Cool Retro Term vs Guake
Cool Retro Term
github.comGuake
guake.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | Cool Retro Term | Guake |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal Emulators | 8.8 (#2) | 8.1 (#19) |
| Spec score · Terminal apps | 8.0 (#24) | 7.6 (#36) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The project wiki provides installation and Linux/macOS build instructions, theme guidance, and information about the terminal widget. | The homepage directs users to the GitHub Issues page to report bugs and welcomes code and translation contributions. |
| Supported platforms | linux,macos | linux |
| Tabs | The 2.0.0-beta2 release added tab-management shortcuts. | It supports multiple named tabs, with names set automatically from the running command or customized by the user. |
Plans
In their own words
Cool Retro Term
Cool Retro Term is a free, open-source terminal emulator for Linux and macOS that imitates the appearance of cathode-ray tube screens. The project describes it as customizable and reasonably lightweight. A context menu exposes color, font, and visual-effect settings. Community profiles can add flicker, scanline rasterization, screen curvature, static noise, and burn-in effects, while the wiki invites users to share themes and provides JSON examples. Release notes list support for multiple tabs and windows, plus shortcuts for tab management. Cool Retro Term uses the QML port of qtermwidget, a terminal widget based on Konsole. Linux users can download an AppImage or find packages in repositories for distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch. macOS users can download a DMG. Build information covers Qt6 requirements, Linux Qt5 dependencies, and qmake instructions. Installation, build, theme, and widget guidance appears in the project wiki.