Contour vs WezTerm

Contour is a free terminal emulator for everyday use, designed for people who want control over terminal workflows. It runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Windows. GPU-accelerated rendering and high-DPI support accompany text features such as font ligatures, Unicode grapheme clusters, and colored emoji. Users can split panes, use vi-like modes for navigation and selection, and jump through history with vertical markers. Sessions can persist beyond a terminal window and be reattached locally or over a network. Contour interoperates with tmux control mode in both directions, but not its -CC mode. It also supports clickable links, inline Sixel images, OSC 52 clipboard setting, and profiles for color schemes and login shells. TCP connections use TLS encryption and require a token. Daemon mode is experimental, and its command-line flags and wire protocol may change. The project website remains in draft mode. Contour is licensed under Apache License 2.0.

WezTerm is a terminal emulator and multiplexer for Windows, macOS, and Linux, implemented in Rust. It organizes terminal panes, tabs, and windows across local and remote hosts, with mouse support and scrollback. Rendering features include ligatures, color emoji, font fallback, true color, and dynamic color schemes. Configuration is file-based and supports hot reloading. An embedded SSH client provides native tabs, and WezTerm can connect to remote multiplexer instances over SSH or TLS over TCP/IP. Ad-hoc SSH sessions are non-persistent: if the network connection is interrupted, their tabs end. It can also connect to serial ports for embedded and Arduino work. Shell integration supports escape sequences for working directories, prompt zones, and user variables; user variables can work through tmux when passthrough is enabled. Image support includes the iTerm2-compatible and Kitty graphics protocols, plus experimental Sixel graphics. Pre-built downloads are listed for Windows, macOS, Linux, FreeBSD, and NetBSD, and the code can be built from source. Windows requires 64-bit Windows 10.0.17763 or later. The MIT license permits use, modification, and distribution free of charge, with the software provided as-is without warranty.