Best Terminal Emulators for Windows
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Compare the Top Terminal Emulators for Windows as of October 2025
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What are Terminal Emulators for Windows?
Terminal emulators are software programs that replicate the functionality of a traditional terminal or command-line interface (CLI) within a graphical environment. These tools allow users to interact with their computer's operating system using text-based commands, offering access to system functions, file management, and programming tasks. Terminal emulators are commonly used by developers, system administrators, and power users for running scripts, managing servers, or debugging applications. They often support features such as tabbed windows, color schemes, customizable key bindings, and integration with remote systems through protocols like SSH. By providing a flexible and efficient way to work with the command line, terminal emulators enhance productivity in both local and remote computing environments. Compare and read user reviews of the best Terminal Emulators for Windows currently available using the table below. This list is updated regularly.
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1
Rio Terminal
Rio Terminal
Rio is a terminal application that’s built with Rust, WebGPU, Tokio runtime. It targets to have the best frame per second experience as long you want, but is also configurable to use as minimal from GPU. The terminal renderer is based on redux state machine, lines that has not updated will not suffer a redraw. Looking for the minimal rendering process in most of the time. Rio is also designed to support WebAssembly runtime so in the future you will be able to define how a tab system will work with a WASM plugin written in your favorite language. Rio uses WGPU, which is an implementation of WebGPU for use outside of a browser and as backend for Firefox’s WebGPU implementation. WebGPU allows for more efficient usage of modern GPU’s than WebGL. -
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WhippyTerm
WhippyTerm
WhippyTerm is a modern terminal application designed for use on contemporary operating systems like Windows and Linux. It features a sleek, user-friendly interface and supports communication protocols commonly used by embedded developers. The software supports serial communication standards such as RS232, RS485, RS422, and TTL UART, as well as TCP/IP and UDP. Unique capabilities include built-in hex dumps, bookmarks, and extensibility through plugins. WhippyTerm also offers native support for binary protocols and can send blocks of binary or ASCII data. It supports terminal emulations like ANSI by default, with options to add others such as VT100 via plugins.Starting Price: $0 -
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PuTTY
PuTTY
PuTTY is a free implementation of SSH and Telnet for Windows and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator. PuTTY is a client program for the SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, and SUPDUP network protocols. These protocols are all used to run a remote session on a computer, over a network. PuTTY implements the client end of that session, the end at which the session is displayed, rather than the end at which it runs. In really simple terms, you run PuTTY on a Windows machine, and tell it to connect to (for example) a Unix machine. PuTTY opens a window. Then, anything you type into that window is sent straight to the Unix machine, and everything the Unix machine sends back is displayed in the window. So you can work on the Unix machine as if you were sitting at its console, while actually sitting somewhere else. All of PuTTY's settings can be saved in named session profiles. You can also change the default settings that are used for new sessions.Starting Price: Free -
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Muon SSH Terminal
Subhra Das Gupta
An easy and fun way to work with remote servers over SSH. Muon is a graphical SSH client. It has an enhanced SFTP file browser, SSH terminal emulator, remote resource/process manager, server disk space analyzer, remote text editor, huge remote log viewer, and lots of other helpful tools, which makes it easy to work with remote servers. Muon provides functionality similar to web-based control panels but, it works over SSH from the local computer, hence no installation is required on the server. It runs on Linux and Windows. Muon has been tested with several Linux and UNIX servers, like Ubuntu server, CentOS, RHEL, OpenSUSE, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD, and HP-UX. The application is targeted mainly toward web/backend developers who often deploy/debug their code on remote servers and are not overly fond of complex terminal-based commands. It could also be useful for sysadmins as well who manage lots of remote servers manually.Starting Price: Free -
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Alacritty
Alacritty
Alacritty is a modern, cross-platform terminal emulator powered by OpenGL that delivers GPU-accelerated performance with sensible defaults and extensive configuration. Rather than reimplementing functionality, it integrates seamlessly with other applications to provide a flexible feature set without sacrificing speed. Supported on BSD, Linux, macOS, and Windows, Alacritty is considered beta and still under active development, yet it already serves many users as their daily driver terminal. Key features include Vi Mode for moving around and creating selections using vi bindings; a Search function for querying text within the scrollback buffer; Regex Hints that mark patterns for mouse or keyboard interaction; and Multi-Window support to improve resource usage by running on a single process.Starting Price: Free -
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WezTerm
WezTerm
WezTerm is a high-performance, cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer built in Rust that delivers GPU-accelerated rendering, including ligatures, color emoji, true color, dynamic color schemes, and hyperlinks, and modern windowing controls such as panes, tabs, and multiple windows on both local and remote hosts. Its single-process multiplexer provides scrollback, searchable history, mouse integration, Quick Select mode for rapid selection, Copy mode, shell integration, support for the iTerm image protocol, SSH connectivity, serial ports, Arduino devices, and workspace/session management via Lua-configurable scripts. Configuration is handled through a wezterm.lua file with hot-reload support, while a rich command-line interface (wezterm cli) lets you spawn programs, manipulate tabs and panes, and set domains. WezTerm adheres to ECMA-48 and xterm conventions for full ANSI/ISO compliance and offers native UI integration using platform-specific APIs.Starting Price: Free -
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PowerTerm InterConnect
Ericom
The PowerTerm InterConnect Series is comprised of several robust terminal emulation applications supporting the host access needs of large and small organizations. It allows enterprises to standardize on a single host access solution. PowerTerm InterConnect products provides fast and reliable access to data residing on the broadest range of hosts, such as IBM Mainframe zSeries, IBM AS/400 iSeries, UNIX, OpenVMS, Tandem, HP. Each of the PowerTerm InterConnect products enables terminal emulation via various communication modes. PowerTerm InterConnect offers a flexible and extensive feature set to maximize users' time while providing a wide range of options. Using Power Script Language, users can automate tasks and increase efficiency. PowerTerm InterConnect's small footprint makes it a simple, fast and effective means of running legacy applications and it is easily installable on any PC. -
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SecureCRT
VanDyke Software
SecureCRT client for Windows, Mac, and Linux provides rock-solid terminal emulation for computing professionals, raising productivity with advanced session management and a host of ways to save time and streamline repetitive tasks. SecureCRT provides secure remote access, file transfer, and data tunneling for everyone in your organization. Whether you are replacing Telnet or Terminal, or need a more capable secure remote access tool, SecureCRT is an application you can live in all day long. With the solid security of SSH, extensive session management, and advanced scripting, SecureCRT will help raise your productivity to the nth degree. Highlight individual words, phrases, or substrings in the session window to identify errors in log files or streaming output and to highlight prompts. Regular expressions are also supported, making it easier to highlight strings like IP addresses. Keyword display attributes (bold, reverse video, and color) can be combined. -
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StayLinked
StayLinked
StayLinked enables you to migrate to state-of-the-art devices, measure and optimize productivity with cutting-edge business intelligence, and interface with ground-breaking technologies in the areas of automation, robotics, augmented reality, and location-based services. Keeping employees on the job is a key part of productivity. The architecture of traditional terminal emulation solutions often leads to erratic application connectivity and performance. This results in end users spending time troubleshooting issues with the help desk rather than performing important application tasks. By eliminating dropped or lost sessions, providing centralized application configuration and management, and delivering highly efficient help desk tools, StayLinked keeps applications and end users running at peak performance. StayLinked Terminal Emulation (TE) is the fastest TE solution available for mobile devices. Traditional terminal emulation products send all telnet/SSH traffic to the mobile device. -
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Flynet Viewer TE
Flynet
Flynet Viewer™ TE (Terminal Emulation) provides a browser based, terminal emulator to access key business systems. Access Mainframe, iSeries, Unix, VMS or MultiValue systems, on any device with zero client software. The terminal emulator is installed in a server environment, either on-premise or in the cloud, and centrally managed via the Flynet Viewer administration centre. Flynet Viewer works on all browsers and devices with no Java or ActiveX plugins. Flynet Viewer has all the features you would expect in an enterprise terminal emulator, including client and server-side macro creation, file transfer, single sign-on, MFA and keyboard remapping. Flynet Viewer Terminal Emulation provides the same level of functionality that is associated with a full fat desktop Terminal Emulation client but is delivered over the web and served up via a browser. Flynet Viewer Terminal Emulation will run on any device regardless of operating system or indigenous browser. -
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HostAccess
Perforce
HostAccess is PC terminal emulation software. It offers a suite of terminal emulation tools for Microsoft Windows users. This allows secure access to various platforms, including Linux, Unix, IBM, Windows, etc. The main usage of the HostAccess is to connect to PICK (multivalue) system, such as UniVerse, UniData, D3, ONware, etc., and use own package of programs written in PICK Basic. These programs provide APIs for data exchange and expansive GUI capabilities. Produce reports quickly and integrate data with Windows applications. Connect to multiple systems within one integrated environment. HostAccess offers all the key terminal emulation software features you need in a single page. So, whether you’re looking for asynchronous/synchronous connections, server-based administration, concurrent users, or multiple session access, HostAccess is an ideal solution for you. -
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OpenText Reflection for the Web
OpenText
Configure sessions with hotspots, keyboard mapping, color settings, and more. Build web frameworks around mainframe applications. Centrally install and deploy for instant availability. Once you make updates, users automatically download the new version when they connect. Connect to any major GDS. Use the Airlines Printer component to generate tickets, baggage tags, and boarding passes. Connect to host systems, making IBM, UNIX, Unisys, OpenVMS, and HP data instantly available to browser users, no matter where they are, without the need for Java. The new Reflection for the Web Launcher enables end users to continue access to mainframe and host applications while removing any requirements for Oracle Java. Allow users to work the way that they work best providing terminal sessions, printing, and file transfer. -
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FlexTerm
FlexTerm
FlexTerm is written entirely in C# .NET, providing a new user interface that is long overdue for the terminal emulation community. The user interface utilizes the modern ribbon command bar to organize the program's features into a series of tabs at the top of the window. This increases discover-ability of features and functions, enables quicker learning of the program, and makes users feel more in control of their experience with the program. The ribbon replaces both the traditional menu bar and toolbars and is now fully customizable, allowing users to create their own custom tabs and tab groups. A FlexTerm workspace can consist of a single session, or any number of sessions, which may be docked and displayed as tabs and/or floating. Sessions within each workspace can be easily arranged using drag-and-drop functionality. -
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Inventu Viewer+
Inventu Corporation
Inventu Viewer+ Web Terminal Emulation - Fast, Secure and Complete. Provides fast, direct terminal emulation using Zero-Footprint browser technology, with no plug-ins required. Provides an excellent replacement option for organizations with existing solutions based on Java or ActiveX such as Host-on-Demand, Reflections for the Web and BlueZone. Also works well to replace desktop terminal emulators where lower administration costs and improved user access flexibility is desired. Supports web-based access to IBM Mainframes and IBM i systems using TN3270 and TN5250. Has many customers successfully accessing LINUX/UNIX/VMS/PICK based systems using VT100/VT220/VT440, SCO-ANSI, ADDS-ViewPoint. -
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OpenText Host Access for the Cloud
OpenText
Quickly deliver browser-based access from a central location – without the need to manage Java runtime environments. Make sure you know who is accessing your mainframe, and ensure that only authorized users get to the login screen. Leverage enterprise credentials to move from a potentially unsecure eight-character password, to a one-time pass ticket. Why reinvent the wheel? Provision terminal emulation like other corporate resources, through the corporate user directory. Quickly deploy secure, customized browser-based sessions, with supporting keyboards, quick keys, and macros. Provide HTML5 access to 3270, 5250, VT, Unisys and Airline host applications from a central location – without the need to manage workstation dependencies, or Java runtime environments. -
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TTerm Connect
Turbosoft
Turbosoft's terminal emulation software supports over 80 different emulations for systems such as IBM, HP, OpenVMS, Unix, HP NonStop, Unisys, Wyse & more. Choose from TTerm Connect, our web-based HTML5 offering, TTWin4 for Windows desktops, TTerm for Linux, or, for developers integrating terminal emulation, TTerm for .NET. TTerm Connect, our web-based terminal emulator offers flexible, powerful terminal emulation with nothing more than a web browser. TTerm Connect offers all the features you would expect from a desktop terminal emulator in a lightweight web application. Centrally configured and managed, TTerm Connect requires no client-side installation and can be deployed with its own web client or integrated with your existing website. Any host, any device. Available for any modern web browser and client device and with options for Windows or Linux based servers. Flexible & capable of servicing the terminal emulation needs of thousands of concurrent users. -
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WoTerm
aoyiduo
A powerful open source cross-platform security terminal simulation software, it supports SSH/SFTP/TELNET/RDP/VNC and other mainstream protocols. Support multiple key authentication methods, support SFTP session data backup and synchronization, support multiple sets of skin interface, support tunnel management, support script design, support multiple labels and floating Windows, support administrator mode, support 4K remote desktop, compatible with various VNC remote desktop, support session group management. -
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Ivanti
Ivanti
Ivanti offers integrated IT management solutions designed to automate and secure technology across organizations. Their Unified Endpoint Management platform provides intuitive control from a single console to manage any device from any location. Ivanti’s Enterprise Service Management delivers actionable insights to streamline IT operations and improve employee experiences. The company also provides comprehensive network security and exposure management tools to protect assets and prioritize risks effectively. Trusted by over 34,000 customers worldwide, including Conair and City of Seattle, Ivanti supports secure, flexible work environments. Their solutions enable businesses to boost productivity while maintaining strong security and operational visibility.
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