Best Terminal Applications for Development

While most developers prefer to work within an integrated development environment (IDE), there are those who prefer the efficiency, simplicity and speed of working from within the terminal window. With a terminal window, you have access to editors like nano, vi and Emacs, as well as standard development tools like Python, GCC, Make and more.

For many old-school developers, the terminal is where it’s at — you’d have to pry it from their cold, dead fingers.

Yeah, terminal users can be pretty serious about their tools of choice.

Another reason terminal apps are important is because they allow you to remote into another machine and work as if you were local. With the help of SSH, you’re transported in, and have access to all of the command-line tools on that remote machine.

So terminals are awesome — but there are a lot of terminal apps out there. From that cornucopia of apps, which ones are better suited for developers?

Let’s dig in and find out.

1. Warp

I’m going to start this discussion with the two fancier terminal apps on the market, the first being Warp. I’ve actually set Warp as my default terminal window on both Linux and macOS because it’s just so dang impressive. Warp not only has the usual bevy of UI features (such as tabs, split panes and support for most shells), but it also has some really important modern features, such as a built-in AI (including Agent Mode, which makes it possible for you to type what you want to do in natural language — Warp will return the command required) and Warp Drive, which allows you to create collections of snippets that can be reused and even add workflows (which are templated commands that can be saved and shared). For me, the best part of Warp is the built-in AI. If I’m trying to figure out how to do something in Python and the solution is escaping me, I can use the Warp AI to help me figure it out.

Warp can be installed and used for free on Linux, macOS and Windows. You can also purchase one of three licenses:

• Pro ($15/user/month), which gives you up to 1,000 AI requests per month, unlimited accepted Next Command suggestions, a high token limit and private email support.
• Team ($22/user/month), which adds unlimited AI requests, the highest token limit, unlimited shared notebooks and workflows, and unlimited real-time session sharing.
• Enterprise (custom pricing), which allows you to use your own LLM, and adds the OpenAI zero data retention policy, SAML-based SSO and a dedicated account manager with onboarding support via Slack.

2. Windsurf

I recently covered Windsurf for The New Stack and found it to be a remarkable tool. The big claim for this terminal app is that it’s the first “agentic IDE.” To achieve this, Windsurf leverages the Codeium autocompletion tool and provides code suggestion and completions for over 70 programming languages. The thing that really struck me about Windsurf was how good it was at helping me write Python scripts, and even made it possible to build on the scripts from within the same AI chat. It’s impressive … really impressive.

Windsurf also includes features like Workspaces, Flows, multi-file editing, automatic reasoning of explicit actions, natural language integration and a powerful context engine. Windsurf even includes “run” and “debug” actions for testing your apps.

Windsurf can be installed and used for free on Linux, macOS and Windows.

3. Terminator

Now, we’re getting into more traditional terminal app territory. Terminator is a very popular open source Linux terminal that is based on the GNOME Terminal app. But what makes Terminator better than the average bear? First off, it allows you to create multi-paned windows, so you can effectively use as many terminal apps as you need while viewing them all at once. Of course, the size of your screen will dictate how many panes you can have open at once (and still be able to use it effectively). With this feature, you could have one terminal open for writing and editing code, one for compiling, one for running a script and one for remote work. (The possibilities are limitless.) Other features include tabs, customized layouts, advanced command history, scripting support, emulation of other terminals, enhanced keyboard support, system tray integration, theming, plug-in support, support for various file types, syntax highlighting, autocompletion of commands, colorful output formatting and cross-platform compatibility. One other really cool feature is that it allows you to group terminals and type in all of them simultaneously.

Terminator can be installed and used for free on Linux, macOS and Windows.

4. Guake

Guake is a special kind of terminal because it remains hidden until you call it up with a keyboard shortcut. When you summon this terminal, it rolls down from the top of your display so you can use it as needed. Send it back up and out of sight and do some other work. When you need to go back to your code, hit the same shortcut and Guake reappears, so you can do what you need to do. The reason that I added Guake to this list is because it’s so convenient, plus it allows for plenty of customization. For example, you can change its theme, its height, its width, its shell, customize keyboard shortcuts, create hooks and so much more. As for built-in programming features, you won’t find any because this is a straight-up terminal app. But given how convenient Guake is, I felt it had to be on the list.

You can install Guake for free on most Linux distributions.

5. Contour

Contour is a modern take on the standard terminal app that is meant for everyday use, but primarily aims at power users. Contour has plenty of features, such as GPU-accelerated rendering, font ligature support, Unicode emoji support, tabs, bold and italic fonts, high-DPI support, vertical line markers, vi-like input modes, blurred background support for Windows 10 and the KDE Plasma and GNOME desktop environments, runtime configuration reload, true color support, key-binding customization, syntax highlighting, theming and more. With Contour, you can even emulate other terminals, such as GNOME Terminal and Xterm.

But why a fairly straightforward terminal window? One reason is because of how it handles terminal emulation. If you need to test an application from within different types of terminals, Contour makes that easy. And because Contour can integrate with other apps (such as file managers and even IDEs), it becomes a viable option for programmers.

Contour can be installed and used for free on Linux, macOS and Windows.

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