urxvt
Shares rank 31 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
People recommend urxvt as a light, fast terminal that handles Unicode well and runs many instances with little memory. Critics say some features need extra hacks.
People recommend urxvt as a light, fast terminal that handles Unicode well and runs many instances with little memory. Critics say some features need extra hacks.
11 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 5
- approval share
- 55%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 1.2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not 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
Lightweight, near-zero resource use
“rxvt-unicode is lightweight and can run hundreds of terminals with near zero resource use”
Comment from 24 Sep 2026 in “Ideas on modernizing the open-source desktop” “very light terminal (urxvt”
Comment from 6 Aug 2026 in “I'm switching my phone from Android to Linux” Fast, even against newer terminals
“battle tested urxvt under X11 is STILL faster then shitty”
Comment from 3 Aug 2026 in “Show HN: Shitty – fast terminal. Memory-unsafe and faster than yours” “rxvt-unicode is plenty fast and handles unicode well”
Comment from 1 Nov 2025 on Hacker News
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Needs hacks for some features
“whenever I tried something like that eg a client/server model in urxvt or foot, I ended up reverting”
Comment from 8 Jun 2026 in “Life is too short for a slow terminal” “I have occasionally needed similar hacks for Kitty and urxvt”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Ghostty – Terminal Emulator” “needs some extra hacks in rxvt-unicode”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “A few interesting modern pixel fonts”
Other terminal emulators people recommend
The four most recommended other terminal emulators, 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ghostty | 401 | 158 | 72% | 12 | 3 mo22 owners | Approved |
| Termux | 188 | 31 | 86% | 12 | 1 yr6 owners | Approved |
| iTerm2 | 95 | 69 | 58% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | — |
| Warp terminal | 84 | 86 | 49% | 11 | 1 yr5 owners | — |
| urxvtThis page | 6 | 5 | 55% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
10 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“rxvt-unicode is lightweight and can run hundreds of terminals with near zero resource use”
“very light terminal (urxvt”
“battle tested urxvt under X11 is STILL faster then shitty”
“whenever I tried something like that eg a client/server model in urxvt or foot, I ended up reverting”
“needs some extra hacks in rxvt-unicode”
“I used to like rxvt (or its clone rxvt-unicode) when using X-Windows.”
“This combination allows me to use any simple terminal emulator, such as urxvt, st, and now foot, without issues.”
“I have occasionally needed similar hacks for Kitty and urxvt”
“urxvt prominently doesn't (fully)”
“rxvt-unicode is plenty fast and handles unicode well”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.