Cool Retro Term vs MobaXterm
Cool Retro Term
github.com
MobaXterm
mobaxterm.mobatek.netSide by side
| Figure | Cool Retro Term | MobaXterm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $5.75/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Terminal Emulators | 8.8 (#2) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Terminal apps | 8.0 (#24) | 8.9 (#3) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Headquarters | Albuzzano, Italy | Toulouse, France |
| Maker | The GitHub account identifies Swordfish90 as Filippo Scognamiglio and lists Pavia, Italy. | Mobatek is a Toulouse, France software company serving worldwide customers since 2008. |
| Purpose | Cool Retro Term is a terminal emulator designed to mimic the look and feel of old cathode tube screens. | MobaXterm combines remote computing tools and Unix commands in a Windows application for programmers, webmasters, IT administrators, and others handling remote jobs. |
| Support | The project wiki provides installation and Linux/macOS build instructions, theme guidance, and information about the terminal widget. | The Home Edition license says Mobatek is not obligated to provide technical assistance or maintenance services. |
| Supported platforms | linux,macos | Windows |
Plans
MobaXterm
- Professional Edition$69 a year
- Home EditionFree
- Professional Edition$69, paid once
- Professional Edition$69 a year
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.
MobaXterm
MobaXterm combines remote-computing tools and Unix commands in a Windows application. It supports remote sessions over SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, RDP, VNC, XDMCP, FTP, SFTP, Mosh, and Serial, among other listed protocols. Its embedded X server supports OpenGL and extensions for running remote graphical applications on Windows. An SSH session can open a graphical SFTP browser for transferring files between a computer and a remote server. The terminal includes Unix commands, and additional tools can be added through downloadable plugins or the MobApt package manager. The session manager can route connections through an SSH gateway before reaching an end server. MobaXterm is offered as a single executable that can run from a USB stick without admin rights. The Home Edition has limits of 12 sessions, 2 SSH tunnels, and 4 macros; its license does not obligate the maker to provide technical assistance or maintenance. Professional Edition costs $69 per user per year, with first-year updates and optional renewal. The maker, MobaXterm, was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Toulouse, France.