32 Best Free and Open Source Linux Terminal Emulators

A terminal emulator is computer software which emulates a dumb video terminal within some other display architecture.

The terminal window allows the user to access a console and all its applications such as command line interfaces (CLI) and text user interface software. Even with the sophistication of modern desktop environments packed with administrative tools, other utilities, and productivity software all sporting attractive graphical user interfaces, it remains the case that some tasks are still best undertaken with the command line.

Modern desktop environments come supplied with a number of terminal emulators already installed. In the case of GNOME, KDE, and XFCE (three popular desktop environments), the user is offered GNOME Terminal, Konsole, and Terminal respectively as the default terminal emulator. However, this does not necessarily mean that the pre-selected terminal emulator is best suited for your own specific requirements or your hardware.

There are a large number of terminal emulators to choose from, some offering a huge range of features, others aiming to be frugal with system resources. To provide an insight into the quality of software that is available, we have compiled a list of 32 useful Linux terminal emulators. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for anyone interested in exploiting the power of the shell. We capture our recommendations in the chart below.

Let’s explore the 32 terminal emulators at hand. For each title we have compiled its own portal page, a full description with an in-depth analysis of its features, a screenshot of the software in action, together with links to relevant resources.

There are other terminal emulators available of course. Some of them are forks of the software featured here, adding little of real value.

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Read our complete collection of recommended free and open source software. Our curated compilation covers all categories of software. The software collection forms part of our series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. There are hundreds of in-depth reviews, open source alternatives to proprietary software from large corporations like Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. There are also fun things to try, hardware, free programming books and tutorials, and much more.