Open source terminal workspace with batteries included vs a local process dashboard
Official product sites
Zellij is an open source Rust terminal workspace and multiplexer. It runs inside an existing terminal and provides tabs, tiled and floating panes, stacked panes, named sessions, KDL layouts, command panes, a WebAssembly plugin system, session resurrection, and an optional authenticated web client. Zellij runs natively on Linux, macOS, and Windows.
Solo is a desktop workspace for local agents and project commands, with automatic self-exit and file-watch restart for commands, notifications, resource visibility, and shared configuration through solo.yml.
Choose Zellij for a terminal-first workspace. Choose Solo for a dedicated project-process dashboard.
Choose Zellij when the workspace should stay inside the terminal. Choose Solo when long-lived local commands should move into a separate process dashboard.
Solo fits best when agents, services, queues, and startup commands need restarts, monitoring, and notifications more than they need pane layouts.
Zellij fits best when you want tabs, floating and stacked panes, layouts, session resurrection, and browser access without leaving a terminal-first workflow.
| Feature | Solo | Zellij |
|---|---|---|
| Primary purpose | Local process dashboard for agents and project commands | Terminal workspace and multiplexer with layouts, panes, and sessions |
| Runs inside another terminal | — | Yes — inside your existing terminal, with optional browser access |
| Terminal-first workspace | Built-in terminals, but not pane-centric | Yes — tabs, tiled panes, floating panes, and stacked panes |
| Floating / stacked panes | — | Yes — both are built in |
| Session management | Project list while the app is open | Yes — built-in session manager, named sessions, and background sessions |
| Session resurrection | — | Restores layout and command panes; commands require confirmation by default |
| Browser access | — | Optional authenticated web client, disabled by default; HTTPS required beyond localhost |
| Version-controlled workspace config | solo.yml for shared project commands | KDL layouts for panes, tabs, commands, and plugins |
| Plugin system | — | Yes — WebAssembly plugins with a permissions model |
| Use your own local agents | Yes — any CLI agent as a managed process | Yes — any CLI agent can run inside panes or layouts |
| Auto-restart for project commands | Yes — self-exit and file-watch restarts with rate limiting | — |
| Process resource monitoring | Yes — CPU and memory per process | — |
| Process notifications | Yes — native desktop notifications, in-app toasts, OSC escape sequences | No dedicated process alert layer |
| Open source | — | Yes — MIT license |
| Price | Free (4 projects, 20 processes); Pro plan | Core app free and open source; optional hosted session-sharing service |
| Platform | macOS and Windows | Linux, macOS, and native Windows |
Solo is a native desktop app that gives you one dashboard for the commands a project needs running locally.
Zellij is a terminal workspace, not a terminal emulator. It sits inside your existing terminal and turns it into a structured environment for terminal work.
Solo uses solo.yml to describe the background commands a project needs.
Zellij automates the terminal workspace itself.
Solo is purpose-built for process supervision.
Zellij is excellent at organizing terminals, but it is not a process supervisor.
Solo and Zellij are complementary when you want both a terminal workspace and a process layer.
Zellij remains useful even if Solo owns the background environment layer.
Core Zellij is free and open source, with an optional hosted session-sharing service. Solo has a free tier plus a paid layer. They organize and supervise work differently.
Solo pricing lens
Solo has a free tier for up to 4 projects and 20 processes, with Pro above that.
Zellij pricing lens
Core Zellij is free under the MIT license. The maintainers also offer optional hosted session sharing.
Decision shortcut
Choose Zellij for pane organization, layouts, and session UX. Choose Solo for local process health and restart policies.
Zellij and Solo can run together because they organize different parts of the terminal and local process workflow.
Zellij is a strong open source terminal workspace for developers who want layouts, panes, sessions, browser access, and plugins while staying inside a terminal-first workflow. Solo does not compete with that model on pane management or session UX. Solo fills a different gap: dedicated local process supervision with auto-restart, file-watch restarts, resource monitoring, notifications, and team-shareable startup configuration. Choose Zellij when terminal structure is the problem. Choose Solo when local process health and visibility are the problem. Many developers can justify both.
Solo is a lightweight desktop terminal workspace for local agents, project commands, interactive terminals, and long-running services. It sits beside your editor, keeps your stack visible, and gives Claude Code, Codex, and the rest of your tools one shared local control surface.
Solo is built by Aaron Francis, creator of faster.dev and Database School, and VP of Marketing at Laravel. He built Solo after running Claude Code alongside his own dev stack and getting tired of juggling nine terminal tabs just to keep local agents, services, and project commands visible.
He is also a dad to two sets of twins, which tends to create a strong preference for software that reduces chaos instead of adding more of it. That is why Solo keeps showing up in these comparisons as the local workspace around your tools, not another editor or orchestrator trying to absorb the whole workflow.
Related comparisons
If you are evaluating Solo, Zellij, these are the closest next comparisons in the matrix.
The Free plan includes every feature, so you only need Pro after you outgrow four projects.
Team seats
Buy seats under one Stripe subscription, then share a claim link in Slack or email. Each claimant signs in or registers and receives a normal Solo Pro license. Optional auto-grow adds prorated seats automatically when the pool is full, so your team never hits a license wall.
Seats 1–3
$99/seat/yr
Seats 4–10
$89/seat/yr
Seats 11–50
$79/seat/yr
Seats 51+
$69/seat/yr
Brackets apply per seat — a 10-seat team pays $99 each for seats 1–3 and $89 each for seats 4–10.
Free for four projects on macOS and Windows.
Start with a terminal and add the programmable meta-harness when you need to coordinate agents with your local development stack.
“I can't live without it.”
