Yakuake
Shares rank 37 of 40 terminal emulators by recommenders
A drop-down terminal that slides down from the screen edge on a hotkey, favoured for staying out of the way until needed. Critics note it feels dated and hotkey behaviour varies between terminal apps.
A drop-down terminal that slides down from the screen edge on a hotkey, favoured for staying out of the way until needed. Critics note it feels dated and hotkey behaviour varies between terminal apps.
7 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 2
- approval share
- 71%
Recommended in 6 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: 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.
- 2.5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 6 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-down overlay terminal, always available
“Guake and Yakuake have this always-on-top terminal overlay mode which is really nice”
Comment from 29 Aug 2026 in “Our decision on Cursor following its acquisition by SpaceX” “invisible when I need it to be (thanks guake & yakuake)”
Comment from 4 May 2026 in “The text mode lie: why modern TUIs are a nightmare for accessibility” “I use yakuake as my main terminal”
Comment from 30 Dec 2025 in “The Signature Flicker”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Hotkey and rendering differ between apps
“all have slight variations between simple things like rendering and more important things like hotkeys”
Comment from 29 Apr 2026 in “Your Terminal Is Burning Battery Like It's Mining Bitcoin” Feels dated
“it feels a bit long in the tooth”
Comment from 1 Mar 2026 in “Ghostty – Terminal Emulator”
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 | — |
| YakuakeThis page | 5 | 2 | 71% | 6 | — | — |
What people said
All 8 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“And for KDE users: https://apps.kde.org/yakuake/”
“Guake and Yakuake have this always-on-top terminal overlay mode which is really nice”
“invisible when I need it to be (thanks guake & yakuake)”
“yakuake (which uses konsolepart; that is, it's based on Konsole, Plasma's default terminal emulator) is fairly economical in its battery usage”
“all have slight variations between simple things like rendering and more important things like hotkeys”
“it feels a bit long in the tooth”
“I did remap the HP Omen button to pull down Yakuake”
“I use yakuake as my main terminal”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.