5 best alternatives for Terminal application on macOS

The default Terminal application on macOS works very well, but it is not the only option available. Whether you are looking for a new tool with more features, or a more customizable, more interesting application, there are many options. These are not the only alternative applications for Terminal on Macs, but they are the best applications at the moment.

1. iTerm2

Of all the options in this list, iTerm2 is the best alternative to Terminal on Mac. Many users have to work on the iTerm2 installation command line when they set up their Mac and then never even think of any alternative solutions.

One of the main features iTerm2 supports is the division of the control panels. Although the Mac's Terminal application supports tabs (and iTerm2 does this too), split tables allow users to better track what they're doing. Another important feature of iTerm2 is search, which makes browsing long log files much easier.

If you frequently paste items into the terminal, the pasting history feature will also be very handy.

2. Hyper

One of the more recent additions to the list of terminal applications available for Mac, Hyper, is highly customizable. Hyper is written in JavaScript and uses this language for plugins. Hyper has a pretty good set of features, but the plugin system is what makes the application really powerful.

Looking at the list of plugins and themes, users will see tons of options available. The hyper-search plugin adds a search function similar to iTerm2, while hypercwd opens new tabs in the same directory as the current tab.

Not all plugins are so useful. The hyperpower plugin simply adds a screen shake effect and a particle creation effect to the terminal, making everything the user looks more impressive.

3. Alacritty

GitHub page about Alacritty describes this tool as a terminal emulator, focusing on simplicity and performance. That means scrolling through a long screen is much smoother than other applications.

Although other applications in this list are also configurable and customizable, Alacritty aims to provide a useful default option so that users do not have to configure it further. But if you want, you can still configure this application, but the developer hopes that the default options will work fine.

4. Terminator

Terminator has been around for many years and offers some features that users cannot find in other terminal applications. One of these features is support for drag and drop (allowing users to drag and drop folders or files from Finder into the terminal window). This feature automatically inserts file names as text, and this can be very helpful.

Another feature of Terminator is automatic login. This feature automatically creates logs of all terminal sessions - which can be useful if something goes wrong and users want to check the steps that have been taken to find the problem.

5. Cathode

Cathode does not add functions like some other terminal applications in this list. Instead, it aims to make the terminal come back to the time when the computer screen had only two colors: Green and black.

Cathode does not stop at the giant green letters and numbers on the black screen. It also adds curvature to the screen, as well as scan lines, flickering effects, glowing effects and more. However, this application still supports many colors, so the favorite vim color schemes will still work.

(Link to reference: http://www.secretgeometry.com/apps/cathode/)

As you can see, there are many alternatives to the standard Mac Terminal application. Each application on this list is available for free, so try some of them before making a final decision.

Wish you find the right choice!