Terminals

When starting to study computer science, the first thing I learned was the existence of the terminal. I had to open a terminal and start writing some basic command lines written on a long lab exercise. What a discovery for me at first!

“A terminal gives the user a way to issue commands directly to the computer without draining the computer’s resources that a graphic UI provides. It is also a way to issue powerful commands to do things that cannot be done via a graphic UI.”

I started to use a terminal on Linux, so it was built in and very simple to use. When I had to switch to Windows I was lost, I had to install random terminals to be able to use command lines. It took me some time to find the right tools. It happened the same thing when I switched to Mac. Here is a list of 18 terminals to install on Windows and 12 for Mac.

Windows

Cmder

Cmder 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, looking sexy from the start.

ConEmu

ConEmu-Maximus5 is a full-featured local terminal for Windows devs, admins and users. Get better console window with tabs, splits, Quake style, copy+paste, DosBox and PuTTY integration, and much more.

Hyper

The goal of the project is to create a beautiful and extensible experience for command-line interface users, built on open web standards. In the beginning, our focus will be primarily around speed, stability and the development of the correct API for extension authors.

Tabby

Tabby is an infinitely customizable cross-platform terminal app for local shells, serial, SSH and Telnet connections.

Termius

Termius is an SSH client that brings engineering teams, infrastructure information, and great UX together to get more work done. Millions of engineers around the world use Termius to connect to their remote servers, share connection information with their teams, be more efficient and save time.

Fluent Terminal

A Terminal Emulator based on UWP and web technologies.
Terminal for PowerShell, CMD, WSL or custom shells – Built-in support for SSH and Mosh connections – Supports tabs and multiple windows – Theming and appearance configuration – Import/Export themes – Import iTerm themes – Fullscreen mode – Editable keybindings – Search function – Configure shell profiles to quickly switch between different shells – Explorer context menu integration (Installation script can be found here)

Alacritty

Alacritty is a modern terminal emulator that comes with sensible defaults, but allows for extensive configuration. By integrating with other applications, rather than reimplementing their functionality, it manages to provide a flexible set of features with high performance. The supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.

Windows Terminal

The Windows Terminal is a modern, fast, efficient, powerful, and productive terminal application for users of command-line tools and shells like Command Prompt, PowerShell, and WSL. Its main features include multiple tabs, panes, Unicode and UTF-8 character support, a GPU accelerated text rendering

MobaXterm

MobaXterm is your ultimate toolbox for remote computing. In a single Windows application, it provides loads of functions that are tailored for programmers, webmasters, IT administrators and pretty much all users who need to handle their remote jobs in a more simple fashion.

ZOC

ZOC is a professional terminal emulation software for Windows and macOS.
Its impressive list of emulations and powerful features makes it a reliable and elegant tool that connects you to hosts and mainframes via secure shell, telnet, serial cable and other methods of communication.

Mintty

Mintty is a terminal emulator for Cygwin with a native Windows user interface and minimalist design. Its terminal emulation is largely compatible with xterm, but it does not require an X server.

PuTTY

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

FireCMD

FireCMD (short for Fire Command) is an enhanced command line environment for Windows operating system which makes interacting with your computer both user-friendly and powerful. It provides a set of tools such as command prompt alternative i.e. FireCMD command shell, terminal emulator for Windows (Console emulator), text editor, UNIX for Windows, 218 new commands, snapshot grabber and much more.

ConsoleZ

This is a modified version of Console 2 for a better experience under Windows Vista/7/8/10 and a better visual rendering. – GitHub – cbucher/console: This is a modified version of Console 2 for a b…

XSHELL

An SSH Client with superior session management, advanced customizations, and an intuitive UI. Xshell is Free for Home and School users.

Z/scope

Modern web and desktop, Terminal emulator solutions.
Access multiple host-based applications from a single interface and deliver legacy integration and modernization by using cutting-edge web technologies.

Git for Windows

Git for Windows provides a BASH emulation used to run Git from the command line. *NIX users should feel right at home, as the BASH emulation behaves just like the “git” command in LINUX and UNIX environments.

IVT

A normal Windows setup installer, with desktop-shortcut, Windows start menus, uninstaller, repair etc. Requires administrator rights on the PC.
A self-unpacking version. Copy the ZIP file to any convenient spot, unzip, start. Requires no administrator rights.
Uninstall by just removing the files again.

Mac

iTerm2

iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. It works on Macs with macOS 10.14 or newer. iTerm2 brings the terminal into the modern age with features you never knew you always wanted.

Hyper

The goal of the project is to create a beautiful and extensible experience for command-line interface users, built on open web standards. In the beginning, our focus will be primarily around speed, stability and the development of the correct API for extension authors.

Tabby

Tabby is an infinitely customizable cross-platform terminal app for local shells, serial, SSH and Telnet connections.

Termius

Termius is an SSH client that brings engineering teams, infrastructure information, and great UX together to get more work done. Millions of engineers around the world use Termius to connect to their remote servers, share connection information with their teams, be more efficient and save time.

Alacritty

Alacritty is a modern terminal emulator that comes with sensible defaults, but allows for extensive configuration. By integrating with other applications, rather than reimplementing their functionality, it manages to provide a flexible set of features with high performance. The supported platforms currently consist of BSD, Linux, macOS and Windows.

Commander One

Learn how to use terminal emulator, send command line commands from Commander One window and maintain your files like a pro. Get the advanced file manager for Mac and fully maintain your file structure and system processes with the built-in Mac Terminal emulator.

ZOC

ZOC is a professional terminal emulation software for Windows and macOS.
Its impressive list of emulations and powerful features makes it a reliable and elegant tool that connects you to hosts and mainframes via secure shell, telnet, serial cable and other methods of communication.

MacTerm

Powerful replacement for macOS Terminal, supporting 24-bit color, standard graphics protocols and iTerm2 image sequences and color schemes.

Kitty

kitty is designed for power keyboard users. To that end all its controls work with the keyboard (although it fully supports mouse interactions as well). Its configuration is a simple, human editable, single file for easy reproducibility (I like to store configuration in source control).

Powerterm Interconnect

PowerTerm InterConnect (Mac OS Edition), Ericom’s terminal emulator software for Mac OS, maximizes the capabilities of legacy systems with a minimal amount of installation time and software space.

MacWise

MacWise terminal emulation for Mac OSX – Best telnet, ssh & serial for Wyse 50, Wyse 60, Wyse 370, ADDS Viewpoint, Televideo 925, DEC VT100, VT220 and Prism – connecting Macs to host computers running systems such as PICK, UNIX, uniVerse, UniData, GA, Prime, Ultimate and McDonnell Douglas, Xymox and…

Byobu

Byobu is a GPLv3 open source text-based window manager and terminal multiplexer. It was originally designed to provide elegant enhancements to the otherwise functional, plain, practical GNU Screen, for the Ubuntu server distribution.

Oh My Zsh

Oh-My-Zsh is a delightful, open source, community-driven framework for managing your ZSH configuration. It comes bundled with several helpful functions, helpers, plugins, themes, and a few things that make you shout…