ghostty-web
Hacker ApprovedRanked 2 of 3 terminal emulator libraries by recommenders
Ghostty's terminal engine compiled to WebAssembly with an xterm.js-compatible API, so existing xterm.js apps can swap it in with little effort. Caveat: Firefox and Safari problems were reported.
Ghostty's terminal engine compiled to WebAssembly with an xterm.js-compatible API, so existing xterm.js apps can swap it in with little effort. Caveat: Firefox and Safari problems were reported.
18 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 13
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 72%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 13 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 2.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Drop-in replacement for xterm.js
“wraps libghostty in an xterm.js compatible wrapper, the focus for Ghostty has very much been the sort of things you're mentioning”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Cate v1.0 is out: The Infinite canvas workspace for developers” “I'm building a custom frontend for Vibetunnel that uses ghostty-web[0] instead of xterm”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Superset – Terminal to run 10 parallel coding agents” “I recently replaced xterm with Ghostty-web for my terminal in the browser app”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Gridland: make terminal apps that also run in the browser” - Comment from 28 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Open Source 'Conductor + Ghostty'”
- Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility”
Works well for daily use
“I use it every day multiple hours a day and I forget it's a web terminal”
Comment from 20 Feb 2026 in “Show HN: Ghostty-based terminal with vertical tabs and notifications” “I got ghostty-web working with this and it is great.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility” “This is awesome, thank you!”
Comment from 1 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility” Strong potential, active adoption
“I'm considering Ghostty web ( https://github.com/coder/ghostty-web ) for my project Ink Web.”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Ghostty – Terminal Emulator” “I think Ghostty Web is also has tons of potential.”
Comment from 24 Mar 2026 in “Show HN: Gridland: make terminal apps that also run in the browser” “Made it work on my iPhone and opened a PR”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Firefox compatibility problems
“that online version works for me in Chrome, but not in Firefox”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility” “Does not appear to work under Firefox, getting a bunch of CORS-related errors”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility” Output and error problems
“I get no output from "cowsay hello" or "ls", and I see a bunch of errors in the Chrome JS debugger.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility” “it failed pretty miserably”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Ghostty compiled to WASM with xterm.js API compatibility”
Other terminal emulator libraries people recommend
The two most recommended other terminal emulator libraries, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| libghostty | 39 | 3 | 93% | 9 | — | Approved |
| ghostty-webThis page | 13 | 5 | 72% | 5 | — | Approved |
| libghostty-vt | 6 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
17 of the 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“wraps libghostty in an xterm.js compatible wrapper, the focus for Ghostty has very much been the sort of things you're mentioning”
“worried by number of issues and the last release being in Dec”
“which is the Ghostty WASM and can be swapped with xterm”
“I think Ghostty Web is also has tons of potential.”
“I recently replaced xterm with Ghostty-web for my terminal in the browser app”
“I'm considering Ghostty web ( https://github.com/coder/ghostty-web ) for my project Ink Web.”
“I use it every day multiple hours a day and I forget it's a web terminal”
“I'm building a custom frontend for Vibetunnel that uses ghostty-web[0] instead of xterm”
“Does not appear to work under Firefox, getting a bunch of CORS-related errors”
“that online version works for me in Chrome, but not in Firefox”
“Made it work on my iPhone and opened a PR”
“it failed pretty miserably”
“I got ghostty-web working with this and it is great.”
“Doesn't trigger keyboard popup on my iPhone in Safari.”
“I get no output from "cowsay hello" or "ls", and I see a bunch of errors in the Chrome JS debugger.”
“This is awesome, thank you!”
“updated from xterm into ghostty-web without any issue!”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.