The best terminal multiplexers, according to hackers
11 terminal multiplexers were recommended on Hacker News between November 2025 and November 2026. We rank them by how many separate people recommend each one, and 6 earn the Hacker Approved badge.
Top picks
The three most recommended terminal multiplexers with the badge. Each figure is 25 people. RecommendsCriticizes One comment
Detach and reattach sessions anywhere
A long-proven terminal multiplexer for persistent remote sessions, panes and scripting, now popular for running AI agents, though copying text and scrollback can be awkward.
Shows which agents need attention
A terminal multiplexer for running many coding agents, with status indicators, notifications, remote sessions and worktree support; some worry about its VC backing and future lock-in.
Friendlier UI that works out of the box
A friendlier tmux alternative with good mouse scrolling, intuitive default keys and sessions that persist across reboots, though it lacks copy/paste buffers and copying from scrollback.
All 11 terminal multiplexers, ranked
Select a column heading to sort. Approval share is recommenders out of everyone who gave an opinion; the tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs. Months counts the months, out of 13, in which someone recommended it.
| Rank | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | tmux | 411 | 111 | 79% | 12 | 10 yrs14 owners | Approved |
| 2 | Herdr | 232 | 68 | 77% | 7 | 1 mo18 owners | Approved |
| 3 | Zellij | 93 | 33 | 74% | 12 | 2 yrs5 owners | Approved |
| 4 | GNU Screen | 33 | 11 | 75% | 12 | — | Approved |
| 5 | zmx | 23 | 1 | 96% | 10 | — | Approved |
| 6 | Rex by Superlogical | 21 | 2 | 91% | 4 | — | Approved |
| 7 | Rmux | 16 | 7 | 70% | 1 | — | — |
| 8 | Superlogical | 14 | 12 | 54% | 2 | — | — |
| 9 | Byobu | 9 | 1 | 90% | 4 | — | — |
| 10 | Remux | 8 | 0 | 100% | 1 | — | — |
| 11 | Boo terminal multiplexer | 7 | 6 | 54% | 3 | — | — |
How we rank
Rank is the number of separate people who recommend a product in a Hacker News comment over the past year. Someone who praises the same terminal multiplexer in five threads counts once.
The badge goes to terminal multiplexers that at least 10 people recommend, with recommenders outnumbering critics at least 2 to 1, recommended in at least 4 of the 13 months.
Rankings are never for sale. We may earn a commission when you buy through our links. It never changes the order.