# zmx

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/zmx/

18 people recommended zmx in Hacker News comments, 2 had mixed feelings and 1 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 12 months, in 16 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend zmx for simple session persistence that keeps terminal state and scrollback, with remote reattach and minimal features. Critics say it can be buggy with screen repainting.

Summary written by Claude from 31 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 28 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- Simple, minimal session persistence (5 comments in the sample): "I built zmx because I wanted a simpler session persistence model that also supported remotely running, tailing, and waiting for commands to finish." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50153102)) "It sounds like you could get away with using a tool like https://zmx.sh which only handles session persistence" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47464458)) "Session persistence can be solved by zmx" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49210386))
- Restores scrollback and terminal state (3 comments in the sample): "zmx holds onto terminal state and history and sends a snapshot on re-attach." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46150461)) "It uses libghostty to restore scrollback history and terminal state." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47760788)) "It uses libghostty for rehydrating session state and scrollback" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47212094))
- Works well over SSH and remote sessions (2 comments in the sample): "seems to work quite well switching between my laptop and phone" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47158371)) "Whenever I need a process I can reattach to I wrap it in zmx." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48828400))
- Replaces tmux for many users (2 comments in the sample): "beautiful piece of minimal software that basically has gotten rid of my tmux and zellij use" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48824698)) "It's great because it allows me to replace tmux completely in all my ssh sessions" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47082702))

## What people warn about

- Screen repainting glitches (1 comment in the sample): "It's still a bit buggy (screen repainting) but quite pleasant to use with ghostty." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47755224))

## Other terminal multiplexers people recommend

- [tmux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/tmux/): 325 recommend, 56 mixed, 97 criticize
- [Herdr](https://hackerapproved.com/p/herdr/): 170 recommend, 43 mixed, 60 criticize
- [Zellij](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zellij/): 75 recommend, 14 mixed, 29 criticize
- [GNU Screen](https://hackerapproved.com/p/gnu-screen/): 29 recommend, 3 mixed, 8 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "zmx", https://hackerapproved.com/p/zmx/ (18 recommend, 2 mixed, 1 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 3 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.