in tabs, panes and restorable sessions.567 The most common caveat is that development has slowed to a crawl,89 and some find the code-based config or small usability issues off-putting.1011
Why people recommend it
Lua scripting · 3
An extensive Lua API lets users program custom features, plugins and conditional settings.
“I love WezTerm! Recently switched from iTerm2 and programmed the hell out of it”
“the biggest win was taking Wezterm and having claude build Lua scripts for the features I'm missing”
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“I used WezTerm and wrote a plugin to customize it to my liking.”
Versioned config · 2
Config-as-code makes settings easy to version control and share across machines.
“I switched to WezTerm from iTerm2 and being able to version control the settings is one of the biggest benefits”
“I use Wezterm which uses Lua as a config language”
Session persistence · 2
Users rely on its saved and restorable sessions, including remote ones and multiple windows.
“Wezterm auto-saving and restorable sessions (even with multiple windows)”
“I currently use WezTerm for exactly the feature tty7 advertises about session support.”
Tabs and panes · 2
Built-in tabs and panes can stand in for tmux windows in multi-pane workflows.
“Just trying to use Wezterms tabs panels like windows/panels.”
Inline images · 1
Viewing images directly in the terminal is a convenient daily-driver feature.
“I run wezterm as a daily driver and it is very convenient to be able to view images in the command line”
Reliability · 1
One user returned to it after another terminal's core features became buggy.
“I ended up having to go back to WezTerm.”
Caveats and dissent
Slow development · 2
Former users switched away because development stalled and the maintainer has other priorities.
“I really liked WezTerm (I was sponsoring Wez on github because of it) and I still do.”
“I used WezTerm and wrote a plugin to customize it to my liking.”
Code-only config · 1
Some dislike that configuration is written entirely as code.
Usability polish · 1
One user returned to iTerm2 after about a month due to subtle usability issues.
“i tried ghostty, rio, wezterm, they all stuck for about a month or so... then the subtle usability issues become too much”
Often compared with
2 moved from WezTerm to Ghostty
3 moved from iTerm2 to WezTerm
1 moved from tmux to WezTerm
1 moved from Warp to WezTermRex3 comments mention bothAlacritty3 comments mention both
Who recommends it in their own words
Threads where it came up
- Ghostty 1.4 6 mentions
- Herdr has released native app 1 mention
- Are we SIXEL yet? 1 mention
- Emacs 31: An unofficial guide to Markdown-ts-mode 1 mention
- Herdr is joining Y Combinator. The runtime stays open 1 mention
- The Warp Agent CLI 1 mention
Data: wezterm.json. Quotes are verbatim; the verdict and theme labels are written by a model from these comments, and every clause links to its sources.
All comments 20
“I can use the tui in ghosttty or wezterm or iterm”
“I really liked WezTerm (I was sponsoring Wez on github because of it) and I still do.”
“Wezterm has full code config which I hate”
“I currently use WezTerm for exactly the feature tty7 advertises about session support.”
“I switched to WezTerm from iTerm2 and being able to version control the settings is one of the biggest benefits”
“i tried ghostty, rio, wezterm, they all stuck for about a month or so... then the subtle usability issues become too much”
“I used WezTerm and wrote a plugin to customize it to my liking.”
“I run wezterm as a daily driver and it is very convenient to be able to view images in the command line”
“I use windows 11, wsl2, WezTerm.”
“I use WezTerm as a terminal, so being able to have herdr exist in that application”
“I ended up having to go back to WezTerm.”
“the biggest win was taking Wezterm and having claude build Lua scripts for the features I'm missing”
“I use Wezterm which uses Lua as a config language”
“- wezterm”
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
“Just trying to use Wezterms tabs panels like windows/panels.”
“I use wezterm and tmux”
“Wezterm auto-saving and restorable sessions (even with multiple windows)”
“I use WezTerm, tmux, neovim, Zoxide”
“I love WezTerm! Recently switched from iTerm2 and programmed the hell out of it”