Wintty and Warp: the differences

Warp is a terminal with an agent and a Block-based command model, available on macOS, Windows and Linux. Wintty is a Windows terminal built on the Ghostty core, and its Pro tier keeps sessions and the pane tree in a per-user daemon. Both restore a workspace when you relaunch. Warp brings back the arrangement and recent Blocks; Wintty keeps the programs running. This page covers that difference, and where Warp is the better choice.

The short version

Sessions and persistence

Warp calls its feature session restoration. It is enabled by default: Warp records the previous session's windows, tabs, panes and recent Blocks in a SQLite database on the machine, and overwrites that data when you quit. The session restoration docs say it restores windows, tabs, panes and recent Blocks when you relaunch Warp, and the sessions overview says it preserves windows, tabs and panes across restarts. The docs describe the arrangement and the Block history. They do not describe the programs continuing to run.

Wintty keeps the programs. Pro sessions run in winttyd, which starts at logon through a Scheduled Task and holds the session's programs, pane layout and scrollback. Close the app or install an update that does not change the daemon, and the same processes continue. Reopen Wintty and the sessions come back with their programs and layout. The persistent sessions docs describe the lifecycle, the picker and the winttyc command line. A Windows reboot ends the sessions; the daemon starts at logon with nothing running.

They restore different things. Warp restores a workspace and a searchable record of what ran in it. Wintty restores the running programs themselves, which the daemon makes possible. Persistent sessions are a Pro feature.

Multiplexing and panes

Warp organizes work into windows, tabs and panes, and session restoration brings that arrangement back at launch. Its Blocks are the other unit: every command and its output form one block that can be copied, searched and filtered on its own. The input line is a real text editor, with autosuggestions and completions. Those features are part of the terminal rather than a separate multiplexer.

Wintty's multiplexer is the session tree. Every tab and split of a persistent session lives in that session's pane tree, and the daemon stores one authoritative copy. Open the sessions picker in another window, confirm the takeover, and the session moves with its splits, sizes and scrollback. A session carries up to 64 tabs, and a tab up to 64 panes. The multiplexer docs also state the limits: there is no status line, there is no remote attach, and splits and resizes are GUI actions rather than command-line verbs.

Warp's pane model is the more conventional one. Wintty's is built around moving a whole session between windows. If you want a session that survives closing the app with its programs intact, that difference is the point. If you want each command grouped with its output, Warp's Blocks are the feature Wintty does not have.

Platform and native Windows integration

Warp supports macOS, Windows on x64 and ARM64, and Linux on x64 and ARM64. The installation docs list the Windows download and note that PowerShell is a supported shell alongside bash, fish and zsh. The same page asks for Windows 10 version 1903 or later for ConPTY, and installs Warp with its installer or winget install Warp.Warp. Warp needs an internet connection on first launch; an account is optional.

Wintty is a WinUI 3 application written in C# that wraps libghostty.dll through P/Invoke. Tabs and splits are native WinUI 3 components, and the window can use Mica and Acrylic. Rendering goes through DirectX 12, and the standard renderer requires feature level 12_0. Pro Legacy is cut from a snapshot of Pro about six months behind and built against DirectX 11 with WARP, for machines and Remote Desktop sessions where the DirectX 12 renderer cannot run. It is tested on Windows 11; Windows 10 is untested. Wintty runs on Windows only.

Agents

Warp's agent is part of the product. The quickstart describes Agent Mode, a conversation view with the Warp Agent, which the docs home says investigates issues, edits code and runs commands. Warp also works with third-party CLI agents such as Claude Code and Codex, and runs cloud agents in the background. The free plan includes the core terminal features, with agent usage at pay-as-you-go rates; the paid plans include a monthly amount of agent usage.

Wintty's agent feature is detection. Pro recognises coding agents and repository hosts and labels tabs and project icons accordingly. The agent itself runs as a program in a pane, the way any other shell tool does.

Licensing and price

Warp has a free tier for the core terminal. The pricing page lists paid Build, Max, Business and Enterprise plans, with Build at $18 per month on the annual plan and Business at $50 per user per month, or $45 per user per month billed annually. The client source is open source: the UI crates are MIT and the rest of the repository is AGPL v3, as the repository states.

Wintty's source is MIT licensed and free to build. A sponsorship gets a signed, self-updating build, and Pro adds the paid feature set that includes persistent sessions and the multiplexer. Pro Enterprise is arranged directly and adds the per-machine MSI. Pro Legacy is included with Pro. The tiers page lists what each one carries.

Where Warp is the better choice

Warp is the better choice if you want an agent in the terminal. Agent Mode, the built-in Warp Agent and support for third-party CLI agents are the core of that, and the free tier lets you use the terminal without paying for them. Blocks are the other reason: grouping a command with its output is a different way to read a session, and it is useful when you are scanning what ran.

Warp is also the better choice if you work across macOS, Windows and Linux. One product covers all three, with Windows builds for x64 and ARM64. Wintty is Windows only, and its reason to exist is the native Windows app: WinUI 3 components, DirectX 12 rendering, and a session daemon that keeps the programs running after the window closes. If neither the agent nor the cross-platform story matters to you, the comparison comes down to whether you want the daemon or the Block history.

Other comparisons

• Wintty vs Windows Terminal
• Wintty vs WezTerm
• Wintty vs Zellij
• Wintty vs psmux
• tmux on Windows
• Persistent sessions
• Terminal multiplexer

Getting Wintty

The tier split behind the table's Pro labels: persistent sessions and the multiplexer are Pro features, Pro Enterprise adds the MSI, and Pro Legacy adds the DirectX 11 renderer. The tiers page compares them all.

Signed installers are a thank you for sponsors, and building from source stays free. The download page lists both.