Highwind vs tmux
Mac app vs terminal multiplexer
Quick summary
tmux is the free terminal multiplexer: panes, windows and sessions that keep running when you detach. Restart scripts and session restore are possible with hooks and third-party plugins.
Highwind gives you panes too, but knows what runs in them: services with ports and required services, agents with sessions to resume, and browser panes. It restarts crashed services and starts everything again when it opens.
Choose tmux for a scriptable terminal that works over SSH everywhere. Choose Highwind on your Mac if you want servers, agents and the browser managed for you.
Who should choose Highwind, and who should choose tmux?
Choose Highwind if
- You want crash restarts and start order without writing hooks.
- You want agents to resume their conversations after a reboot.
- You want a browser pane next to your logs.
Choose tmux if
- You work over SSH or on Linux servers.
- You want a free, scriptable tool that runs everywhere.
- You want processes that survive closing your terminal.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Highwind | Tmux |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A Mac app for dev servers, CLI agents, browsers and phone simulators, grouped by project | A terminal multiplexer |
| Runs your dev servers | Each service has a command, a folder and a port | Any command in a pane |
| Restarts a server when it crashes | Per service, up to 3 attempts, 2 seconds apart | Possible with remain-on-exit, respawn-pane and hooks |
| Starts the services a server needs first | Starts each required service and waits until its port accepts connections | No start order |
| CLI agents from several vendors | Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, Copilot and pi, plus any CLI added with a JSON file | Any CLI in a pane |
| Agent conversations resume after a restart | Each agent pane resumes its own session at launch | Sessions survive a detach, not a reboot |
| Servers run again after you quit or reboot | Services that were running start again at the next launch, agents resume and browser tabs reopen. Launch at login is optional | Only with third-party plugins that rerun a short list of programs |
| Built-in browser with DevTools | WebKit pane with the Chrome DevTools frontend beside the page | No browser |
| Agents can use the built-in browser | 21 browser tools over MCP, with an approval policy per action | No browser |
| Phone simulator or emulator in a pane | iOS simulator, Android emulator or Android phone in a pane. No physical iPhones. Needs Xcode tools or the Android SDK installed | No |
| Agents can use the simulator or emulator | 13 device tools over MCP: tap, swipe, type, screenshot, UI tree, logs and crash reports | No |
| MCP server that controls the app | More than 70 tools for services, logs, views, tasks, the browser and devices. Off until you turn it on | No MCP server |
| Shell commands as buttons | Per project, run in their own pane | Key bindings and scripts |
| Split panes | Views with split panes, layout presets and floating windows | Panes and windows |
| Task board | Kanban board per workspace that agents can read and update | No task board |
| Git worktrees and diff review | No worktree management or diff view | No |
| Code editor | Plain text editor and sidebar, no syntax highlighting | No |
| Configuration as plain files | Plain files in a .highwind folder | .tmux.conf |
| Built with | Native Swift | C, open source (ISC) |
| No account needed | No account | No account |
| Platforms | macOS 14 and later | macOS, Linux, BSD |
| Price | Free during the public beta | Free |
“Not documented” means we found no mention of it in tmux’s documentation.
Restoring a tmux session after a reboot
tmux sessions survive a detach but not a server restart or reboot. The tmux-resurrect and tmux-continuum plugins save and restore layouts, and rerun only a conservative list of programs, which does not include dev servers by default.
Highwind starts the services that were running again at launch, resumes agent conversations and reopens browser tabs.
Frequently asked questions
Is Highwind a tmux replacement?
For local development on a Mac, it can be. For remote servers and SSH, no: Highwind is a Mac app.
Does Highwind use tmux?
No. Highwind runs each process in its own terminal and supervises it directly.
Try Highwind
A native Mac app for your dev servers, CLI agents and browser panes. Requires macOS 14 or later.
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Last reviewed November 2, 2026. Product features and prices change; tell us on the contact page if something here is out of date.