Foot

What is it?

Foot is a terminal emulator for Wayland, written in C and tuned for low memory use and low latency. It does not aim to replace a multiplexer or provide tabs; instead it renders one terminal window very efficiently. A server mode lets multiple windows share a single process, and its configuration lives in a plain INI file.

Why use it?

Foot is ideal for tiling-window users on Wayland who already use tmux or a compositor's window management. It starts in milliseconds, uses a fraction of the memory of GPU terminals, and still supports modern features such as true color, hyperlinks, and font ligatures. On older or memory-constrained hardware, that difference is noticeable.

Key features

• Native Wayland client with no X11 dependency
• Server mode: one process backs many windows
• Low memory footprint and fast startup
• True color, OSC 8 hyperlinks, and sixel image support
• Client-side decorations via the [csd] config section
• Pipe- and scrollback search

How it compares

Against Alacritty and Kitty, Foot gives up GPU rendering and built-in tabs in exchange for a smaller footprint and tight Wayland integration. It only runs on Wayland, so X11 users need Alacritty, Kitty, or xterm. If your setup is Wayland plus tmux, Foot is often the leanest choice.