iTerm2
Terminal replacement
open sourceDevelopment
iTerm2 is the terminal people install right after Homebrew. Split panes, instant history search, per-project profiles, text triggers, and a drop-down hotkey window. Actively maintained and still the benchmark despite the wave of new terminals.
// Install
Your MacHomebrew in /opt/homebrew
brew install --cask iterm2// What it is for
- Split the window into panes horizontally and vertically — several sessions on one screen without tmux
- Instant search across the entire scrollback, not just the visible screen
- Per-project profiles: each with its own working directory, colours, and launch command
- A drop-down hotkey window that appears over any app with one keystroke
// Common questions
How is iTerm2 better than the built-in Terminal.app?
Panes, scrollback search, profiles, output triggers, a drop-down window, and configurable shortcuts. The stock Terminal does tabs and colours — that is where the list ends.
Is iTerm2 really slow with heavy output?
On a flood of tens of thousands of lines it does lose to GPU-rendered terminals like Ghostty. In everyday work the difference is invisible; in build logs it is not.
