Comparison of SSH clients

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Comparison of SSH clients

An SSH client is a software program which uses the secure shell

Secure Shell

Secure Shell or SSH is a network protocol that allows data to be exchanged using a secure channel between two networked devices. Used primarily on Linux and Unix based systems to access shell accounts, SSH was designed as a replacement for TELNET and other Computer security remote Shell s, which send information, notably passwords, in...
protocol to connect to a remote computer

Server (computing)

A server is a computer program that provides services to other computer programs , in the same or other computer. The physical computer that runs a server program is also often referred to as server....
. This article compares a selection of popular clients.

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Encyclopedia

An SSH client is a software program which uses the secure shell

Secure Shell

Server (computing)

General

Name

Developer	Status	Based on	License	Source Source code In computer science, source code is any collection of statements or declarations written in some human-readable computer programming language.... available
		1996
cURL Curl In vector calculus in three-dimensional space, curl is a vector operator that shows a vector field's "rotation"; that is, the direction of the axis of rotation and the magnitude of the rotation....	Daniel Stenberg	January, 1997	libssh2	MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , used by the MIT X Consortium.It is a Permissive_free_software_licence license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software on the condition that the license is distributed with that software....
eSSH Client ESSH Client eSSH Client is a multi task client that supports many different protocols, such as Secure Shell, FTP over SSH, FTP, FTPS, Secure copy, and RExec....		July, 2002
Dropbear Dropbear (software) Dropbear is a software package written by Matt Johnston that provides a Secure Shell-compatible server and client. It is designed for environments with low memory and processor resources, such as embedded systems....	Matt Johnston	January, 2005		MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , used by the MIT X Consortium.It is a Permissive_free_software_licence license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software on the condition that the license is distributed with that software....
IVT	BearStar Software	1998	PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols.... (for SSH-implementation)
lsh Lsh lsh is a free software implementation of the Secure Shell Protocol version 2, by the GNU project including both Server and Client programs. Featuring Secure remote password protocol as specified in secsh-srp besides, public-key authentication....	Niels Möller	May 23, 1999 (0.1)		GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
OpenSSH OpenSSH OpenSSH is a set of computer programs providing encryption communication sessions over a computer network using the Secure Shell protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security....	The OpenBSD OpenBSD OpenBSD is a Unix-like computer operating system descended from Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix derivative developed at the University of California, Berkeley.... project	December 1, 1999	ossh	BSD BSD licenses BSD licenses represent a family of permissive free software licence. The original was used for the Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix-like operating system for which the license is named....
PenguiNet PenguiNet PenguiNet is a Telnet, Secure Shell and Secure Copy client for Microsoft Windows developed by .In contrast to PuTTY, PenguiNet is a Proprietary software....		April 7, 2000	N/A
PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....	Simon Tatham Simon Tatham Simon Tatham is an English programmer known primarily for creating and maintaining PuTTY, a free software implementation of Telnet and Secure Shell clients for Win32 and Unix platforms, along with an xterm terminal emulator....	January 1999		MIT MIT License The MIT License is a free software license originating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , used by the MIT X Consortium.It is a Permissive_free_software_licence license, meaning that it permits reuse within proprietary software on the condition that the license is distributed with that software....
SFTPPlus SFTPPlus SFTPPlus is a commercial Secure Shell Server and Client with additional audit and automation functions in order to meet regulatory and corporate compliance requirements....	Pro:Atria Ltd	2005	OpenSSH/PuTTY
		July 1995
SunSSH		2001	OpenSSH 2.3	OpenSolaris License OpenSolaris File:Opensolaris-screenshot-2008-05.pngOpenSolaris is an open source operating system based on Sun Microsystems' Solaris . It is also the name of the project initiated by Sun to build a developer and user community around it....
Tera Term Tera Term Tera Term is an open source free software terminal emulator for Microsoft Windows, originally developed by Ayera Technologies. It emulates different types of terminals, from VT100 to VT382; it supports telnet, Secure Shell 1 & 2 and serial port connections....	TeraTerm Project	2004	TeraTerm 2.3 (1994-1998)	BSD BSD licenses BSD licenses represent a family of permissive free software licence. The original was used for the Berkeley Software Distribution , a Unix-like operating system for which the license is named....
WinSCP WinSCP WinSCP is an open source SSH file transfer protocol and File Transfer Protocol client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer....	Martin Prikryl	2000	PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....	GPL GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License is a widely used free software license, originally written by Richard Stallman for the GNU project. The GPL is the most popular and well-known example of the type of strong copyleft license that requires derived works to be available under the same copyleft....
XShell		?

Platform

The operating system

Operating system

An operating system is an interface between hardware and applications; it is responsible for the management and coordination of activities and the sharing of the limited resources of the computer....
s or virtual machine

Virtual machine

In computer science, a virtual machine is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a real machine.Definitions...
s the ssh clients are designed to run on without emulation; there are several possibilities:

No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.

Partial indicates that while it works, the client lacks important functionality compared to versions for other OSs but may still be under development.

Beta indicates that while a version is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).

Yes indicates that it has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.

Dropped indicates that while the client works, new versions are no longer being released for the indicated OS; the number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.

Included indicates that the client comes pre-packaged with or has been integrated into the operating system.

The list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common platforms today.

Name	Mac OS X Mac OS X Mac OS X is a line of computer operating systems developed, marketed, and sold by Apple Inc., and since 2002 has been included with all new Macintosh computer systems....	Mac OS Classic Mac OS Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. for their Macintosh line of computer systems....	Windows Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces ....	Cygwin Cygwin Cygwin is a Unix-like environment and command-line interface for Microsoft Windows. Cygwin provides native integration of Windows-based applications, data, and other system resources with applications, software tools, and data of the Unix-like environment....	BSD	Linux Linux Linux is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed by anyone under the terms of the GNU GPL license...	Solaris	Palm OS Palm OS Palm OS is an embedded operating system operating system initially developed by U.S. Robotics Corp.-owned Palm, Inc. for personal digital assistants in 1996....	Java	OpenVMS OpenVMS OpenVMS , previously known as VAX-11/VMS, VAX/VMS or VMS, is the name of a high-end computer server operating system that runs on the VAX and DEC Alpha families of computers, developed by Digital Equipment Corporation of Maynard, Massachusetts, Massachusetts , and most recently on Hewlett-Packard systems built around the In...	Windows Mobile Windows Mobile Windows Mobile is a compact operating system combined with a suite of basic applications for mobile devices based on the Microsoft Windows API application programming interface....	IBM z/OS Z/OS z/OS is a 64-bit operating system for mainframe computers, created by IBM. It is the successor to OS/390, which in turn followed MVS and combined a number of formerly separate, related products....	AmigaOS AmigaOS AmigaOS is the default native operating system of the Amiga personal computer. It was developed first by Commodore International, and initially introduced in 1985 with the Amiga 1000....	AIX AIX AIX AIX is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:Air India Express, the budget arm of Air IndiaAthens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point...	HPUX	iPhone IPhone The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface.... / iPod Touch IPod touch The iPod Touch is a portable media player and Wi-Fi mobile platform designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The product was launched on September 5, 2007 at an event called The Beat Goes On....

Dropbear Dropbear (software) Dropbear is a software package written by Matt Johnston that provides a Secure Shell-compatible server and client. It is designed for environments with low memory and processor resources, such as embedded systems....
eSSH Client ESSH Client eSSH Client is a multi task client that supports many different protocols, such as Secure Shell, FTP over SSH, FTP, FTPS, Secure copy, and RExec....
IVT
JTA Java Transaction API The Java Transaction API is one of the Java EE Application programming interfaces allowing distributed transactions to be done across multiple X/Open XA resources....
lsh Lsh lsh is a free software implementation of the Secure Shell Protocol version 2, by the GNU project including both Server and Client programs. Featuring Secure remote password protocol as specified in secsh-srp besides, public-key authentication....
OpenSSH OpenSSH OpenSSH is a set of computer programs providing encryption communication sessions over a computer network using the Secure Shell protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security....
PenguiNet PenguiNet PenguiNet is a Telnet, Secure Shell and Secure Copy client for Microsoft Windows developed by .In contrast to PuTTY, PenguiNet is a Proprietary software....
PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....
SFTPPlus SFTPPlus SFTPPlus is a commercial Secure Shell Server and Client with additional audit and automation functions in order to meet regulatory and corporate compliance requirements....
SSH Tectia
Tera Term Tera Term Tera Term is an open source free software terminal emulator for Microsoft Windows, originally developed by Ayera Technologies. It emulates different types of terminals, from VT100 to VT382; it supports telnet, Secure Shell 1 & 2 and serial port connections....
WinSCP WinSCP WinSCP is an open source SSH file transfer protocol and File Transfer Protocol client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer....
XShell

lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD
FreeBSD

FreeBSD is a Unix-like free software operating system descended from AT&T Unix via the Berkeley Software Distribution branch through the 386BSD and Berkeley Software Distribution#4.4BSD and descendants operating systems....
.
The majority of Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.
Openssh 3.4 was the first release included since AIX
AIX

AIX AIX is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:*Air India Express, the budget arm of Air India*Athens Internet Exchange, a European Internet exchange point...
Unless otherwise noted, iPhone refers to non-jailbroken
IPhone

The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface....
devices.
Only for jailbroken
IPhone

The iPhone is an internet-connected multimedia smartphone designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a flush multi-touch screen and a minimal hardware interface....
devices.

Technical

Name	User interface User interface The user interface is the aggregate of means by which people—the User s—Interaction with the system—a particular machine, device, computer program or other complex tools....	SSH1	SSH2	Additional protocols		Tunneling Tunneling protocol The term tunneling protocol is used to describe when one network protocol called the payload protocol is encapsulation within a different delivery protocol....			Session Multiplexing	Kerberos	IPv6
Name		SSH1	SSH2	TELNET TELNET Telnet is a network protocol used on the Internet or Local Area Network connections. It was developed in 1969 beginning with RFC 15 and standardized as Internet Engineering Task Force STD 8, one of the first Internet standards....	rlogin Rlogin rlogin is a software utility for Unix-like computer operating systems that allows users to log in on another Server via a computer network, communicating via Transmission Control Protocol TCP and UDP port 513....	Port forwarding Port forwarding Port forwarding, sometimes referred to as port mapping, is the act of packet forwarding a TCP and UDP port from one Node to another. This technique can allow an external user to reach a port on a private IP address from the outside via a Network address translation-enabled router....	SOCKS SOCKS SOCKS is an Internet Protocol that facilitates the routing of Packet between client-server applications via a proxy server. SOCKS is an abbreviation for "Secured Over Credential-based Kerberos Services." SOCKS performs at Layer 5 of the OSI model - the Session layer ....	VPN Virtual private network VPN which stands for Virtual Private Networks are used as secure extranets and Internets . It protects its network by using encryption, firewalls and other security strategies....	Session Multiplexing	Kerberos	IPv6	Terminal Terminal emulator A terminal emulator, terminal application, term, or tty for short, is a program that emulates a "dumb" video Computer terminal within some other display architecture....	SFTP SSH file transfer protocol In computing, the SSH File Transfer Protocol is a network protocol that provides file transfer and manipulation functionality over any reliable data stream.... /SCP Secure copy Secure Copy or SCP is a means of securely transferring computer files between a local and a remote Server or between two remote hosts, using the Secure Shell protocol....
	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... (multi-session, single-window)
Dropbear Dropbear (software) Dropbear is a software package written by Matt Johnston that provides a Secure Shell-compatible server and client. It is designed for environments with low memory and processor resources, such as embedded systems....	command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
IVT	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... (multi-session, single-window)
lsh Lsh lsh is a free software implementation of the Secure Shell Protocol version 2, by the GNU project including both Server and Client programs. Featuring Secure remote password protocol as specified in secsh-srp besides, public-key authentication....	command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
OpenSSH OpenSSH OpenSSH is a set of computer programs providing encryption communication sessions over a computer network using the Secure Shell protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security....	command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
PenguiNet PenguiNet PenguiNet is a Telnet, Secure Shell and Secure Copy client for Microsoft Windows developed by .In contrast to PuTTY, PenguiNet is a Proprietary software....	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment....
PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... or command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
SFTPPlus SFTPPlus SFTPPlus is a commercial Secure Shell Server and Client with additional audit and automation functions in order to meet regulatory and corporate compliance requirements....	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... or command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
SSH Tectia	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... or command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
Tera Term Tera Term Tera Term is an open source free software terminal emulator for Microsoft Windows, originally developed by Ayera Technologies. It emulates different types of terminals, from VT100 to VT382; it supports telnet, Secure Shell 1 & 2 and serial port connections....	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment....
WinSCP WinSCP WinSCP is an open source SSH file transfer protocol and File Transfer Protocol client for Microsoft Windows. Its main function is secure file transfer between a local and a remote computer....	GUI Graphical user interface A graphical user interface is a type of user interface which allows people to human-computer interaction such as computers; hand-held devices such as MP3 Players, Portable Media Players or Gaming devices; household appliances and office equipment.... or command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....
XShell	TDI Tabbed document interface In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window , using tab s to navigate between them.... or command line Command line interface A command-line interface is a mechanism for interacting with a computer operating system or software by typing commands to perform specific tasks....

The ability for the SSH client to establish a VPN, e.g. using TUN/TAP
TUN/TAP

In computer networking, TUN and TAP are virtual network kernel drivers. They implement network devices that are supported entirely in software, which is different from ordinary network devices that are backed up by hardware network cards....
.
The ability for the SSH client to perform dynamic port forwarding by acting as a local SOCKS proxy.
The PuTTY developers provide a command line capable SSH client called PLINK.
Current development snapshots of PuTTY contain Kerberos support, which is planned for the next release. Also, there exist third-party patches that add Kerberos functionality to PuTTY.
The PuTTY developers provide SCP and SFTP functionality as binaries for separate download.
SSH Tectia versions prior to 5.0 have SSH1 support; 5.0 and later do not support SSH1.
AES
Advanced Encryption Standard

In cryptography, the Advanced Encryption Standard is an encryption standard adopted by the Federal government of the United States. The standard comprises three block ciphers, AES-128, AES-192 and AES-256, adopted from a larger collection originally published as Rijndael. Each AES cipher has a 128 bit block size, with key sizes of 128...
encryption
Encryption

In cryptography, encryption is the process of transforming information using an algorithm to make it unreadable to anyone except those possessing special knowledge, usually referred to as a key ....
only with third-party
Third-party software component

In computer programming, third party software component is a reusable software component developed to be either freely distributed or sold by an entity other than the original vendor of the development platform....
library
Library (computer science)

In computer science, a library is a collection of subroutines or Class used to develop software. Libraries contain code and data that provide services to independent programs....
.
.

Features

Name	Full keyboard mapping	Session tabs Tabbed document interface In the area of graphical user interfaces, a tabbed document interface is one that allows multiple documents to be contained within a single window , using tab s to navigate between them....	ZMODEM ZMODEM ZMODEM is a protocol for file transfer developed by Chuck Forsberg in 1986, in a project funded by Telenet in order to improve file transfers on their X.25 network.... transfers	Find text in buffer		Unicode support	URL Hyperlinking	Public key authentication	Smart card Smart card A smart card, chip card, or integrated circuit card , is in any pocket-sized card with embedded integrated circuits which can process data.... support	Hardware encryption	FIPS 140-2 FIPS 140-2 The Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-2, , is a United States government of the United States computer security standardization used to accredit cryptography modules.... Validation

OpenSSH OpenSSH OpenSSH is a set of computer programs providing encryption communication sessions over a computer network using the Secure Shell protocol. It was created as an open source alternative to the proprietary Secure Shell software suite offered by SSH Communications Security....
PuTTY PuTTY PuTTY is a terminal emulator application which can act as a client for the Secure Shell, Telnet, rlogin, and Transmission Control Protocol computing protocols....
Tera Term Tera Term Tera Term is an open source free software terminal emulator for Microsoft Windows, originally developed by Ayera Technologies. It emulates different types of terminals, from VT100 to VT382; it supports telnet, Secure Shell 1 & 2 and serial port connections....
XShell

The ability to transmit mouse input to text mode applications such as Midnight Commander
Midnight Commander

GNU Midnight Commander is a free software cross-platform orthodox file manager and a clone of Norton Commander.Midnight Commander is a console application with a text user interface....
OpenSSH needs to be patched to ask for the pin of the smartcard. If you don't want to patch OpenSSH
PuTTY needs patches for the smartcard http://www.opensc-project.org/scb/.
SecureCRT 5.1 and later uses a FIPS 140-2
FIPS 140-2

The Federal Information Processing Standard Publication 140-2, , is a United States government of the United States computer security standardization used to accredit cryptography modules....
validated cryptographic library.
PuTTY does not support directly, but with installing session tabs support is available.
PuTTY does not support this but a branch of PuTTY named does.

External links

- Comparing Java clients
- A component suite for software developers that lets you create your own full-featured SSH client and server software
- A Comparison of Free SSH and SCP Programs for Windows

Comparison of SSH clients

General

Platform

Technical

Features

See also

External links