# Ghostty

> Ghostty (v1.4.0, ~63k stars) is a terminal emulator that aims to be fast, feature-rich and native at once: a SwiftUI app with a Metal renderer on macOS and a GTK app with OpenGL on Linux, with multiple windows and tabs. libghostty is a separate C and Zig library for putting a terminal inside your own software. MIT, free, with official Mac downloads; on Linux it relies on distro packages. No Windows app is mentioned on its download or install pages, though libghostty itself is described as compatible with Windows.

- Repository: https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty
- Official docs: https://ghostty.org/docs
- Checked: 2026-11-02

## What it replaces
Nothing people pay for: a free tool, listed because people search for it.

## Facts, with sources

| Question | Status | Answer | Source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Runs on my machine? | Confirmed | Yes; a native app on your own computer | https://ghostty.org/docs/about | 2026-11-02 |
| Code licence | Confirmed | MIT | https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-11-02 |
| Model weights licence | Confirmed | No separate model weights | https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty#readme | 2026-11-02 |
| Commercial use | Confirmed | Yes; MIT allows commercial use | https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/main/LICENSE | 2026-11-02 |
| Paid services needed? | Confirmed | None required; downloads are free and donations are optional | https://ghostty.org/download | 2026-11-02 |
| Hardware | Partial | Draws with the GPU: Metal on macOS, OpenGL on Linux; no CPU or RAM figures | https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty#readme | 2026-11-02 |
| Operating systems | Partial | macOS and Linux apps; Windows is not mentioned for the app | https://ghostty.org/docs/about | 2026-11-02 |
| Setup effort | Confirmed | Easy on macOS with the official download; on Linux it depends on your distro's packages | https://ghostty.org/docs/install/binary | 2026-11-02 |

GitHub: 63320 stars, 3829 forks, last push 2026-11-03, archived: no.

## Alternatives to Ghostty
- [Tauri](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/tauri.md): Framework for small desktop and mobile apps with a web front end and a Rust back end, using the system's own web view instead of bundling Chromium.
- [FastAPI](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/fastapi.md): Python web framework for building APIs from type hints, with automatic validation and interactive OpenAPI docs; MIT licensed.
- [vLLM](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/vllm.md): Open-source engine for serving LLMs at high throughput on your own GPUs, with an OpenAI-compatible API server; Apache-2.0.
- [Herdr](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/herdr.md): Apache-2.0 terminal workspace manager for coding agents. Runs Claude Code, Codex and others side by side and shows which one needs you.
- [FreeLLMAPI](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/freellmapi.md): Self-hosted router that pools free-tier LLM provider keys behind one OpenAI-compatible API, for developers and coding agents.
- [portable-pty](https://repoquarry.dev/projects/portable-pty.md): MIT Rust crate from WezTerm that starts shells in a pseudoterminal on Windows (ConPTY), macOS and Linux, for apps that embed a terminal.
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Source: RepoQuarry (https://repoquarry.dev/projects/ghostty). Data licence: CC BY 4.0. Quotes are from project documentation and belong to their authors.