Cool Retro Term vs Konsole
Cool Retro Term
github.com
Konsole
konsole.kde.orgSide by side
| Figure | Cool Retro Term | Konsole |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal Emulators | 8.8 (#2) | 8.5 (#9) |
| Spec score · Terminal apps | 8.0 (#24) | 8.7 (#4) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Albuzzano, Italy | Berlin, Germany |
| Linux installation | Linux users can download an AppImage or use packages supplied by distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora and Arch. | The page lists Linux installation through Discover and other AppStream application stores, a distribution package manager, or Flathub. |
| Maker | The GitHub account identifies Swordfish90 as Filippo Scognamiglio and lists Pavia, Italy. | KDE describes itself as an international community that has built and distributed free, open-source software since 1996. |
| Profiles | Profiles include Amber, Green, Scanlines, Pixelated, Apple, Vintage, IBM DOS, IBM 3278 and Transparent Green. | Konsole supports multiple profiles. |
| Purpose | Cool Retro Term is a terminal emulator designed to mimic the look and feel of old cathode tube screens. | Konsole runs a command shell and provides a command-line interface for directly controlling a computer. |
| Support | The project wiki provides installation and Linux/macOS build instructions, theme guidance, and information about the terminal widget. | The page links to the Konsole Handbook, KDE Forum, bug reporting, and a developer mailing list. |
| Supported platforms | linux,macos | Linux,Windows,macOS |
| Tabs | The 2.0.0-beta2 release added tab-management shortcuts. | Konsole supports tabs. |
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.
Konsole
Konsole is a terminal emulator for running a command shell and controlling a computer through a text-based command line. It is listed for Linux, Windows, and macOS and is free and open source under GPL-2.0+. Tabs and multiple profiles organize sessions; profiles can also automate common commands, including SSH connections to another machine. A tab can be split into left-right or top-bottom views, and its layout can be saved to a file. Konsole supports bookmarks, searching, and saving output or scrollback as a text or HTML file. Monitoring can notify users about silence, activity, a shell prompt, or a finished process. With shell integration enabled, it distinguishes prompts, input, and output and provides visual hints for commands that resulted in errors. A D-Bus interface allows software to control Konsole windows and sessions. Linux installation options include application stores, distribution package managers, and Flathub. The project links to Windows and macOS platform pages, including nightly installers for Windows and macOS ARM and Intel; those builds are intended for testing and come from the latest development branch.