What are the benefits of using Ghostty or iTerm2 compared to the built-in macOS Terminal?

If you're satisfied with the built-in Terminal, then sticking with it is totally fine. Sometimes, not knowing about all the features just means you're blissfully happy with what you have.

After years using iTerm2, I recently went back to the built-in terminal, and honestly, the only feature I really miss is the automatic copy feature. I do all my session management with tmux, so I don't really need the extra features of iTerm2. It feels a bit bloated to me now.

I switched to Ghostty after many years with the default Terminal. What sold me was the ability to quickly toggle the terminal with a key command, which speeds things up a lot in my workflow. I haven't even customized it yet, and it’s been really useful.

Alternative terminals give you way more customization options for both appearance and functionality. You can organize multiple panes and set up keybindings to navigate quickly, which really streamlines my workflow. I use WezTerm because I encountered some issues with Ghostty conflicting with my window manager. But Ghostty has some cool shader effects that are fun for personalizing your setup.

Honestly, the built-in Terminal works fine for a lot of people, and switching is not a necessity. But if you're looking for enhancements, iTerm2 and Ghostty provide some great features like better split panes, improved search capabilities, profiles, and clipboard history. Ghostty in particular feels quite snappy. It's not something you can't live without, but once you get used to the features, they can make your workflow easier. I only switched when I had multiple sessions and needed to do a lot of SSH work.