Hyper is an open-source terminal emulator built on web technologies including Electron, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, created by Vercel. It takes a fundamentally different approach to terminal design by treating the terminal as a web application, making it extensible using the same technologies that power modern web development. Hyper aims to provide a beautiful, hackable terminal experience that web developers can customize using skills they already have.
Hyper's standout feature is its plugin and theme ecosystem built on React components and Redux actions, allowing developers to intercept and compose every aspect of the terminal's functionality. Instead of exposing custom APIs, it lets you modify the terminal using standard web development patterns. Hyper supports split panes, hot-loading of plugins with instant refresh, emoji support, and a rich library of community-created themes and extensions. The terminal is highly customizable through a simple JavaScript configuration file.
Hyper is best suited for web developers and designers who value aesthetics and extensibility and want a terminal they can customize with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It runs on macOS, Windows, and Linux, making it a cross-platform option for teams. While it trades some performance for its web-based architecture compared to GPU-accelerated alternatives like Alacritty or Kitty, Hyper offers unmatched ease of customization and a vibrant plugin ecosystem for developers comfortable with the JavaScript stack.
