p2pmux vs Zellij

p2pmux is a free peer-to-peer terminal multiplexer for connecting people and machines to one shared session. Each pane runs a real shell on the machine of the person who opened it, using that host's tools and environment. Shared sessions can have up to 8 members, 9 tabs, and 8 panes per tab, with nested splits. Terminal streaming is end-to-end encrypted and peer-to-peer, with an iroh relay available when NAT requires it. If the coordinator laptop closes, panes on other machines continue running, but layout changes and new joins pause. Processes and credential files remain on the pane host rather than being uploaded to peers. The agent inbox can show detected coding agents and open a pane for terminal input. Anyone with a join code or ticket can see every pane and interact with terminals; join codes last six hours. The project supports macOS and Linux, not Windows. Linux builds require glibc 2.35 or newer, while musl systems must build from source. It is released under the MIT license.

Zellij is a terminal workspace for developers, operations-oriented users, and others who work in a terminal. It organizes work into tiled, floating, or stacked panes, which can be moved and resized with a mouse or keyboard. KDL layouts can define panes, tabs, commands, and plugins for repeatable workspace setups. Users can switch between named sessions and restore session structure and commands, including after reboots. A built-in web server enables browser access and remote session sharing over HTTPS; read-only tokens let observers view without interacting. The server is off by default, requires authentication, and its documentation recommends a reverse proxy on untrusted networks because it has no rate limiting. Plugins use WebAssembly and can be written in any language that compiles to WASM; Rust has an official SDK and scaffolding tools. Zellij works with existing terminal emulators, shells, and editors, but runs inside a terminal rather than replacing it. Zellij is free and open source at free, with no account required. Zellij.online is a paid hosted session-sharing service with a free tier and is described as being in closed beta.