What can Neovim/Vim's :terminal do that tmux can't?

Question

I've been using tmux for a while, and recently tried :term in Neovim for a few days.

Aside from some small trivial differences, it seems mostly the same to me? What is the advantage of using :term? What can I do with it that I can't do with tmux.

Answer 1

This is obviously an opiniated question. Here's my opinion.

Advantages of neovim (or Vim) terminal:

• Normal mode gives the power of Vim inside a terminal window
• Can use vimscript to customize mappings and commands

Advantages of tmux:

• Allows persistent sessions
  • IMHO this is the most important aspect of tmux, because:
  • It allows to detach a session, then leave the computer, log on from a different computer and continue the session from where we left it
  • It also helps when working through bad network connections, since one may always reconnect to the tmux session if the network connection is lost
• Fits better into a workflow where Vim is only one of many useful tools. I often use tmux even if I don't work with text editing at all.