The short answer. Muxbar is the tmux manager: list, attach, kill sessions, preview them, all from the menu bar, with a mode that keeps a session alive with the lid closed. Command Book is the companion for long-running commands, which is a different problem — knowing that something is still running and where its output went. Tabby is the full terminal with tabs, profiles and a plugin system, which is the “one window for everything” answer. Wave is the terminal with file previews, a browser and AI tools built in, which is the “less switching” answer. The dividing question is whether the session lives in tmux or in a terminal window, because a manager for tmux is a small tool over a large system and a terminal with tabs is a replacement for the system.
This guide covers 4 terminal session managers for macOS. Every fact below is drawn from the same verified records that back each app’s own page. The recommendations are our editorial judgment, not payment.
Quick comparison
| App | What it is | Pricing | Licence | Version |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Command Book | terminal utility | not published | not published | 1.0 |
| muxbar | system tool | Open source | MIT | 0.3.2 |
| Tabby (formerly Terminus) | developer tool | Open source | MIT | 1.0.237 |
| Wave | developer tool | Open source | Apache-2.0 | 0.14.5 |
What actually decides this
- tmux or a terminal window. A tmux manager assumes tmux is already the substrate and gives you a view of it. A terminal app is the substrate. Installing both is normal and they do not overlap in function.
- What survives a closed lid. A session on a remote host survives anything. A local tmux session survives the terminal app closing and not the machine sleeping. A manager that advertises closed-lid work is making a claim about power management, which is worth verifying.
- How you find the session you want. A list of names is fine for three sessions and useless for twenty. Live preview, last-output time and a search field are what make a manager faster than switching to the terminal and running a command.
- What the terminal adds beyond the shell. Split panes, profiles, a file preview, a browser and an AI panel are additions to a terminal. Each one is a reason to stay in the window and a reason the app is heavier than Terminal.app.
- Whether the scrollback is searchable. The reason to keep a session is the output in it. A terminal that can search its scrollback and a manager that can show the last lines of a session are solving the same problem from opposite ends.
Our picks
- muxbar — Its record describes tmux session management with live preview and a closed-lid mode, which is the tmux case. Choose it when tmux is already your substrate and you want a menu bar view of it.
- Command Book — Its record describes a terminal companion for long-running commands, which is the long-command case. Choose it when the problem is knowing whether a long command is still running.
- Tabby (formerly Terminus) — Its record describes a free terminal tool built with TypeScript, which is the full-terminal case. Choose it when you want one terminal window with tabs, profiles and plugins.
- Wave — Its record describes a terminal with built-in file previews, web browsing and AI tools, which is the integrated case. Choose it when you want previews, a browser and AI tools inside the terminal.
The apps
Command Book
Command Book is a terminal utility for macOS. A terminal companion for long-running terminal commands (freemium). Its pricing is not published.
What it does. Command Book - Manage Long-Running Terminal Commands with a Native macOS App.
Command Book is listed with current version 1.0.
Full profile and verified facts for Command Book →
muxbar
muxbar is a system tool for macOS. Menu bar app for tmux session management — list, attach, kill sessions, live preview, and a closed-lid mode for in-bag work. It is released under MIT.
What it does. Session list — All tmux sessions at a glance, sorted by attached first and creation date (latest first within each group). Attach — Open the selected session in Terminal.app / iTerm2 / Warp / Alacritty / kitty. Kill — Drop a session from the menu. Live Preview — Click a session row or pick “Preview” to see recent output (ANSI-rendered via SwiftTerm).
muxbar is listed with current version 0.3.2.
Full profile and verified facts for muxbar →
Tabby (formerly Terminus)
Tabby (formerly Terminus) is a developer tool for macOS. Free terminal tool, built with TypeScript, heavily inspired by Hyper. It is released under MIT.
What it does. A VT220 terminal + various extensions. Multiple nested split panes. Tabs on any side of the window. Optional dockable window with a global spawn hotkey (“Quake console”).
Tabby (formerly Terminus) is listed with current version 1.0.237.
Full profile and verified facts for Tabby (formerly Terminus) →
Wave
Wave is a developer tool for macOS. Open-source terminal with built-in file previews, web browsing, and AI tools. It is released under Apache-2.0.
What it does. Wave AI - Context-aware terminal assistant that reads your terminal output, analyzes widgets, and performs file operations. Durable SSH Sessions - Remote terminal sessions survive connection interruptions, network changes, and Wave restarts with automatic reconnection. Flexible drag & drop interface to organize terminal blocks, editors, web browsers, and AI assistants. Built-in editor for editing remote files with syntax highlighting and modern editor features.
Wave is listed with current version 0.14.5.
Full profile and verified facts for Wave →
How to choose
- No licence fee, source available. muxbar, Tabby (formerly Terminus) and Wave — the source can be read and, under the terms of each licence, reused.
- Pricing not published in our data. Command Book — check the developer’s own site before assuming anything about cost.
Open source: muxbar, Tabby (formerly Terminus) and Wave (3 of 4).
Common mistakes
- Managing tmux sessions from an app on a machine that sleeps, and expecting them to survive.
- Opening twenty sessions and relying on a list of names to tell them apart.
- Replacing a terminal for one feature and losing the keyboard behaviour you had learned.
- Assuming scrollback is a record. It is a buffer with a limit.
How this guide was put together
Each app’s facts come from its own record: the developer’s own pages and repository, the App Store listing where one exists, and the documentation, each with a source grade and an access date. Where a fact rests on the developer’s own statement rather than on something we verified independently, the sentence says so. Where our data has no value for something, the guide says “not published” instead of guessing.
A price appears here only where the record carries one from a stated source; the guide never estimates one, and it records the pricing model alongside so the two can be read together. Prices change and vary by region, so each app links to its own page for the current detail.
The facts and the recommendations are kept apart on purpose. Everything in the app entries, the comparison table and the answers above is composed from the records. The short answer, the criteria and the picks are our editorial judgment: they reflect what we would choose and why, and they are not paid for. Where we make a recommendation we name the condition it applies under, because we do not call anything “the best” without explaining the criteria.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I choose between these terminal session managers?
There is no single answer — it depends on what you need. This guide covers 4 terminal session managers: Command Book, muxbar, Tabby (formerly Terminus) and Wave. They differ mainly in pricing model, licence and the trade-offs each one carries. Pick by the trade-off you care about rather than by rank.
Are these terminal session managers free?
Pricing across this group: not published (Command Book) and open source (muxbar, Tabby (formerly Terminus) and Wave). Where we list pricing as not published, the developer does not state a model we could verify — check their own site before assuming anything about cost. We quote a price only where the record carries one from a stated source, and we never estimate one. Prices change and vary by region and by store, so always check the developer’s own page for the current figure.
Which of these terminal session managers are open source?
muxbar (MIT), Tabby (formerly Terminus) (MIT) and Wave (Apache-2.0) are open source.
Do these terminal session managers support Apple Silicon?
Our data does not carry an explicit Apple Silicon statement for any app in this group, so we do not claim one. The absence of a statement is not the same as the absence of support.
How do I choose between them?
Start with how you pay: the guide groups these apps by pricing model, because the budget is the constraint most people actually have. Then check the trade-offs listed for each app: the limitations are the part that decides most people’s choice, because they describe what the app will not do for you.
