Cool Retro Term vs Tabby

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.

Tabby is a free, open-source terminal app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It connects to local shells, serial devices, SSH servers, and Telnet hosts, and supports shell environments including PowerShell, WSL, Git-Bash, Cygwin, and CMD. Its SSH2 client has a connection manager, while the serial terminal offers connection profiles and input modes. SSH sessions support SFTP and Zmodem file transfers, X11 and port forwarding, jump hosts, and agent forwarding. Tabby can restore open tabs and split panes after you leave the app, and nested panes support simultaneous input. SSH secrets and configuration can be stored in an encrypted container; an optional password manager uses a master passphrase. Customization includes CSS themes, color schemes, shortcuts, and plugins. Other listed capabilities include GPU acceleration, session sync, scripting, portable mode, Explorer integration, and WinSCP integration. The app is described as forever-free FOSS. The page provides download and GitHub links but states no dedicated support terms.