Ghostty 1.01: The Terminal Emulator Everyone’s Talking About—But Should You Switch?
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What’s New in 1.01?
Ghostty’s 1.01 release brings SIMD optimizations for text rendering, a fancy way of saying it handles massive output even faster. If you’ve ever watched a log file explode across your screen and felt the lag, this update is for you. The result? Smoother scrolling and less stutter when processing large data.
But let’s talk real-world scenarios. For most developers, we’re not benchmarking terminals daily. We’re editing files, tailing logs, and running test suites. And this is where Ghostty’s "native-first" approach shines—it feels tight, lightweight, and just plain responsive.
Benchmarks and Controversy
Now, benchmarks are where things get spicy. On GitHub, some users reported Ghostty outperformed WezTerm by 2-5x in specific scenarios. Others noted WezTerm leading in framerate benchmarks like DOOM-fire-zig (a fun, nerdy test if you haven’t tried it).
Here’s our take: If you’re building your developer flow around maximizing fps in terminal animations, you’re probably overthinking it. Ghostty’s speed improvements aren’t theoretical—they’re noticeable, but they won’t cure your CI/CD pipeline slowness.
Community Reactions: What We Love (and Don’t)
We’ve always loved how the terminal community has strong opinions, and Ghostty hasn’t escaped critique. On Reddit, some users said they couldn’t see the hype, dismissing the gains as marginal. Others, with tongue-in-cheek humor, credited Ghostty’s performance boosts for giving them “time to work out and organize their life.”
Our community at Typecraft leans into tools that don’t just work fast but also fit into our broader developer ecosystem. Ghostty's simplicity and native integration make it a joy to use, but it doesn’t (yet) have the depth of features found in WezTerm. Features like tab multiplexing or advanced theming are still works in progress for Ghostty.
Should You Switch?
For the Typecraft crowd, this boils down to use case:
- If you’re tired of terminals that feel heavy and crave blazing-fast output in a minimalist package, Ghostty’s worth a try.
- But if you’re in love with WezTerm’s deep customizability or tmux-like functionality, it’s probably not the time to jump ship just yet.
The Typecraft Verdict
At Typecraft, we love experimenting with tools like Ghostty, and the 1.01 release continues to solidify it as a serious contender. It’s not perfect, but it’s exciting to see Hashimoto’s vision unfold—and we’re here for it.