Ghostty
Fast, native terminal emulator with GPU acceleration
Last updated: February 2025
Quick Verdict
The fastest and most polished native terminal emulator available. A must-try for developers who spend significant time in the terminal.
What is Ghostty?
Ghostty is a terminal emulator created by Mitchell Hashimoto (co-founder of HashiCorp), written from scratch in Zig with platform-native UI and GPU acceleration. It uses Swift/AppKit on macOS and GTK4 on Linux, delivering blazing-fast rendering through Metal and OpenGL. The project went non-profit in December 2025, and its performance benchmarks consistently outperform all tested terminals.
Our Impression
"Ghostty delivers on the promise of a terminal that is both blazing fast and beautiful out of the box. The native UI on each platform means it feels right at home on macOS without the overhead of Electron. The non-profit governance model gives confidence in its long-term community alignment."
— Giga Engineer Editorial Team
Key Features
Pros
- Fastest GPU-accelerated rendering in benchmarks
- Native look and feel on each platform (not Electron)
- Works perfectly out of the box with minimal config
- Non-profit governance ensures community alignment
- Created by Mitchell Hashimoto (Terraform, Vagrant)
Cons
- No Windows support yet
- Relatively new ecosystem compared to iTerm2
- Some consider it overhyped relative to alternatives like Kitty
Who Should Use Ghostty?
- Developers seeking a fast, native terminal that works out of the box
- macOS and Linux users wanting GPU-accelerated terminal performance
- Developers migrating from iTerm2 or Alacritty for a modern alternative
- Terminal enthusiasts who value thoughtful, performance-focused tooling
Ghostty Alternatives
Looking for alternatives to Ghostty? Consider these options: