In this article, a novel fractional‐order recursive integral terminal sliding mode (FORITSM) control is proposed for nonlinear systems in the presence of external disturbances with unknown bounds. The proposed control approach provides an easy‐to implement solution capable of zeroing the sliding variable in a finite‐time (FnT) by adding a fractional‐order command filter. Moreover, the reaching phase is eliminated, and FnT convergence of the system states is proved. The proposed technique has also a chattering alleviation property, which is beneficial for practical cases, as the control of quadrotor UAVs presented in the article. Finally, a simulation case study on a quadrotor system is illustrated to show the effectiveness of the proposed FORITSM control, also with respect to classical methods.