The Best Terminal App for Mac in 2026 (8 Apps Compared)

Every Mac ships with a terminal, and for a quick command it’s all you need. Spend your day in a shell, though, and the details start to matter: split panes, speed, search, how it handles fonts, colors and remote sessions.

We tested the best terminal app for Mac options, from Apple’s own Terminal to GPU-accelerated newcomers, and compared them on speed, features, configuration and price. Every app here is free to start, and all run natively on Apple silicon.

Comparison: best terminal apps for Mac

App	Price model	Configured with	Splits	Best for
Terminal	Free, built in	Settings window	No (one-session split view only)	Occasional use
iTerm2	Free, open source	Settings window	Yes	Power users who want everything
Ghostty	Free, open source	Text file	Yes	Most people
Warp	Free; paid plans for more AI	Settings window	Yes	AI agents in the terminal
WezTerm	Free, open source	Lua	Yes, plus built-in multiplexer	Cross-platform, scriptable setups
Kitty	Free, open source	Text file	Yes (layouts)	Keyboard-driven power users
Alacritty	Free, open source	TOML file	No (pair with tmux)	Minimalists
Tabby	Free, open source	Settings window	Yes	Built-in SSH and serial connections

Apple’s Terminal: what it does well

Best for: Occasional use and quick commands · Price: Free (built in) · Website

Before you download anything, give Terminal a fair look. It’s in Applications › Utilities, it launches instantly, and it’s always there on any Mac you sit down at. Profiles let you save fonts, colors and startup commands. Window groups reopen a set of windows in one click. Secure Keyboard Entry in the Terminal menu stops other apps from reading your keystrokes, which is useful when you type passwords.

macOS 26 Tahoe gave Terminal its biggest refresh in years: new themes designed for Liquid Glass, 24-bit color and Powerline font support. That removes two of the most common reasons people switched away, since modern command-line tools and prompts now render correctly.

What it still lacks: true split panes (its split view shows two parts of the same session, not two shells), a searchable command history, and the deep customization power users expect.

• Pros: Built in, fast, reliable, 24-bit color on macOS Tahoe
• Cons: No real split panes; limited customization

The best terminal apps for Mac

Ghostty

Best for: Most people · Price: Free (open source) · Website

Fast. Native. Free. Ghostty gets the balance right better than any other terminal we tried. Its core is built for speed and renders on the GPU, but on the Mac its interface uses native macOS tabs, windows and splits, so it feels like it belongs. You get a Quick Terminal that drops down from the menu bar, hundreds of built-in themes that can follow light and dark mode, and an AppleScript dictionary for scripting windows and tabs.

Ghostty 1.4, released in October 2026, added full Kitty graphics protocol support, better SSH integration, draggable splits, macOS 27 fixes, and lower memory and energy use. Settings live in a plain text file with sensible defaults, so it works well out of the box and you only change what you want. It supports macOS Ventura and later, and it’s a non-profit project funded by donations.

• Pros: Native Mac feel, very fast, great defaults, free with no upsell
• Cons: No settings window; fewer power features than iTerm2

iTerm2

Best for: Power users who want every feature in one app · Price: Free (open source, donations welcome) · Website

iTerm2 has been the default answer to “what’s the best terminal for Mac” for more than a decade, and it’s still the most feature-rich option. Split panes, a hotkey window, instant replay, triggers that react to text in the output, shell integration that marks each command, native tmux integration, password manager support, and a Python API for automation. If a terminal can do it, iTerm2 probably already does.

Development is very active. iTerm2 3.7 arrived in September 2026 with named, colored tab groups, an iPhone companion app, and AI features that can watch your sessions and help you work, which are optional and use your own API key. Sessions can also report their status on tabs, handy when you’re running several coding agents at once. It requires macOS Ventura or later.

• Pros: Unmatched feature set, actively maintained, everything configurable in a settings window
• Cons: Settings can feel overwhelming; not as fast as GPU-first terminals

Warp

Best for: Developers who want AI agents built into the terminal · Price: Freemium (paid plans for more AI usage) · Website

Warp rethinks the terminal rather than polishing it. Commands and their output are grouped into blocks you can copy, share or search. The input editor works like a code editor, with mouse support and multi-line editing. And AI is woven in: describe what you want, and Warp’s agent can write commands, explain errors or carry out multi-step coding tasks.

The terminal itself is free, and you can use it without an account. AI usage is metered, with Build, Max and Business subscriptions adding more, or you can bring your own API key. In April 2026, Warp open-sourced its client under the AGPL. It runs on Mac, Linux and Windows.

• Pros: The most modern interface, powerful built-in agents, now open source
• Cons: AI-first focus isn’t for everyone; heavier than classic terminals

WezTerm

Best for: Cross-platform, scriptable setups · Price: Free (open source) · Website

WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated terminal and multiplexer configured entirely in Lua. That means your configuration is real code: you can change behavior by hostname, build custom key tables or script the status bar. Its built-in multiplexer gives you tmux-style persistent panes, including on remote machines over SSH, without installing tmux.

One caveat: the last tagged stable release dates to early 2024, though development continues on the main branch through 2026. Most users install the nightly build (brew install --cask wezterm@nightly) to get current fixes. It’s a universal app that runs natively on Apple silicon.

• Pros: Extremely flexible, built-in multiplexing, same config on Mac, Linux and Windows
• Cons: Lua config takes effort; stable releases are infrequent

Kitty

Best for: Keyboard-driven power users · Price: Free (open source) · Website

Kitty is fast, GPU-rendered and built for people who never want to touch the mouse. Its layouts arrange windows inside a tab automatically, “kittens” add small tools like an image viewer and a diff tool, and remote control lets you script the terminal from the shell. The Kitty graphics protocol it introduced has become a standard other terminals, including Ghostty, now support.

It’s updated frequently, with several releases in 2026 alone. Configuration lives in a text file. The interface draws its own tabs rather than using native Mac ones, which some people love and some don’t.

• Pros: Fast, powerful layouts, frequent updates
• Cons: Doesn’t look or feel like a Mac app; steep learning curve

Alacritty

Best for: Minimalists who live in tmux · Price: Free (open source) · Website

Alacritty does one thing: render a terminal as fast as possible. There are no splits or built-in multiplexing by design. The idea is that you pair it with tmux or Zellij and keep the terminal itself out of the way. Configuration is a TOML file, and a Vi mode lets you move through scrollback and select text from the keyboard.

Alacritty 0.17 shipped in April 2026. Download the .dmg from the official GitHub releases, since the Homebrew cask is currently disabled. macOS may ask you to approve the app in System Settings › Privacy & Security the first time you open it.

• Pros: Minimal, fast, light on memory
• Cons: No splits; installation is less convenient than other apps here

Tabby

Best for: Built-in SSH, serial and Telnet connections · Price: Free (open source) · Website

Tabby is a highly customizable terminal with a connection manager built in. Save SSH, serial and Telnet profiles, transfer files over SFTP, and keep everything in one window of tabs and splits. It’s built on Electron, so it uses more memory than the native apps here, but it’s actively maintained, with regular releases in 2026, and ships native Apple silicon builds.

• Pros: SSH and serial connections built in, friendly settings, plugins
• Cons: Electron app; slower and heavier than native terminals

If remote servers are your main use, our guide to the best SSH client for Mac covers dedicated apps like Termius and Prompt.

How to make a terminal app your default

There are two different “defaults” on a Mac: the shell that runs inside your terminal, and the terminal app itself.

Change your default shell

zsh has been the default shell since macOS Catalina. To switch to another installed shell, such as fish or a newer bash from Homebrew:

1. Install the shell, for example brew install fish.
2. Add its path to the list of allowed shells: echo /opt/homebrew/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells.
3. Make it your login shell: chsh -s /opt/homebrew/bin/fish.
4. Quit and reopen your terminal app.

To switch back, run chsh -s /bin/zsh. You can also change the shell for one app only. In Terminal, go to Terminal › Settings › General and set Shells open with. In iTerm2, set the command in Settings › Profiles › General. Ghostty, WezTerm, Kitty and Alacritty each have a shell or command option in their config file.

Make a different terminal open by default

macOS doesn’t have a single “default terminal” setting, but you can get close:

• iTerm2: Choose iTerm2 › Make iTerm2 Default Term from the menu bar. Scripts and links that would open Terminal open in iTerm2 instead.
• Any app: Select a .command or .sh file in Finder, press ⌘ Command + I, choose your terminal under Open with, then click Change All.
• Keep it in the Dock: Drag the app to your Dock and remove Terminal, or launch it with a keyboard shortcut from a launcher like Raycast or Alfred (see our Raycast vs Alfred comparison).

Tip: Your shell configuration lives in ~/.zshrc (or your shell’s equivalent), not in the terminal app. Switch terminals and your aliases, prompt and PATH come with you.

Which terminal should you pick?

• You open a terminal once a week: Stick with Apple’s Terminal.
• You want one great terminal and no fuss: Ghostty.
• You want every feature and a settings window: iTerm2.
• You want AI agents to write and run commands for you: Warp.
• You use Mac, Linux and Windows and like scripting your setup: WezTerm.
• You live in tmux: Alacritty or Ghostty.
• You connect to servers and serial devices all day: Tabby.

Whichever you choose, learning a few shortcuts pays off quickly. Our Mac keyboard shortcuts guide covers the system-wide ones, and our list of the best Mac apps has more tools developers use every day.

How we picked

We looked for terminal apps that are actively maintained in 2026 and run natively on Apple silicon, then compared them on:

• Speed: How quickly they launch, render output and respond to input
• Mac fit: Native tabs and windows, keyboard shortcuts and system integration
• Features: Splits, search, shell integration, multiplexing and remote sessions
• Configuration: How easy it is to set up, and how far you can take it
• Price model: Free, freemium or paid, without quoting prices that change

We confirmed each app’s latest release and official download source. Hyper, once a popular choice, was left out because it hasn’t had a stable release in years.