Ghostty is a fast, feature-rich, and cross-platform terminal emulator that leverages platform-native UI components and GPU acceleration to deliver a seamless developer experience. Created by Mitchell Hashimoto, Ghostty uses Metal on macOS and OpenGL on Linux to achieve rendering performance that is roughly 100x faster than traditional terminal emulators like Terminal.app and iTerm2. It addresses the longstanding trade-off between speed and features in terminal emulators by providing both in a single, polished application.
Ghostty stands out with its native UI approach, rendering tabs, splits, and windows using each platform's own toolkit rather than custom-drawn interfaces. It ships with hundreds of built-in themes, supports the Kitty graphics protocol for inline image rendering, and offers features like secure keyboard entry, hyperlinks, and light/dark mode notifications. The terminal supports hundreds of configuration options, progress bar indicators, and deep integration with tools like Neovim and Zellij, enabling terminal applications to push beyond traditional limitations.
Ghostty is designed for developers and power users who want a terminal emulator that feels native to their operating system while delivering exceptional performance. It runs on macOS and Linux, making it suitable for cross-platform workflows. With its focus on correctness, speed, and extensibility, Ghostty competes directly with Alacritty and Kitty while offering a more feature-complete experience out of the box, appealing to anyone who spends significant time in the command line.
