Comparison
Cross Platform Terminal vs Ghostty
A fast, feature-rich terminal that uses genuinely native UI on each platform — AppKit and SwiftUI on macOS, GTK4 on Linux. Ghostty’s own site →
| Feature | Cross Platform Terminal | Ghostty |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | Linux, Windows (macOS in progress) | macOS 13+ and Linux |
| Windows | Native, identical to the Linux build | Not supported — the download page lists no Windows build |
| Licence | Proprietary | MIT, open source |
| Price | €7.49/month or €67.41/year, no free tier | Free |
| Rendering | GPU, whole grid in one draw call | GPU-accelerated, over a shared Zig core (libghostty) |
| Configuration | In-app settings, per-profile | A text config file |
| Session persistence | Opt-in detachable sessions, no multiplexer needed | None built in |
| Agent awareness | Detects 8 agent CLIs and reports five states per pane | None |
Where Ghostty is the better choice
- Free, and the best native feel on macOS of anything here — real AppKit and SwiftUI, Quick Look, force touch.
- On Linux it is GTK4, so it matches the desktop instead of drawing its own approximation of it.
- It is on macOS today, which CPT is not.
Where CPT is the better choice
- Windows. Ghostty publishes macOS and Linux builds only.
- Identical chrome across platforms is the point of CPT; Ghostty's stated goal is the opposite — to be native to each one, and so to differ between them.
- Detachable sessions, dockable panels, and agent-aware panes.
The short version
If your machines are macOS and Linux and you want each to feel like itself, Ghostty is the better fit and costs nothing. If you need Windows in the set, or want the three to feel like one machine, that is the trade CPT makes.