What is Hyper?
Hyper is a terminal emulator built on Electron, which makes it the unusual one in its category: the interface is HTML and CSS, the configuration file is JavaScript, and extensions are ordinary npm packages installed by name. If you already work in the JavaScript ecosystem, that means a terminal you can theme and extend with the tools you already use. If you do not, it means an Electron app where a native terminal would be smaller and faster. It is free and MIT licensed, and it was originally released by ZEIT — now Vercel — which is why the repository still carries the old company name in its bundle identifier. Development has effectively stalled: the last stable release is 3.4.1 from January 2023, and the 4.0 line has been in canary prerelease since then.
Verified product facts
- Type
- terminal emulatorEditorially reviewed
- Platform
- macOS
- Apple Silicon
- Yes
- Pricing
- Open sourceDeveloper-stated
- Open source
- Yes
- Developer
- VercelDeveloper-stated
- Relationship to Nuanyue
- Third-party product — not published by NuanyueEditorially reviewed
- Licence
- MIT
- Current version
- 3.4.1Developer-stated
- Official website
- hyper.is
Last updated . Facts marked developer-stated come from the developer and are not independently confirmed; editorially reviewed marks a Nuanyue judgement.
Key features
What Hyper does at a glance.
Built on Electron
So the terminal window is rendered with web technology rather than native drawing code
Configuration lives
In a JavaScript file at ~/.hyper.js, which is reloaded when it changes
Plugins are npm packages, installed by adding a name to the plugins array in the config
Themes are published as npm packages too, and the interface can be restyled with CSS
Split panes and tabs
With keyboard shortcuts for navigating between them
A hyper command-line helper
Opens a directory in Hyper or sends commands to a running session
Cross-platform
The same configuration and plugins work on macOS, Windows and Linux
Extensions API documented
On the project site for writing plugins
What you can use Hyper for
- Using one terminal configuration across macOS, Windows and Linux
- Theming a terminal with CSS rather than a bespoke theme format
- Installing terminal plugins the same way as any other npm dependency
- Keeping terminal configuration in a dotfiles repository as a JavaScript file
Who is Hyper for?
- Developers already working in the JavaScript and Node ecosystem
- People who want a terminal they can restyle with CSS and extend with npm packages
- Users who move between macOS, Windows and Linux and want the same setup on each
Who is Hyper not for?
- Anyone who needs a maintained terminal — the last stable release was in January 2023
- Users who want the fastest possible terminal, where Alacritty, Kitty or Ghostty are the GPU-accelerated options
- People on macOS 10.12 or earlier, since the app declares macOS 10.13
Limitations
- The last stable release is 3.4.1, published on 8 January 2023. The 4.0 line has only ever shipped as canary prereleases, so the project has had no stable update in over three years
- Being an Electron app, it is substantially heavier in memory and disk than a native or GPU-accelerated terminal
- The bundle identifier is still co.zeit.hyper and the app's copyright still reads ZEIT, Inc., the company's name before it became Vercel
- The entry's original github URL, github.com/zeit/hyper, now redirects to github.com/vercel/hyper
- Hyper is a general-purpose terminal with no GPU rendering path, so it does not match dedicated GPU terminals on throughput
Strengths and trade-offs
What Hyper does well, and what to weigh before choosing it. Points marked developer-stated come from the developer’s own material and have not been independently confirmed.
Strengths
- Free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, account or telemetry.
- Configured in JavaScript and extended with npm packages, which suits anyone already working in that ecosystem.Developer-stated
- The same configuration file and plugins work across macOS, Windows and Linux.Developer-stated
- Publishes separate Apple Silicon and Intel macOS builds, so neither kind of Mac runs it under translation.
- Themes are CSS, so the interface can be restyled without learning a bespoke theme format.Developer-stated
Trade-offs
- No stable release since version 3.4.1 in January 2023; only canary prereleases have shipped since.
- Electron-based, so it uses considerably more memory and disk than a native terminal emulator.Editorially reviewed
- No GPU rendering path, so it is slower than Alacritty, Kitty or Ghostty under heavy output.Editorially reviewed
- Still carries ZEIT branding in the app bundle, three years after the company renamed itself Vercel.
First-use experience
What the app asks of you when you set it up. Only established facts appear here; anything we could not confirm is left out rather than guessed at.
- Installation
- Download the disk image for your Mac from hyper.is or the GitHub releases page and drag Hyper into Applications. Apple Silicon and Intel builds are published separately.
- First launch Developer-stated
- Hyper writes a default configuration to ~/.hyper.js on first run. Editing that file — the plugins and theme arrays, the font settings, the shell — is how everything is configured, and the app reloads it when it changes.
- System integration Developer-stated
- Installs a `hyper` command-line helper that opens a directory in Hyper or sends a command to a running session, so it can be wired into other tools. It does not replace the system Terminal.app.
- Apple Silicon
- Supported
What it is
Hyper is a terminal emulator built on Electron. That single fact explains everything else about it: the window is rendered with web technology rather than native drawing code, the configuration file is JavaScript, extensions are npm packages, and themes are CSS. If you live in the Node ecosystem, it is a terminal that behaves like the rest of your toolchain. If you do not, it is an Electron application doing a job that native code does more cheaply.
It is free and MIT licensed, and it runs the same configuration on macOS, Windows and Linux, which is the argument for it if you move between platforms.
Configuration and extensions
Everything lives in ~/.hyper.js, created on first run. Plugins and themes go
into arrays in that file as package names, and Hyper reloads the config when it
changes, so there is no settings window to learn. That is a genuine convenience
if you already manage dotfiles as code and a genuine obstacle if you would
rather click through preferences.
The plugin API is documented on the project site, and because plugins are ordinary npm packages, publishing one is the same process as publishing any other package.
Maintenance status
This is the part to weigh before adopting it. The last stable release is 3.4.1, published on 8 January 2023. The 4.0 line exists only as canary prereleases, the most recent of which dates from July 2023, and no stable version has followed in over three years. The repository still receives commits, so the project is not formally abandoned, but it has not shipped a stable release in a long time.
The consequence for a terminal is practical rather than theoretical. Terminal emulators have to keep up with changes in macOS and in shell tooling, and a build that has not been updated since 2023 will eventually stop working well. Alacritty, Kitty and Ghostty are the alternatives that are actively developed, and they are also faster, because they render on the GPU where Hyper does not.
A note on the name
Hyper was released by ZEIT, which renamed itself Vercel in 2020. The 3.4.1 build
still carries the old branding: the bundle identifier is co.zeit.hyper and the
copyright line reads ZEIT, Inc. The entry’s original repository link,
github.com/zeit/hyper, now redirects to github.com/vercel/hyper.
The 3.4.1 release publishes separate Apple Silicon and Intel macOS builds, and the app declares macOS 10.13 High Sierra as its minimum.
Release history
Dated releases recorded for Hyper, newest first, each with the source it was read from.
3.4.1
Latest stable release, and the last one published. Separate Apple Silicon and Intel macOS builds were added on this line.
Source: Source repository
Questions about Hyper
Is Hyper free?
Yes. It is free and open source under the MIT licence, with no paid tier, account or telemetry.
Is Hyper still maintained?
Not in any practical sense. The last stable release is 3.4.1 from 8 January 2023. The 4.0 line has only ever been published as canary prereleases, and no stable version has followed in over three years, although the repository still receives commits.
How do I configure Hyper?
By editing ~/.hyper.js, which Hyper creates on first run. Plugins and themes are added to arrays in that file as npm package names, and the app reloads the configuration when it changes.Developer-stated
Which macOS version does Hyper need?
The 3.4.1 build declares macOS 10.13 High Sierra as its minimum. The product site does not state a requirement.
Does Hyper run natively on Apple Silicon?
Yes. The 3.4.1 release publishes a separate arm64 macOS build alongside an x64 one, so there is a native build for each architecture.
Why does the app say ZEIT, Inc.?
Because the app has not been rebuilt with new branding. Hyper was released by ZEIT, which renamed itself Vercel in 2020, and the 3.4.1 bundle still carries the old copyright line and the co.zeit.hyper identifier.Editorially reviewed
Competitors
Direct competitors: overlapping features aimed at the same users.
Alacritty
Minimal GPU-accelerated terminal emulator, still in beta.
Both are free terminal emulators, but Alacritty is a GPU-accelerated Rust binary while Hyper is Electron-based and configured in JavaScript.
Warp
Warp is a blazingly fast, rust-based terminal reimagined from the ground up to work like a modern app.
Both are modern terminals that break from the traditional emulator model, but Warp is a closed-source, account-based AI terminal while Hyper is free and open source.
Similar apps
Related in purpose, but not a straight swap.
iTerm2
Terminal emulator with split panes, search and shell integration.
Both are extensible terminal emulators for macOS, but Hyper is built on web technology and configured in JavaScript.
Works well with
Not a replacement — apps commonly used alongside this one.
Neovim
Vim fork with Lua configuration, LSP and tree-sitter built in.
Neovim runs inside a terminal emulator, so Hyper supplies the window, tabs, panes and scrollback that the editor itself does not provide.
Links
Sources
Facts on this page are checked against the sources below. Last updated .
- Hyper — official websiteGrade B
- Vercel — developer websiteGrade B
- Hyper — documentationGrade C
- Hyper — source repositoryGrade D
