iTerm2 vs. Warp

Warp and iTerm2 are both popular terminals recommended by developers. iTerm2 is a very feature-rich traditional terminal whereas Warp has a more modern editing experience. Developers switching to Warp from iTerm2 often want a more intuitive experience, with less required configuration, where they can work with teammates and use AI to help them get more done.

iTerm2

Warp

Warp

Modern Editing Features
Overview
  • Does not allow mouse positioning in input editor.
  • Does not have IDE-style editing keyboard shortcuts. NOTE: There are keyboard shortcuts like CTRL-A that allow you to navigate to the beginning of a line, but that is related to the shell and not iTerm2 itself.
  • iTerm2 does support vim keybindings to edit input, but this requires the developer to run a command (specific to their shell) to get it working.
  • Supports smart selection (clicking to automatically copy a URL, IP address, etc).
  • You can click anywhere in your command input with your mouse to edit.
  • Supports modern editing keyboard shortcuts like CMD+Z to undo, or OPT+RIGHT to navigate to the end of a word.
  • Supports vim keybindings to edit input. Toggle this on in the settings panel (works across all supported shells).
  • Supports smart selection (clicking to automatically copy a URL, IP address, etc).
AI
Overview
  • Offers basic AI support to generate commands in your terminal based off natural language input. Note that this is currently in beta.
  • UI does not support asking conceptual questions, like “Why can’t I have 2 processes running on the same port.”
  • Has no built-in support for debugging terminal errors using AI.
  • Not free. Users must provide their own OpenAI key before using this AI support within iTerm2.
  • Offers AI support to generate commands in your terminal based off natural language input.
  • Can answer conceptual questions to explain what a command does or show why a certain solution works.
  • Has built-in support for debugging terminal errors using AI.
  • Free tier included for all users with generous usage limits.
Collaboration
Overview
  • No built-in features for collaboration.
  • No way to share terminal input or output.
  • Store and share reusable workflows that sync in real-time with a team Warp Drive.
  • Share blocks of terminal input and output with a permalink.
Performance
Overview
  • Using [VTEbench](https://docs.warp.dev/how-does-warp-compare/performance), iTerm2 underperformed compared to Warp across all measured benchmarks.
  • Using [Termbench](https://docs.warp.dev/how-does-warp-compare/performance), iTerm2 and Warp had similar performance for regular benchmark sizes but underperformed handling small test sizes.
  • Mostly written in Objective-C. GPU rendering on by default but can be turned off in settings.
  • Using [VTEbench](https://docs.warp.dev/how-does-warp-compare/performance), Warp is over 90% faster at scrolling tests, 70% faster at the dense_cell benchmark, and 29% faster on the unicode benchmark.
  • Using [Termbench](https://docs.warp.dev/how-does-warp-compare/performance), Warp was 20% faster at handling small data sizes (~1mb) and 3% faster at regular benchmark sizes.
  • Built with Rust and rendered directly on the GPU, optimizing for speed and responsiveness
Command Input
Overview
  • Delegates command completions to the shell. Additional configuration necessary for supporting third party tools like git, docker, npm and more that the shell doesn't support out of the box.
  • Does not support autosuggestions out-of-box. Delegates to the shell.
  • Does not support alias command completions out-of-box. It delegates to the shell.
  • iTerm2 supports command history, but it delegates to the shell’s history functionality. According to its documentation, this feature requires some [configuration](https://iterm2.com/documentation-shell-integration.html) first.
  • Allows user to broadcast input across multiple different sessions.
  • Allow mouse positioning in input editor.
  • Command completion for 400+ CLI tools, out-of-the-box.
  • Autosuggestion support out-of-box.
  • Supports aliases in command completion menu.
  • Command history view & search out-of-box.
  • Allows user to broadcast input across multiple different sessions.
Command Output
Overview
  • Supports basic search within the terminal output.
  • Does not support “bookmarking” a specific command to save it as important.
  • Does not automatically redact secrets in your command output (IP address, passwords).
  • Does not visually group command input & output into a cohesive unit.
  • Supports basic search within the terminal output.
  • Supports “bookmarking” a specific command. This allows the user to come back to important commands during a long session.
  • Automatically redacts secrets in your command output (IP address, passwords) so your terminal output is more secure.
  • Warp introduces the concept of blocks, which allows you to easily visually distinguish one command from another.
Appearance & UX
Overview
  • Allows you to customize font type and size.
  • Allows you to upload a custom background image.
  • Allows you to toggle window transparency.
  • Does not allow you to toggle where your input editor is positioned.
  • Allows you show important information like host name, clock, git state & more through the [status bar](https://iterm2.com/documentation-status-bar.html). NOTE: iTerm2 has a couple of components more than Warp here, offering information like CPU and memory utilization as well.
  • Allows you to customize font type and size.
  • Allows you to upload a custom background image.
  • Allows you to toggle window transparency.
  • Allows you to easily toggle whether your input is positioned at the top or bottom of your terminal, for visual and ergonomic benefits.
  • Allows you to show important information like host name, timestamp, git state & more through the prompt. Also allows you to easily edit the default prompt using a drag-and-drop GUI.
Window & Pane Management
Overview
  • Allows split panes.
  • Allows coloring and renaming tabs.
  • Supports quake mode (referred to as hotkey window in iTerm2).
  • Supports extensibility. Allows you to access sessions, tabs, and windows through a Python API.
  • Supports tmux though configuring “control-mode”
  • Allows split panes.
  • Allows coloring and renaming tabs.
  • Supports quake mode (referred to as hotkey window in iTerm2).
  • Supports extensibility. Allows you to configure windows, panes, and commands-on-start using launch configurations. Edit the configs using .yaml files.
  • Tmux support exists but conflicts with Warp features like blocks.
Configurability
Overview
  • Has GUI option to configure setting (unlike other terminals, which just offer a config file).
  • Allows you to configure your keyboard shortcuts.
  • No command palette. Search through the Mac Help menu.
  • Has GUI option to configure setting (unlike other terminals, which just offer a config file).
  • Allows you to configure your keyboard shortcuts.
  • Offers a command palette (similar to Mac Spotlight or Raycast) to search many configurability options within the application.
Platform Support
Overview
  • Mac
  • Linux
  • Windows
  • Mac
  • Linux
  • Windows

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