Wintty and Zellij: the differences
Zellij is a terminal workspace and multiplexer with layouts, floating panes and plugins. Wintty is a Windows terminal built on the Ghostty core, and its Pro tier puts sessions and the pane tree in a per-user daemon. Both keep a session when a client detaches. This page is about what each one keeps, what it rebuilds, and where Zellij is the better choice.
The short version
| Topic | Wintty | Zellij |
|---|---|---|
| Sessions after you close the app | Pro: sessions run in winttyd, a per-user daemon. Close the app, or take an update that leaves the daemon alone, and the programs keep running; reattach with layout and scrollback. | A session runs in a Zellij server. Detach and attach from another terminal; the FAQ says sessions persist across Zellij upgrades. |
| After the session ends | A reboot ends the sessions. The daemon starts at logon with nothing running; nothing is resurrected. | Session resurrection serializes the layout and the command in each pane, then re-runs the commands behind a Press ENTER banner. Viewport and scrollback serialization are opt-in. |
| Panes | Pro: the pane tree belongs to the session. Another window can attach and take it over. | Tabs, splits, floating panes, layouts, a layout manager and a session manager. |
| Remote sessions | No remote attach. The daemon answers a named pipe on your machine, and winttyc can stream a session's output. | A built-in web client, attach over HTTPS, and read-only sharing tokens. |
| Windows support | Native WinUI 3 shell with a DirectX 12 renderer. Pro Legacy adds a DirectX 11 renderer for machines without DirectX 12. | Native Windows support since 0.44.0, using ConPTY and named pipes. Releases ship a Windows zip and MSI. |
| Cost | MIT source, free to build. Signed builds come with sponsorship, and Pro, the tier with sessions and the multiplexer, is paid. | Free and open source under the MIT license. |
Sessions and persistence
Zellij runs each session in a server. zellij attach connects to a session that is already running, zellij list-sessions lists them, and 0.44.0 added a zellij detach CLI action. The FAQ says sessions persist across Zellij version upgrades: the client and server use a versioned contract, and on Windows the IPC uses named pipes. Sessions can also be created in the background with --create-background, as the commands reference describes.
Zellij also has a second mechanism for the case where the session has ended. Session resurrection serializes the layout and the command running in each pane every second. Attaching to an exited session recreates the layout and re-runs those commands behind a "Press ENTER to run..." banner. Pane viewport and scrollback are only serialized when pane_viewport_serialization is enabled, and scrollback_lines_to_serialize sets how much. The new processes start from the beginning; the program state from before the exit is not carried over.
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. The persistent sessions docs describe the lifecycle and the winttyc command line. A Windows reboot ends the sessions in Wintty, and nothing rebuilds them. After a Zellij session quits or crashes, Zellij can rebuild the layout and re-run the commands.
Multiplexing and panes
Zellij's workspace model is broader than Wintty's. It has tabs, splits, floating panes, layout files, a layout manager and a session manager, and its plugins can add interfaces inside the session. The 0.44.0 release notes added a terminal-to-terminal attach over HTTPS, read-only session sharing, and expanded CLI actions. It is a workspace that runs on top of a terminal.
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.
Zellij gives you more pane types, layouts, plugins and remote sharing. Wintty gives you a native Windows terminal where the session tree is part of the window management rather than a full-screen workspace inside it. If you want the same workspace on Linux, macOS and Windows, Zellij is the closer fit.
Platform and native Windows integration
Zellij 0.44.0, released on 23 March 2026, added native Windows support. The 0.44.1 patch release lists fixes for the new Windows port, and every release since 0.44.0 ships a Windows zip and an MSI. The FAQ states the Windows details: named pipes instead of Unix domain sockets, ConPTY instead of Unix PTYs, and a web server that works on Windows, including the --daemonize flag. The installation page publishes a Windows binary that runs from PowerShell or Windows Terminal.
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.
Licensing and price
Zellij is free and open source under the MIT license. The repository carries the source and license, and the release notes ask for donations rather than charging for the tool.
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 Zellij is the better choice
Zellij is the better choice when the workspace matters more than the window. It runs on Linux, macOS and Windows, it is free, and it has layouts, floating panes, plugins, a web client and remote attach. Session resurrection also gives you a way back after a quit or a crash: the layout returns and the commands are queued behind a confirmation, even though the original processes are gone.
Wintty is the better choice when you want the session to be part of a native Windows terminal. The daemon keeps the programs themselves through closing the app and through updates that leave the daemon alone, the pane tree moves between windows, and the terminal uses WinUI 3 and DirectX 12. If you need a shared workspace across operating systems, or a plugin ecosystem inside the multiplexer, Zellij already does that.
Other comparisons
- Wintty vs Windows Terminal
- Wintty vs WezTerm
- Wintty vs psmux
- Wintty vs Warp
- 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.
Built on Ghostty
Wintty is built on the Ghostty terminal core. It is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, the Ghostty project. We are big fans of Ghostty and hope much of Wintty's work becomes part of an official Ghostty for Windows someday.