You Don't Need Another Terminal, You Need a Better Way to Find One

You've probably got a terminal emulator you tolerate rather than love. Maybe it came with your OS, maybe you picked one years ago and never thought about it again. The thing is, "terminal emulator" covers an enormous range of tools now—GPU-accelerated powerhouses, SSH clients, mobile apps that run a Linux environment in your pocket. If you've ever wondered what else is out there, awesome-terminals is a curated list that organizes them by platform so you can actually find what fits your setup.

What It Does

awesome-terminals is exactly what the name suggests: a curated list of terminal emulators, grouped by operating system. The README breaks things down into sections for Android, HarmonyOS, iOS, and Linux (with the list truncating before it gets further). Each entry is a short link with a one-line description of what makes that particular terminal worth knowing about.

There's no build system here, no code to compile, no package to install. It's a reference document—a starting point for anyone who wants to survey the landscape before committing to a tool. The descriptions range from a single sentence to a short paragraph, and a few entries are marked as deprecated, which is a useful signal in itself.

Why It's Cool

The real value here is the platform-first organization. Most terminal lists you'll find online assume you're on Linux or macOS and treat mobile as an afterthought. This one gives Android, HarmonyOS, and iOS equal billing, which matters more than it used to.

• Mobile terminals get serious treatment. The Android section includes Termux (a full Linux environment with no rooting required), Mobile SSH (multi-session terminals, a tmux manager, and Eternal Terminal resilient sessions), and Yetty, which promises remote graphics and GUI support. On iOS you've got Blink Shell (Mosh-based), ish (a Linux shell for iOS), a-Shell with multiple windows, and La Terminal, which the README describes as a fully-native touch experience for command-line work on iPhone and iPad. There's even Onepilot, aimed specifically at running CLI tools like Claude Code and Codex on remote servers from your phone.

• It surfaces things you'd never stumble across. HarmonyOS has exactly one entry—Termony, described as "Termux for HarmonyOS Computer." I didn't know that existed. That's the point of a list like this: it fills in gaps you didn't know you had.

• The Linux section shows how wide the range is. Alacritty is GPU-accelerated and cross-platform. foot is a minimal Wayland terminal. Contour bills itself as a modal terminal for power users. Extraterm calls itself "the swiss army chainsaw of terminal emulators." Ghostty uses platform-native UI with GPU acceleration. Guake is a top-down Quake-style terminal for GNOME. Hyper is built on web technologies. These aren't variations on a theme—they're genuinely different philosophies about what a terminal should be.

• Deprecation is flagged honestly. eDEX-UI and Darktile are both marked [DEPRECATED]. That's the kind of thing a curated list should do and often doesn't. You won't waste time getting attached to something that's no longer maintained.

• A few entries are just fun. kermit is described as "a VTE-based, simple and froggy terminal emulator." I don't know what froggy means in this context, but I want to find out.

How to Try It

There's nothing to install. The whole thing is a README.

1. Go to the repository: https://github.com/cdleon/awesome-terminals
2. Find your platform (Android, HarmonyOS, iOS, or Linux).
3. Click through to whatever catches your eye.
4. If you find something you like, follow the install instructions on that project's own page—this list just points you there.

If you're on Linux and want a quick starting point, the list gives you enough context to make a first choice. If you're curious about what's possible on mobile, the Android and iOS sections are worth a scroll even if you don't plan to switch. And if you're maintaining a terminal emulator that isn't listed, the repo is open to contributions.

Final Thoughts

This isn't a tool you'll use every day—it's a reference you'll come back to when you're dissatisfied with what you've got or curious about what else exists. It's most useful for developers who work across multiple platforms (phone, laptop, maybe a remote server) and want terminals that feel coherent across all of them. The list is clearly a work in progress—the README truncates mid-entry, and some sections are thinner than others—but that's the nature of a curated list. It's a snapshot, and a useful one. If you've been using the same terminal for five years without thinking about it, this is a good excuse to look around.

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