The best free terminal app for Mac, built for Apple Silicon.

• Your login shell

  zsh, bash, or fish with your dotfiles, prompt, and version managers, starting in the project folder.

• Split panes

  ⌘D splits right, ⌘⇧D splits down. Drag tabs between panes; each project remembers its layout.

• Find and filter

  ⌘F searches a terminal or log. Filter mode hides every line that doesn't match.

• Themes and fonts

  Eight color themes, including Dracula, Nord, and One Dark, any installed monospace font, and ⌘+ / ⌘− to resize.

• Clickable paths and links

  Click src/app.ts:42:7 in the output to open the file at that line. URLs open in your browser.

• Copy that pastes clean

  Copying rejoins wrapped lines and strips the margin bars agents draw, so pasted code stays code.

• Paste a screenshot

  Paste an image into a terminal and lpm saves it and types the path, ready for an agent to read.

• Pinned tabs and undo close

  Pin a tab so ⌘W can't close it, and bring back a closed tab with its scrollback from the Undo toast.

• A window per project

  Detach a local project into its own window and put it on another display. Take control moves any terminal to the window you're in.

1. 01

   Your app ships without a bundled browser runtime

   lpm uses the webview already provided by macOS instead of packaging Electron and a separate Chromium runtime. Your terminals, services, and project controls still live in one desktop app.

2. 02

   Your stack boots in one click, not ten terminal commands

   Open a project in the sidebar and hit Start. API, worker, database, frontend — all live, all visible, all in one native window.

3. 03

   Switching projects stops wiping your context

   Jump to another repo and your first project keeps running in the background. Come back and it's still there — logs intact, servers up, terminal history preserved.

4. 04

   You stop losing services in a sea of tabs

   Every running service has its own pane with a clear label. No guessing which iTerm2 tab has the migration running.

• Native Apple Silicon build, no Electron runtime

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: yes
  • Terminal.app: yes
  • tmux: yes
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: yes

• Free

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: yes
  • Terminal.app: yes
  • tmux: yes
  • Hyper: yes
  • Warp: yes

• Open source

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: yes
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: yes
  • Hyper: yes
  • Warp: yes

• Visual project switcher with live state

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Built-in project-aware full-stack start

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Built-in service definitions with live output

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Sets up your services from the repo's manifests

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Claude Code and Codex side by side, each in its own copy

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Project setup you edit inside the app

  • lpm: yes
  • iTerm2: no
  • Terminal.app: no
  • tmux: no
  • Hyper: no
  • Warp: no

• Ghostty

  What it is

  Fast, native, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with a platform-native macOS UI.

  Where it shines

  Raw rendering speed and native feel with almost no configuration required.

  How lpm differs

  lpm doesn't compete on emulator speed — it manages the project around the terminal. If you only want a faster single pane, pick Ghostty.

• Warp

  What it is

  AI-native terminal with block-based input. Open source — the client has been AGPLv3 since April 2026.

  Where it shines

  AI assistance built into the shell itself: suggestions, command generation, agent features.

  How lpm differs

  lpm takes the other route to AI: it runs the agent CLIs you already use — Claude Code, Codex — alongside your services instead of building AI into the shell.

• iTerm2

  What it is

  The mature macOS standard, deeply configurable after 15+ years of development.

  Where it shines

  Split panes, profiles, triggers, tmux integration — a setting for nearly everything.

  How lpm differs

  iTerm2 manages sessions; lpm manages projects. One click starts the whole stack, with live output per service.

• WezTerm

  What it is

  Cross-platform GPU-accelerated emulator configured entirely in Lua.

  Where it shines

  One scriptable config that follows you across macOS, Linux, and Windows.

  How lpm differs

  lpm is built for the Mac, and its per-project setup is edited in the app rather than scripted in Lua — it starts your services, not just your shell.

• Alacritty

  What it is

  Minimal GPU-accelerated emulator — deliberately no tabs or splits; most people pair it with tmux.

  Where it shines

  Doing one thing fast. The simplest terminal on this list, by design.

  How lpm differs

  The opposite philosophy: lpm puts services, project switching, and AI agents in one window. If minimalism is the point, Alacritty is the better pick.

lpm is not a raw emulator replacement. It is for the day your terminal stops being one shell and becomes the place a whole project runs — dev servers with live logs, one-click switching between repos, and coding agents working next to your services. If agents are the reason you're shopping, see the guide to the best terminal for Claude Code and Codex.

• Does lpm run natively on Apple silicon Macs?

  Yes. lpm provides separate native downloads for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, so the Apple silicon build does not require Rosetta. The app uses the macOS system webview rather than bundling Electron or Chromium.
• Is lpm a free terminal for Mac?

  Yes. lpm is free to download from lpm.cx and the source is public on GitHub. There is no paid tier gating the terminal, the project switcher, or the dev stack features.
• Is lpm a good git terminal for Mac?

  Yes, and the output looks the way you expect it to. Panes are real macOS terminal sessions with GPU-accelerated rendering, 256-color and 24-bit color escapes drawn as sent, and Unicode 11 character widths, so colored diffs, prompt themes, and full-screen tools like lazygit or tig draw correctly. URLs and file paths in the output are clickable. You run git in one pane and your dev servers in another, inside the same native window. When you'd rather click, the footer has a branch switcher, a Commit dialog that drafts the message with AI, and Create PR.
• Is lpm a good iTerm2 alternative on Mac?

  If you picked iTerm2 for tabs and split panes, lpm gives you those plus a visual project sidebar, a one-click full-stack start, and live output per service. If you only need a raw terminal with no project awareness, iTerm2 is still a fine choice — lpm is the step up for developers juggling multiple services and projects. There is a side-by-side comparison of lpm and iTerm2 if you want the details.
• How do I download lpm for macOS?

  Use the download button on this page, open the .dmg, and drag lpm to your Applications folder. The app supports macOS 12 and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel Macs. On first launch, point it at any project folder and lpm detects the services it can run.
• Does lpm have split panes, search, and themes?

  Yes. ⌘D splits a pane to the right and ⌘⇧D splits it down, ⌘F searches any terminal or service log with an optional filter mode, and you can pick one of eight color themes, any installed monospace font, and a font size from 8 to 24. Each project remembers its own pane layout.
• Can I browse and edit files in lpm?

  Yes, lightly. The Files tab (⌘⇧E) shows the project's folder tree, ⌘P jumps to any file by name, and the editor has syntax highlighting and saves with ⌘S. Markdown renders GitHub-style and images preview inline. It is not an IDE, so Open with sends the project to Cursor, VS Code, Zed, or Xcode when you need one.
• Is lpm a good terminal for beginners on Mac?

  Yes. Beginners get a visual sidebar, one-click Start and Stop buttons, and services set up automatically for common frameworks like Rails, Next.js, Django, Flask, and Laravel. You never have to memorize which command starts which server: the Start menu lists every service by name, and your own commands become labelled buttons, while a full macOS terminal is still there when you want one.