Okay, I Like WezTerm

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

WezTerm, a GPU-accelerated, Lua-configured terminal emulator, is attracting many users away from iTerm2, Kitty, Alacritty and others thanks to its built‑in pane/tab management, cross‑platform support, ssh‑aware multiplexing, and powerful copy/search features that “get out of the way” once configured. Commenters highlight performance gains, a small but expressive config, and an unusually responsive, courteous maintainer as major strengths, especially compared to more “opinionated” alternatives. Remaining pain points include quirks on Wayland and Windows, font rendering and copy‑wrapping bugs (some recently fixed in nightlies), missing features like pane broadcasting or native quake‑style drop‑down windows, and the broader question of whether features like splits belong in the terminal or the window manager.

Overall Sentiment & Adoption

  • Many commenters report switching from iTerm2, Kitty, Alacritty, or default terminals to WezTerm and being very satisfied.
  • Common praise: good defaults, fast enough on most setups, “gets out of the way,” and works identically across macOS, Linux, and Windows.
  • Several people sponsor the project and praise the maintainer’s responsiveness and tone; a few report issues or comments being ignored or closed and left.

Configuration, Features & Workflow

  • Lua-based config is a major selling point: expressive, scriptable, and good for cross‑platform conditionals.
  • Popular features:
    • Tabs and panes built-in (for some, removing the need for tmux/zellij locally).
    • SSH “domains” and WezTerm’s own multiplexer, providing tmux/mosh‑like reconnection and shared layouts over SSH.
    • Command palette, “quickselect” / copy modes, infinite or large scrollback, search, and get-text for dumping scrollback.
    • Hardware-accelerated rendering and ligatures; fine-grained control over opacity/blur and fonts.
  • Some users disable most built‑ins and just use WezTerm as a good host for tmux or zellij.

Comparisons to Other Terminals

  • iTerm2: liked for features like split panes and hotkey/“quake” windows; several note performance and latency issues and switch to WezTerm. Quake-style behavior can be recreated via tools like Hammerspoon or tdrop, but isn’t native.
  • Kitty: praised for speed and configurability, but many are put off by the maintainer’s attitude, terminfo/SSH friction, and some design decisions. Others stay with Kitty because it feels faster or renders fonts better.
  • Alacritty: valued for speed, but missing features (e.g., scrollback dump, ligatures) and bugs push some toward WezTerm.
  • Default terminals (Terminal.app, gnome-terminal, etc.) are seen as “good enough” by some; others move when they need true color, hyperlinks, multiplexing, or better UX.

Performance, Bugs & Limitations

  • Mixed reports on speed: many find WezTerm much faster than iTerm2; others find Kitty or even Windows Terminal noticeably faster, especially for large buffers or rapid scrolling.
  • Reported issues:
    • Freezes or lag with large scrollback; GPU/GL conflicts with some graphics apps; Wayland/X11 quirks.
    • Copying wrapped lines inserting unwanted newlines (a showstopper for some; said to be fixed in nightly builds).
    • Font rendering quality disputes; some find it worse than alternatives.
    • Missing or non‑default UX features: pane broadcasting, select‑all, perfect “quake”/hotkey window parity.
  • Overall, many consider it the best balance of power, cross‑platform support, and configurability, but not universally superior for all setups.