Why I switched my terminal to Hyper… then switched back

After years of using the default MacOS terminal, I switched to iTerm2 last year for both personal and professional development. It provided the keyboard shortcuts and split panes that were desperately needed in the default MacOS terminal. It continues to be a popular choice for developers who develop on MacOS.

Split panes in iTerm2

Full-fledged search in iTerm2

But recently, there’s been a lot of talk about a new terminal emulator called Hyper, and I had to try it out.

What is Hyper?

Hyper is an open-source and extensible terminal emulator available on MacOS, Windows, and Linux. It’s built using web technologies, specifically Electron (the same platform that powers Atom, Slack, and Brave). After hearing about it from friends, industry thought-leaders, and coworkers, I decided to download Hyper and make it my new default terminal emulator.

The Good

• Appearance. Without any configuration, Hyper is by-far the best looking terminal emulator I’ve ever seen out-of-the-box. The seamlessness between the main window and the top-bar, as well as the default color scheme makes looking at my terminal window a pleasurable experience. Before you laugh, think about it. Developers look at their terminal windows as frequently as they do their code editors. Why not make them look good?
• Extensions. The ability to customize Hyper is as easy as adding a package name to a config file (~/.hyper.js). And with a wide range of packages for productivity and customization, you can make your terminal feel exactly how you want. And if you have an idea for an extension, you can make your own using Hyper’s Extensions API.
• The Status Line Extension, Hyperline. I won’t go too much into detail about specific extensions, but there are extensions relating to tabbing, themes, and layout. But my favorite: Hyper’s status line extension calledhyperline. I never realized how much I enjoy having some quick stats on network transfer, CPU usage, and memory usage.

Hyperline extension (bottom status bar)

The Bad

Unfortunately, there are a couple downsides that, for me, heavily weigh against the positives.

• It’s slow. Sure, when I first started using Hyper, I didn’t notice a difference when working on personal projects. But once I started running Hyper with 5+ windows, along with having Atom, Spotify, and Slack open, I realized that all of these Electron apps running at once can really take a toll on your system’s resources. It would eventually lead to my terminal becoming unresponsive on occasion. Not too often, but enough to interrupt my workflow.
• Decentralized ecosystem. The wide variety of extensions is one of Hyper’s greatest benefits, but it also leaves you at the mercy of other developers and the quality of their plugins, unless you decide to write your own. The terminal is an application that most developers expect to just work, and if it’s customizable, that’s great. But I found myself having to install entire extensions for small configurations like… a blinking cursor. Whereas iTerm2 provided much more customization without having to leave the ecosystem.

Summary

I used Hyper for a couple months before running into “The Bad.” While I can deal with some slowness from my text editor, I realized that I don’t have the same tolerance when it comes to my terminal emulator. I decided to switch back to iTerm2 and haven’t looked back since.

That said, if you haven’t given Hyper a try, I still suggest that you download it and use it. I have friends who swear by it, and don’t mind the issues that I ran into. It’s all a matter of preference, and it’s great that the technology community works on a wide variety of tools for us to experiment with and enjoy.

Happy coding!