iTerm2 vs Sublime Text
The ultimate side-by-side head-to-head analysis for 2026.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — iTerm2 is free, Sublime Text is pricing not verified.
- How to start: iTerm2 is free, Sublime Text is pricing not verified.
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. We do not publish a quality score, because we do not have one we can stand behind. They cannot tell you which tool fits your workflow — the sections below are there for that. How we score tools.
iTerm2
Sublime Text
Category
Developer Tools
Developer Tools
Base Price
Free
Not verified
Public API
No
Yes
Mobile app
No
No
Open source / self-hostable
Yes
No
SSO (SAML)
No
No
Choose iTerm2 if:
Mac users who spend real time in a terminal.
Choose Sublime Text if:
Developers who value raw speed over an integrated environment.
iTerm2: pros & cons
- Free and mature
- Split panes and session restore
- Deeply configurable
- macOS only
- Configuration surface is large
- Interface is functional rather than modern
Sublime Text: pros & cons
- Extremely fast, even on huge files
- Multiple cursors and powerful search
- One-off licence with an indefinite trial
- Smaller extension ecosystem than VS Code
- Language support needs configuration
- Development pace is slow
Our verdict on iTerm2
The long-standing default on macOS, and still free. Newer terminals win on polish, not capability.
Our verdict on Sublime Text
Still unmatched for opening a gigabyte log file. As a daily IDE, it has been overtaken.