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Hyper VS i3

Compare Hyper VS i3 and see what are their differences

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Contents:
  1. ยป Base Details
  2. ยป Videos
  3. ยป Reviews
  4. ยป Alternatives

Hyper logo Hyper

Extensible, cross-platform terminal built on open web standards.

i3 logo i3

A dynamic tiling window manager designed for X11, inspired by wmii, and written in C.
  • Hyper Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-22
  • i3 Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-19

Hyper features and specs

  • Cross-Platform
    Hyper is available for multiple operating systems, including Windows, macOS, and Linux, making it versatile for users on different platforms.
  • Extensibility
    Hyper is built on web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, allowing users to customize and extend it with plugins and themes easily.
  • Modern UI
    It offers a sleek and modern user interface that is visually appealing and user-friendly.
  • Performance
    Despite being built on Electron, Hyper's performance is generally satisfactory for the majority of terminal tasks.
  • Ecosystem
    A rich ecosystem of plugins and themes is available, which enhances the terminal's functionality and customization options.

Possible disadvantages of Hyper

  • Resource Usage
    As an Electron-based application, Hyper can consume more memory and CPU compared to more lightweight terminal emulators.
  • Startup Time
    Hyper may have a slower startup time compared to native terminal applications because it initializes a lot of components at launch.
  • Complexity
    For users who are not familiar with web development technologies, customizing and extending Hyper might be challenging.
  • Stability
    Occasional bugs and crashes can occur, especially when using numerous plugins or custom configurations.
  • Native Feature Gaps
    Some of the features available in native terminal emulators might be missing or less optimized in Hyper.

i3 features and specs

  • Efficient Window Management
    i3 allows for highly efficient window management using a tree data structure, making it easy to snap windows into grids and manage multiple applications simultaneously.
  • Lightweight
    i3 is deliberately simplistic and lightweight, which allows it to run efficiently on older hardware or systems with limited resources.
  • Customizability
    Users can extensively customize keybindings and behavior through a plain text configuration file. This allows for a personalized workflow.
  • Keyboard-Centric
    i3 is designed to be used primarily through keyboard shortcuts, which can lead to increased productivity for advanced users.
  • Scriptability
    i3 supports various scripting languages through its IPC (Inter-process Communication) interface, enabling automation of complex workflows.
  • Community and Documentation
    i3 has strong community support and extensive documentation, making it easier for new users to learn and troubleshoot issues.

Possible disadvantages of i3

  • Steep Learning Curve
    New users may find i3 difficult to learn and configure, especially if they are accustomed to traditional desktop environments.
  • Lack of GUI Configuration Tools
    i3 relies heavily on manual edits to text files for configuration, lacking user-friendly graphical interfaces for setup and customization.
  • Limited Out-of-the-Box Features
    i3 does not come with many built-in features available in more comprehensive desktop environments, such as app launchers or system tray support, requiring additional setups.
  • Compatibility Issues
    Some applications may not play well with tiling window managers like i3, requiring workarounds or alternative software choices.
  • Minimal Default Appearance
    Without customization, i3 offers a very minimalistic and barebones visual experience, which may not be appealing to all users.

Analysis of Hyper

Overall verdict

  • Hyper is a good choice for users who value customization and a visually appealing interface over performance. While it may not match the speed and efficiency of native terminal applications, its flexibility and design appeal to those who are comfortable with and prefer Electron-based applications.

Why this product is good

  • Hyper is an electron-based terminal that is highly customizable, allowing users to enhance its functionality through plugins and themes. It's built with web technologies, making it easy for developers familiar with JavaScript, HTML, and CSS to contribute and modify. This enables a rich ecosystem of community contributions, offering users a wide variety of enhancements to tailor the terminal experience to their needs.

Recommended for

  • Developers who prefer a customizable terminal environment
  • Users who enjoy experimenting with plugins and themes
  • Individuals who prioritize design and aesthetics in their tooling

Analysis of i3

Overall verdict

  • Yes, i3 is considered a very good window manager for users who appreciate its minimalist and efficient approach. Its lightweight design keeps resource usage low, which can improve performance on less powerful machines.

Why this product is good

  • i3wm is known for its simplicity, speed, and efficient use of screen space, making it a popular choice among power users and developers who prefer a keyboard-driven workspace. Its tiling feature allows for the seamless organization of multiple windows, enhancing productivity and multitasking. Furthermore, it is highly customizable, allowing users to tailor their workspace to their specific needs.

Recommended for

    i3wm is recommended for advanced users, developers, and anyone who prefers a keyboard-centric interface. It is ideal for users who like to customize their environment extensively and are comfortable with configuring software via text files. New users with a willingness to learn may also find it rewarding.

Hyper videos

+ Add

Motorola One Hyper Review

More videos:

  • Review - SKECHERS GOrun RAZOR 3 HYPER & GOrun 7 HYPER REVIEW | The Ginger Runner
  • Review - Motorola One Hyper "Real Review"

i3 videos

+ Add

30k Miles with the BMW i3 - End of Lease Review

More videos:

  • Review - 2016 BMW i3 - Review and Road Test
  • Review - 2018 BMW i3s Range Extender (REx) Review - The Future Of Cars?
  • Demo - Gaming With Intel's Core i3 9100F - The First Turbo Boosted Desktop i3
  • Review - The best EV for the money? Used BMW i3 Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Hyper and i3)

Hyper

i3

Terminal Tools
100 100%
Terminal Tools
0% 0
Window Manager
0 0%
Window Manager
100% 100
Developer Tools
100 100%
Developer Tools
0% 0
Linux
0 0%
Linux
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Hyper and i3. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Hyper and i3

Hyper Reviews

MobaXterm for Mac: Best Alternatives to MobaXterm for Mac
Hyper is an electron based terminal for Mac OS and other platforms. The Hyper is build on the HTML, CSS and JavaScript. It is designed to create a beautiful and extensible experience for command-line interface users. It is a simple still the best alternative to MobaXterm for Mac with speed, stability and development of the correct API for extension authors. In future, it...
Source: www.macoszon.com
Top 14 Terminal Emulators for Linux (With Extra Features or Amazing Looks)
Hyper is yet another interesting terminal emulator that is built on web technologies. It doesnโ€™t provide a unique user experience, but looks quite different and offers a ton of customization options.
Source: itsfoss.com
30 best PuTTY alternatives for SSH clients for 2020
Hyper is a free open source emulator written for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux. It can be extended with add-ons, but has no encryption or file transfer option.
Source: www.comparitech.com

i3 Reviews

Top 13 Best Tiling Window Managers For Linux In 2022
Sway is a tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that dynamically arranges app windows to rationally maximise desktop space. It is free, open-source, and lightweight. By default, it arranges windows in a grid and supports practically all of the i3 commands.
Source: www.hubtech.org
Top 10 Best Desktop Environments in 2020
i3-wm is one of my most loved standalone window managers, qualifying it to easily fit under the desktop environment list! The configuration is just very easy, and you can change everything that you see on screen. This includes what information you see on the bottom panel, how windows behave, and keyboard shortcuts to move, align, and set up windows on the screen.
Source: www.journaldev.com
13 Best Tiling Window Managers for Linux
Sway is a free, open-source, and lightweight tiling Wayland i3-compatible window manager that automatically arranges app windows to logically maximize desktop space. It arranges windows into a grid by default and supports almost all the commands included in i3.
Source: www.tecmint.com
5 Great Tiling Window Managers for Linux
I begun testing i3 just this week. I was always fascinated by the Tiling WMโ€™s as they seem really light on system resources and functional. To my surprise , although i3 is really easy to customize, and works really well (at least for my needs) , I found that it isnโ€™t really that lightweight. I had Mate desktop environment use the same amount of RAM. Maybe I was mislead to...
Source: www.maketecheasier.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, i3 should be more popular than Hyper. It has been mentiond 92 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.

Hyper mentions (46)

  • Ratty โ€“ A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics
    Or Terminal is already a full featured web browser? https://hyper.is/. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 months ago
  • Show HN: Hyper โ€“ Standards first React alternative
    I wish open-source projects checked to see if other projects share the same name. Especially since there are packages in NPM already about hyper. https://hyper.is/ has been around for a while and is kind of big. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • How to make your terminal looks Splendid
    WARP First thing, we need to choose the best terminal app to do this, I usually use one called Hyper Term, but in the last months I've been using another one called Warp terminal, I started to use it because it is an AI powered terminal, basically we can use the terminal AI to get the best bash commands, and improve ours shell scripts and commands, that why I chose it for this tutorial. So we need to download it. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Leveraging Wasp for full-stack development
    A modern terminal shell such as zsh, iTerm2 with oh-my-zsh for Mac, or Hyper for Windows. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Terminal commands I use as a frontend developer
    I am using iTerm2 on my macOS. Other available options are Hyper and VS Codeโ€™s inbuilt terminal, which I sometimes use for quick tests. You can open a terminal in VS Code by using the keyboard shortcut CMD + J or CTRL + J on Windows, or View โ†’ Terminal. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
View more

i3 mentions (92)

  • Why I traded my custom "Opinionated Linux" for Omarchy
    I've been using Omarchy as my main setup since June 26, 2025, the day DHH released the first version. Before that I had my own custom Opinionated Linux, mclovin-ARCHived: an Arch + i3wm installer set up exactly the way I liked. It was total control over the OS: me deciding what goes in, keeping every piece (i3wm, polybar, picom, kitty, dotfiles) up to date and making sure they all talked to each other for the... - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Omarcacca
    Then few years back, in 2015, I got shown i3wm and used it on my ubuntu-netinstall until 2020, then I switched to Budgie and my personal laptop has been using that ever since. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Automatic Visual Feedback for System Volume Change in I3wm via Dunst
    I switched to the i3 tiling based window manager. Because it's a whole different environment and thinking, it was very different from what I was used to. The volume buttons were working on my keyboard, but I didn't get any visual feedback. Furthermore, the volume percentage could go down below zero and increase up to more than hundread percent. There were times when I was confused why the keys stopped working, but... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • "We understand" ;)
    This is partially why I use tools like i3 (/ sway). I like the tool; it works extremely well for me; the design has stayed the same for 20 years; there's no profit motive to come along and fuck everything up. It just works. It is boring in the best way possible. Source: over 2 years ago
  • what machines have you used for development, and what do you prefer?
    I use MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid-2014) with Manjaro as OS using i3 as a window manager. It isn't perfect, but I'm thrilled with it. I have been a Mac OS user for the last 15 years and wouldn't change what I have now for a Mac OS because I don't need more than what I'm using for development. Source: about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Hyper and i3, you can also consider the following products

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

Sway - Sway is a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager, but for Wayland instead of X11.

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

dwm - dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts. All of the layouts can be applied dynamically, optimising the environment for the application in use and the task performed.

Windows Terminal - A new command line interface for Windows machines

Openbox - Openbox is a highly configurable, next generation window manager with extensive standards support.

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