If you’re fine using iTerm just use iTerm. In my case I used iTerm for years and kinda liked it, but not completely. I’d been looking for an alternative for years but couldn’t find one I like (Alacritty doesn’t support pane splitting, Wezterm has full code config which I hate, Kitty doesn’t look good on Mac, Terminal.app is dog slow…). Ghostty just fits my needs pretty much exactly.

The docs for ghostty's config file is a lot easier to reason about for one. The built in themes are IMO a lot better in ghostty.

Nowadays, it's also a more fun community. I end up learning things about terminal rendering I never would've otherwise just by reading ghostty-related blogs.

I am an iTerm2 user but I find its .plist config file a lot anachronistic and, if I may say so, quite absurd. I have tried too many settings and I still struggle with keyboard inputs getting trapped wrongly, lost, et cetera, the warnings that appear out of nowhere and I notice was wrong. But iTerm2 is the only terminal app that looks the best on mac (even better than the Terimnal.app itself) and somehow sits naturally with everything else around. I am sure for a lot of terminal users it might not even the last concern but for me it is. I tried Ghostty but I just couldn't like it. Kitty won't even be a consideration for many reasons (one is better off not discussed here). cmux is indeed quite good but it has become a HYDRA and will keeps on growing in every direction. iTerm2 would do great to keep the outer clothes and possibly adopts the base of something else. It isn't particularly snappy either. I moved back from Ghostty to iTerm2 even though I felt usage wise Ghostty was suprior. Ghostty just felt out of place.

I'm also very reluctant to switch and will not switch anytime soon. I have small compact tabs which I color code dynamically with iTerm2 and also custom profiles with custom keyboard keys overrides by program and directory. So the "harness" around the terminal is more feature rich with iTerm2.

These kind of features are not available in Ghostty in this form.

And about backups in iTerm2: Just do an export and maybe also a backup of your profiles. So that works.

I also do not care about a "super fast" terminal... my iTerm2 is fast enough for 99% of use cases for me.

I don't think anyone is trying to convince you you should use Ghostty over iTerm2. It's a technically excellent terminal built with an incredibly rigorous and well thought out guiding philosophy and a remarkable amount of passion. Nobody cares if you want to run it or not.

One reason is portability if you use (or plan to use) desktop Linux

There is no reason. I switched from iTerm 2 and while Ghostty is a lot faster and lighter, it has occasional rendering issues and does not detect URLs as well. It also doesn't have tmux control mode which I really liked.

I quit using iTerm 2 because of the AI features. Ew.

I find iTerm2's constant prompts to update to be annoying. It has also crashed on me a few times. Lastly, I also prefer ghostty's text-based configuration.

For me even just the config format is such an upgrade that it was worth switching. Just a simple text file I can backup anywhere and actually read without clicking in a tabbed GUI where I never seem to remember what goes where. iTerm2 still has that weird thing you have to export right?