8 Most Popular Terminal Emulators For Windows 10

Adelinah
3 min readDec 16, 2020

--

The limitations with the Windows terminals force its users to use third-party Windows 10 terminal emulator. The developers, network, and system administrators need the terminals with advanced features that are provided by the third-party terminal emulator in Windows.

What Is Terminal Emulator?

A terminal emulator is computer software that provides you with a command-line interface and graphical user interface to perform the below-mentioned tasks.

1. PuTTY

PuTTY is kind of the oldest terminal emulator for Windows. It is a free and open-source tool with no extraordinary features like a tabbed interface and plugin support.

PuTTY is an SSH and Telnet client. If you just want the network client or a beginner emulator, then Download Putty should be an option for you.

2. Windows Terminal

Multiple tabs help you connect different shell applications like cmd, PowerShell, Ubuntu on WSL, and Raspberry Pi via SSH.

You can customize the font to beautify the look of the terminal. There is support for multi-user profiles, where each user can have their choice of customization with font and other settings.

3. Cmder: Open-Source Terminal Emulator For Windows

Cmder is a free and open-source terminal emulator for Windows. Cmder’s official site mentions that it is created out of frustration because of the unavailability of terminal consoles for Windows.

It comes in a portable and full version for download.You can get the Unix support on Windows in the full version of the Cmder. Cmder is built on ConEmu and is compatible with PowerShell, MinTTY, msysgit, and Cygwin.

4. Terminus

Terminus is an open-source modern age terminal available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. One who needs a full customizable terminal can opt for Terminus.

It offers a large number of themes and color scheme options along with split panes.Terminus is compatible with PowerShell (and PS Core), WSL, Git-Bash, Cygwin, Cmder, and CMD.

5. ZOC Terminal

ZOC Terminal is a paid third-party terminal emulator with an extensive features list.

Its modern user interface allows you to connect to host and mainframes via Secure Shell (SSH), telnet (rfc854), RS232/serial, and many other modes of communication.

6. FireCMD: Paid Terminal Emulator For Windows

FireCMD is a paid terminal emulator for Windows. You can run multiple command line and console applications at one time like CMD.exe (Command Prompt), Bash, PowerShell, Cygwin, and Oracle SQL*Plus using FireCMD.

Tabbed interface allows you to edit scripting and programming language in one tab, and compile it another tab.

7. ConEmu Windows Terminal

ConEmu is a free and open-source Windows terminal emulator that offers to host the console applications like WinAPI, Cmd, PowerShell, and Far along with Unix PTY; Cygwin, MSYS, WSL bash.

ConEmu has a simple user interface like PuTTY, but it has a tabbed interface that adds to its feature.

8. XSHELL 6

XSHELL 6 is a paid Windows 10 terminal emulator that is classified as the Industry’s most powerful SSH Client.

It offers a tabbed interface along with superior session management. The extensive security with customization options makes it a perfect tool for developers and other tech-savvies.

--

--