10 Best Linux Terminal Emulators

Despite various GUI advancements, Terminal Emulators have still an adequate presence in the tech market. A terminal emulator is software that allows to you interact with the host machine with the help of commands. Terminal Emulator is a lifeline for every Linux distro as it enables you to utilize the real strength of Linux.

For developers, their major time is spent in front of the terminal (terminal emulator), but the problem is that the default terminal emulator provided by most of the Linux distro doesn’t provide many functionalities. However, you don’t have to worry as you can always install a terminal emulator of your choice. First thing first, let’s understand what exactly is a Linux Terminal Emulator.

What is a Linux Terminal Emulator? 

A terminal emulator is an interface that allows users to work in an environment and it is considered one of the best resources for Linux users. Since an emulator means something can be accessed remotely via another device and each terminal emulator requires an operating system to function. Below are some of the widely used Terminal emulators defined by their Operating Systems:

• Linux- Gnome, Terminator, Guake, etc.
• Windows- PuTTy, Windows, etc.
• Mac- iTerm2, Terminal, etc.

Now, we shall move further to discuss a list of the 10 Best Linux Terminal Emulators which you can use to make things more convenient & interesting:

1. Terminator

What if we have a terminal where you can open multiple Terminals in a single window? (Sound cool, right??) Terminator is a pretty cool terminal emulator that provides you with this functionality. You can open multiple terminals in a single window and split them vertically or horizontally as you want. It also provides you the functionality to give a custom title to every terminal and several prominent features like multi-grid-like structure, layout saving, etc. You can also refer to this article to learn more about Terminator – Terminator – A Linux terminal emulator

You can install Terminator using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install terminator

CentOS

$ sudo yum install terminator

Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S terminator

2. Guake

Guake is a drop-down Linux terminal emulator that is mostly written in Python. The key feature of this emulator is that you can customize its behavior and appearance. If you don’t like the design of your terminal then you can simply customize it the way you want. You can also configure the keyboard shortcuts for your Guake emulator. Guake would be the best choice for you if you love customization. Also, Guake enables the easy integration of the terminal into GUI and supports multi-tab.

You can install Guake using the following commands:

Ubuntu 

$ sudo apt install guake

CentOS

$ sudo yum install guake

Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S guake

3. Cool Retro Term

If you are from the ’90s then this emulator is only for you. This emulator mimics the old cathode display and will give you an old-school feel. This emulator is quite lightweight and easy to use.

Tip: You can always know about the key features of any application in Linux by using the man command. It provides you the official documentation of the application. 

You can install Cool Retro Term using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:vantuz/cool-retro-term
$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install cool-retro-term

CentOS

$ sudo snap install cool-retro-term --classic

Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S cool-retro-term

4. GNOME Terminal

If you are on the LTS version of Ubuntu then this is the default terminal emulator. This emulator is quite stable and efficient and like other terminal emulators, it also provides colored text, a variety of themes, etc. The GNOME terminal also has a feature that parses the URLs and emails in output and makes them clickable. Upon clicking, the appropriate application will open to access that resource (email or URL).

You can install the GNOME terminal using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
$ sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install gnome-shell ubuntu-gnome-desktop

5. Terminology

Some people are fully dependent on the terminal for their day-to-day tasks. They don’t like to navigate on GUI for their tasks, for such users Terminology is the best emulator. Terminology provides its user the functionality to preview the files, videos, and images within the terminal. Just use the below command and you can preview a variety of files within Terminology. 

$ tycat <filename>

You can install Terminology using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install -y terminology

CentOS

$ sudo snap install terminology --classic

Arch Linux 

$ sudo pacman -S terminology

6. Kitty

Kitty is a scriptable OpenGL-based terminal emulator with True Color, ligatures support, and protocol extensions for keyboard input and image rendering. The key feature of the kitty is that it is a GPU-based emulator so it offloads rendering to the GPU for lower system load and buttery smooth scrolling. Unlike gnome-terminal, Kitty actually opens up to full-screen if you use it in full-screen mode last, this feature of Kitty makes it pretty cool. You can set up your custom fonts, custom colors, and custom layout on the kitty.

You can install Kitty using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install kitty

CentOS And Arch Linux

$ curl -L https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/installer.sh | sh /dev/stdin

7.  Rxvt-Unicode

Rxvt-Unicode is a customizable terminal emulator forked from rxvt. Features of rxvt-unicode include international language support through Unicode. Rxvt-Unicode uses very little memory and takes a lightweight approach without losing many important functionalities.

You can install rxvt-unicode using the following command:

Ubuntu

$ sudo apt install rxvt-unicode

CentOS

$ sudo yum install rxvt-unicode

Arch Linux

$ sudo pacman -S rxvt-unicode

8. Tilix

Tilix is more or less like Guake which offers a drop-down UX and the best part about using Tilix is that a user can easily work on multiple terminals without hopping from one workspace to another.

Tilix is a default repository that can be installed using different commands:

$ sudo apt install tilix       [On Debian/Ubuntu & Mint]
$ sudo yum install tilix       [On CentOS/RHEL 7]
$ sudo dnf install tilix       [On CentOS/RHEL 8 & Fedora]
$ sudo pacman -S tilix         [On Arch Linux]
$ sudo zypper install tilix    [On OpenSUSE]
$ sudo pkg_add -v tilix        [On FreeBSD]

Note: If it’s not available, you can manually install it using the following command:

$ wget https://github.com/gnunn1/tilix/archive/refs/heads/master.zip
$ unzip master.zip
$ cd cd tilix-master/
$ sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/

9. Hyper

Hyper is one of the best ways for working on the terminal in an interactive way. Hyper allows users to install different themes as per their preferences and offer different sets of useful plugins. Besides this, Hyper is built on web technologies (HTML, CSS) so it can offer extensive ways of exploring within the terminal emulators.

Hyper can be downloaded from its official website: hyper.is

10. eDEX-UI

The last one in this list is eDEX-UI which can also be considered the best possible method of working in a completely different terminal. The interface is so interactive that you will almost feel like you’re in a Hollywood movie. Besides this, it also allows for customization within the terminal. If you wish to learn more, refer to this article: eDEX-UI – The Tron-Inspired Terminal Emulator for Linux

You can download the eDEX-UI using the following command:

For 64-bit

$ wget -c https://github.com/GitSquared/edex-ui/releases/download/v2.2.2/eDEX-UI.Linux.x86_64.AppImage

For 32-bit

$ wget -c https://github.com/GitSquared/edex-ui/releases/download/v2.2.2/eDEX-UI.Linux.i386.AppImage

Conclusion

Although the list is large and is not just limited to this but after thorough research and user review we came up with the top 10 best Linux terminal emulators that will provide a different user experience. If you’re aiming to increase productivity and work on fascinating terminals on Linux, then these are the ones for you. Whether you want to work on different themes or plugins, you can have it all by simply following the given commands.