iTerm2 vs xterm
iTerm2
iterm2.comxterm
invisible-island.netSide by side
| Figure | iTerm2 | xterm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | — | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Terminal apps | 8.3 (#9) | 7.9 (#26) |
| Spec score · Terminal Emulators | 8.0 (#20) | 7.6 (#34) |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | iTerm2 is a replacement for Terminal and the successor to iTerm. | xterm is a terminal emulator for the X Window System. |
| Scripting API | Yes | Yes |
| Split panes | A tab can be divided into vertically or horizontally arranged panes, each showing a different session. | No |
| SSH support | Yes | Yes |
| Support | The site directs users with problems or ideas to its bug tracker, forum, or the maintainer by email. | The maintainer says users should report bugs to [email protected] and notes that he also responds through several bug-tracking systems. |
| Supported platforms | macos | linux,macos,windows |
Plans
In their own words
xterm
xterm is a free terminal emulator for the X Window System, available for Linux, macOS, and Windows. It emulates DEC VT102 and VT220 terminals, selected features from VT320, VT420, and VT520, and Tektronix 4014 graphics. Separate xterm windows can run on remote machines and display locally over the X protocol; SSH support is also listed. The current version implements ISO/ANSI colors using background color erase. If the operating system supports terminal resizing, xterm can notify programs running in its window when its size changes. It works with different flavors of the Athena widgets and includes scripting support. The official page links to source and archive downloads, while the FAQ points to a manual page covering command-line options, X resources, and other configuration settings. Related components add support for encodings beyond ISO-8859-1 and UTF-8, X resource support, and TrueType fonts. The FAQ documents known limitations, including color behavior that can revert to monochrome. The maintainer has worked on xterm since early 1996; its origins are described as a collective effort maintained by the X Consortium.