Kitsmith / Utilities / Ghostty
A fast, native terminal emulator built by Mitchell Hashimoto (HashiCorp co-founder) as a personal project — GPU-accelerated, with a shared Zig core so the macOS GUI is written in Swift, not a cross-platform wrapper.
Our take
Genuinely fast and native rather than another text-UI or Electron-wrapped terminal, and free with no paid tier. The honest caveat, straight from its own About page: it’s a passion project its creator works on in his free time, not a funded company, so support runs on GitHub and community contributors rather than a helpdesk.
- Price
- Free
- License
- Open source
- Requires
- macOS 13 or newer (Homebrew cask requirement)
- Get it via
- Homebrew · Direct
- Developer
- Mitchell Hashimoto
Do you use Ghostty?
Who made this
Ghostty is, in his own words on the project’s official About page, "a passion project started by Mitchell Hashimoto... something I work on in my free time and is a labor of love." He also co-founded HashiCorp.
What it does
GPU-accelerated rendering
Built to be competitive with the fastest terminal emulators available, per its own benchmarks discussion.
Native UI
The macOS app is written in Swift with AppKit/SwiftUI rather than a cross-platform toolkit, for native tabs, splits, and window behavior.
Kitty graphics protocol
Supports inline images, light/dark mode notifications, and other advanced terminal features.
The deal
- Free, open source (MIT license)
- Funded through voluntary sponsorship, not a company
Ghostty — questions people ask
Is Ghostty free?
Yes, free and open source (MIT license), with no paid tier.
Who makes Ghostty?
Mitchell Hashimoto (a HashiCorp co-founder), who started it as a personal project now built with community contributors.
Is Ghostty a native Mac app?
Yes — its macOS GUI is written in Swift with AppKit/SwiftUI, not a cross-platform wrapper.
Is Ghostty free?
Yes — Ghostty is free.
Does Ghostty work alongside a notch app like Alcove?
Yes — Ghostty lives in the screen, so it runs happily alongside any Dynamic Island hub or notch app.
Where can I download Ghostty?
Ghostty is available via Homebrew, Direct.
Is Ghostty open source?
Yes — Ghostty is open source.
Reviews
No public ratings yet. Reader reviews are coming to Kitsmith soon.
Listing hand-verified August 27, 2026 from the developer's site and public sources.
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