The Terminal with Speed and Features.
Every terminal emulator was either blazing fast or packed with essential server management tools. Nothing had both. So we built AZTerm.
Install AZTerm
Latest ReleaseFull OS integration: app launcher icon, Dolphin/Nautilus context menus, and URI protocol handlers.
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/AZBrandCanada/azTerm/main/install.sh | bash
Why Are Terminal Emulators Broken Into Two Extremes?
If you manage cloud infrastructure, VPS nodes, and remote servers every day, you were forced to make an annoying compromise:
Extreme 1: Fast but Barebones
Alacritty, Kitty, Minimalist Terminals
They open in 20 milliseconds and use almost zero RAM. But they give you zero GUI features: no visual split docking, no SSH bookmark organizer, no live SFTP file drawer, and no graphical color or opacity adjustments. You are forced to memorize configs or run separate utilities.
Extreme 2: Feature-Rich but Bloated
Electerm, Tabby, Hyper, Web Terminals
They offer features like SSH bookmarks and file trees, but they are built on Electron & Chromium. They consume 400MB to 700MB of RAM just to idle, take seconds to launch, and introduce noticeable input latency on every keystroke.
Native Rust GPU Speed + Full GUI Feature Suite
AZTerm bridges the gap. Built from scratch in pure Rust with immediate-mode hardware GPU rendering and POSIX kernel PTYs, it gives you the speed of Alacritty with all the visual drag-and-drop tiling, SSH bookmarks, SFTP sync drawers, and persistent workspace states you actually need.
Engineered for Serious System Administration
Drag & Drop Tiling & Split Panes
Split panes side-by-side (Ctrl+Shift+D) or stacked (Ctrl+Shift+E). Drag any pane by its handle (::) or tab onto Left, Right, Top, or Bottom dock zones with live snap preview highlights.
10,000-Line History & Anchored Selection
Retains up to 10,000 lines per session. Highlighted text stays locked to absolute buffer coordinates as you scroll. Includes auto copy-on-select, right-click paste, and smooth progress-bar carriage return handling.
8 Presets, ANSI Editor & Opacity
Switch between 8 curated presets or duplicate to create custom themes. Edit the full 16-color ANSI palette with live color pickers and adjust window transparency from 20% to 100% with immediate GPU preview.
SSH Multiplexing & Dual SFTP
Terminal connections share OpenSSH sockets via ControlMaster. The SFTP transfer queue reuses this authenticated tunnel with zero duplicate logins. Toggle the live split drawer directly from the bottom bar.
Ed25519 Key Generator & Permissions
Generate secure Ed25519 keypairs in-app and copy public keys with one click. Supports inline private key pasting with automatic chmod 0600 permission enforcement in ~/.config/azterm/keys/.
SQLite Workspace & Zoom Persistence
Tiled binary trees, split divider ratios, custom zoom factors (60% to 250%), and SSH profiles are saved into embedded SQLite (~/.config/azterm/azterm.db), restoring exactly where you left off.
8 Built-in Themes + Live Custom Theme Engine
Includes full 16-color ANSI palette customization and GPU window opacity control from 20% to 100%.
Essential Keyboard Shortcuts
Navigate, split, zoom, and manage your tiling workspace without touching the mouse.
How AZTerm Compares
| Feature / Metric | AZTerm (Rust) | Alacritty / Kitty | Electerm / Tabby |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runtime Engine | Pure Native Rust (GPU) | Native Rust / C | Electron / Chromium Web DOM |
| Idle Memory Usage | ~20 MB – 45 MB | ~20 MB – 40 MB | ~350 MB – 700 MB |
| Drag & Drop Visual Tiling | Built-in (Snap Zones & Handles) | None (CLI or WM only) | Basic static splits |
| SSH & Keypair Manager | Built-in (Ed25519 Keygen + Vault) | None (CLI only) | Built-in |
| Live Multiplexed SFTP Drawer | ControlMaster (0ms re-auth) | None | Built-in (Separate connection) |
| Deep Scrollback & Anchored Selection | 10,000 Lines (Locked coords) | Configurable (Scroll drift) | High memory consumption |
| Theme Studio & ANSI Color Picker | 8 Presets + GUI ANSI Pickers | Config file text only | CSS / Web theme |
| Session & Workspace Persistence | Embedded SQLite (Full restore) | None | Local JSON state |
| Desktop File Manager Context Menus | Dolphin, Nautilus & Nemo | Manual config | None |
Download Pre-Compiled Packages (Latest Release)
Official standalone release binaries and installers hosted on GitHub Releases.
Universal standalone binary (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, Debian, openSUSE)
Native Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint & Pop!_OS installer package
Compiled release binary with scalable desktop entries and icons
Windows 64-bit portable standalone executable archive
macOS compiled universal release binary archive (Apple Silicon & Intel)