xterm.js
Shares rank 37 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
Recommended as a cross-platform web terminal emulator, used in the VS Code terminal, with no performance limits reported. Critics cite problems with large terminals and long scrollbacks.
Recommended as a cross-platform web terminal emulator, used in the VS Code terminal, with no performance limits reported. Critics cite problems with large terminals and long scrollbacks.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 8
- approval share
- 38%
Recommended in 3 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not 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: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 3 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not 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
No performance limits in heavy sessions
“I haven't seen any performance issues for Claude Code, even when I'm running like 20 in one browser tab”
Comment from 11 May 2026 in “Ratty – A terminal emulator with inline 3D graphics” “I just have never hit a performance limit in the VS Code terminal”
Comment from 28 Oct 2026 in “Ghostty 1.4” Good cross-platform terminal emulator
“it's a very good cross-platform terminal emulator”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions” Wanted as standalone terminal component
“I think that bare Xterm.js would be a nice addition to the list”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “State of Terminal Emulators in 2025: The Errant Champions”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Breaks with large terminals and scrollbacks
“which can't handle when the terminals get large/too big”
Comment from 29 Dec 2025 in “Show HN: Superset – Terminal to run 10 parallel coding agents” “xterm.js has tons of issues with long scrollbacks”
Comment from 20 Mar 2026 in “Claude Code: Channels” Mobile copy/paste and Chrome issues
“It seems like a big problem that xtermjs has is iOS copy/paste, so I fixed that today”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Wterm – Terminal Emulator for the Web” “The terminal the game uses have some known issues on Chrome/Android”
Comment from 23 Jan 2026 in “EmuDevz: A game about developing emulators”
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 | — |
| xterm.jsThis page | 5 | 8 | 38% | 3 | — | — |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I just have never hit a performance limit in the VS Code terminal”
“In xterm.js, text looks super fat all the time (to me).”
“It seems like a big problem that xtermjs has is iOS copy/paste, so I fixed that today”
“off-by-one in the cell math wraps long prompts in the wrong place every time”
“I haven't seen any performance issues for Claude Code, even when I'm running like 20 in one browser tab”
“Much nicer way to handle high-frequency streaming data than xterm.js.”
“xterm.js has tons of issues with long scrollbacks”
“The terminal the game uses have some known issues on Chrome/Android”
“which can't handle when the terminals get large/too big”
“was frustrated with the limitations”
“it's a very good cross-platform terminal emulator”
“I think that bare Xterm.js would be a nice addition to the list”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.