Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Blink Shell VS Kitty terminal

Compare Blink Shell VS Kitty terminal and see what are their differences

Blink Shell logo Blink Shell

Super-fast and highly configurable, professional-grade terminal for iOS.

Kitty terminal logo Kitty terminal

Super fast, GPU and OpenGL based terminal emulator with tiling support
  • Blink Shell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • Kitty terminal Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-21

Blink Shell features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Blink Shell is available on multiple platforms, including iOS and macOS, making it accessible for users across different devices.
  • Mosh Support
    Blink Shell supports Mosh (mobile shell), providing a more robust SSH experience with better performance over wireless and unstable connections.
  • Customization
    Users can customize Blink Shell extensively, including themes, fonts, and layouts, allowing for a personalized experience.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The app offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it approachable for both novice and experienced users.
  • Local Terminal Access
    Besides SSH access, Blink Shell also offers a local terminal, allowing users to perform tasks directly on their device.

Possible disadvantages of Blink Shell

  • Paid Application
    Blink Shell is a paid app, which might not be suitable for users looking for a free alternative.
  • Limited to Apple Ecosystem
    While it is cross-platform within Apple's ecosystem, it lacks availability on other platforms like Android or Windows.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly design, users unfamiliar with terminal applications may still face a learning curve.
  • Dependence on iOS/macOS Features
    Some functionalities might be tied to the specific features of iOS and macOS, potentially limiting customization or performance based on the device.
  • Security Concerns
    As with any application that interfaces with remote servers, users must ensure their security protocols are robust to avoid compromising sensitive data.

Kitty terminal features and specs

  • Performance
    Kitty is designed to be a fast and efficient terminal, with support for GPU rendering. This can provide smoother and quicker display updates, especially beneficial for intensive command-line tasks.
  • Features
    Kitty offers a rich set of features including support for tabs, multiple layouts, and extensions. It also supports features like ligatures, image display, and sixel graphics.
  • Customization
    Kitty is highly customizable, allowing users to modify key bindings, color schemes, and more through its comprehensive configuration files.
  • Remote Control
    Kitty provides a remote control framework, which allows users to script and control the terminal from the command line or other external programs.
  • Platform Support
    Kitty is available on multiple platforms including Linux, macOS, and Windows (through WSL), making it versatile for various operating systems.
  • Active Development
    The terminal is actively maintained by its developers, ensuring regular updates, bug fixes, and the addition of new features.

Possible disadvantages of Kitty terminal

  • Learning Curve
    Given its extensive feature set and customization options, there can be a steep learning curve for new users unfamiliar with its configuration and advanced features.
  • Configuration Complexity
    The extensive customization options, while powerful, can be overwhelming and may require a considerable amount of time to configure to a user's liking.
  • Font Support
    Although Kitty supports font ligatures and several other advanced font features, some users have reported occasional issues with font rendering and compatibility.
  • Resource Usage
    While designed for performance, the use of GPU rendering can mean higher resource usage compared to simpler terminals, which might be noticeable on older hardware.
  • Documentation
    Though extensive, the documentation can sometimes be challenging to navigate for new users, making it harder to find specific information or solutions to particular problems.
  • No Native Windows Support
    Kitty does not have native Windows support; it runs on Windows through the Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL). This might not be ideal for users looking for a fully native Windows terminal experience.

Analysis of Kitty terminal

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Kitty is a highly regarded terminal emulator that is considered good by many users.

Why this product is good

  • Kitty is fast, feature-rich, and supports GPU rendering, which can improve performance. It is highly customizable, supports modern terminal features, and has a friendly and active community. Additionally, it supports features like tabs, layouts, and window management, which many users find convenient.

Recommended for

  • Users who require a fast and efficient terminal emulator.
  • Those who need advanced features and customization options.
  • Developers who appreciate GPU acceleration for rendering.
  • Anyone looking for a terminal emulator with active community support.

Blink Shell videos

Blink Shell: Mosh and SSH Review

More videos:

  • Review - iPadOS Terminal App Overview: Termius vs Blink Shell - Generating SSH keys
  • Tutorial - HOW TO USE BLINK SHELL ON IOS TO ACCESS GOOGLE CLOUD PLATFORM TO PROGRAM ON AN IPAD

Kitty terminal videos

Kitty Is A Fast And Feature Rich Terminal Emulator

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Blink Shell and Kitty terminal)
Terminal Tools
32 32%
68% 68
SSH
21 21%
79% 79
Server Management
21 21%
79% 79
Text Editors
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Blink Shell and Kitty terminal

Blink Shell Reviews

10 Termux Alternatives
Blink Shell is a platform that creates and builds blink to support the Linux shell environment and UNIX terminal with the best SSH and mosh services included. Developers of this software didn’t add unnecessary features and had all the desired programs and commands to navigate their files quickly and comfortably. This is the best platform to access and perform your work from...

Kitty terminal Reviews

We have no reviews of Kitty terminal yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Kitty terminal should be more popular than Blink Shell. It has been mentiond 93 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Blink Shell mentions (40)

  • Maker of RStudio launches new R and Python IDE
    Hosted vs code server is what I used to use: https://github.com/coder/code-server. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Run VSCode and terminal on any iOS device
    $20 a year https://blink.sh/#choose-package. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says
    You can work on it https://blink.sh/ see also https://docs.blink.sh/advanced/code. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Apple debuts iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
    You can already do that with an iPad (sans fat OS). If you're using Blink Shell (https://blink.sh) the external display is independent of what's on the iPad too, which works really neatly. This is the exact setup I used as my main dev machine in a previous role. Would be very nice to see if this works on the new iPhones. A thin client with decent security in your pocket with keyboard/mouse/display at both home and... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
    I use blink[0] with a 40% keyboard to develop linux program on a vps. If you want to do programming without wireless interenet, another option is to connect a raspberry pi zero 2w (with usb gadget mode enabled) to the usb c port using a single usb cable. Then the rpi zero will share a ethernet network with iOS device. Then you can use blink (again) to mosh to raspberrypi.local to do the development on the pi. The... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
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Kitty terminal mentions (93)

  • Optimizing My Dev Workflow in 2025
    Initially, I used the Mac's built-in Terminal, but encountered issues with font loading. This led me to explore alternative terminal options. I initially chose Kitty, but after the official release of Ghostty, I made the switch. It has been running flawlessly for me. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • iTerm2 Critical Security Fix
    Kitty (https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty) has been my go to for many years and with tmux it's fantastic. I have heard a lot of great things about https://ghostty.org/ but haven't had a chance to check it out. - Source: Hacker News / 6 months ago
  • Preview images, videos, fonts, PDFs ... in Vifm.
    The terminal I am currently using is st but I have also tested this "Vifm" enhancement in kitty and alacritty. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • Show HN: Shpool, a Lightweight Tmux Alternative
    Oh, this might be the missing piece of the puzzle for me to get rid of tmux! I've been using screen/tmux for a long time. Recently I switched to kitty[0] locally. I like kitty a lot! But I've been stuck with tmux on my servers for session persistence. [0]: https://sw.kovidgoyal.net/kitty/. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Ask HN: What macOS apps/programs do you use daily and recommend?
    Besides the usual Firefox/Chrome, Spotify, etc I use the following: - Karabiner-Elements for key remapping, specifically, for making caps lock into ctrl/esc. I don't know of anything else that does this job. Everyone who remaps keys seems to use this. - Kitty as my terminal of choice. I spend most of my time logged in remotely to a server via ssh where I attach to a tmux session. Kitty was easy enough to... - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Blink Shell and Kitty terminal, you can also consider the following products

Termux - Terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android

wezterm - GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer made with Rust.

Android Terminal Emulator - Android-Terminal-Emulator - A VT-100 terminal emulator for the Android OS

iTerm2 - A terminal emulator for macOS that does amazing things.

MSYS2 - A Cygwin-derived software distro for Windows using Arch Linux's Pacman

Tabby.sh - Tabby is a free and open source SSH, local and Telnet terminal with everything you'll ever need.