Comparison of SSH clients

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For more details on this topic, see Secure shell.

An SSH client is a software program which uses the secure shell protocol to connect to a remote computer. This article compares a selection of popular clients.

Contents

[edit] General

Name Developer Status First release Latest release Based on License Source available
AbsoluteTelnet Celestial Software (Brian Pence) Active 01996 1996 02011-01-07 January 7, 2011 Proprietary No
CopSSH ITeF!x Active 02002-12 December 2002 02011-01 January 2011 OpenSSH Commercial
ConnectBot Kenny Root / Jeffrey Sharkey Active 02007-11 November 2007 Apache Yes
Dropbear Matt Johnston Active 02003-04-06 April 6, 2003 02011-11-08 November 8, 2011 MIT Yes
eSSH Client Ecode Software Active 02002-07 July 2002 Proprietary No
FileZilla Tim Kosse Active 02001-06-22 June 22, 2001 02012-01-08 January 8, 2012 PuTTY GPL Yes
GoAnywhere Director Linoma Software Active 02002 2002 02011-11-30 November 30, 2011 Proprietary No
KiTTY (Cyd) Active 02009 2009 02011-08-17 August 17, 2011 PuTTY MIT Yes
lsh Niels Möller Active 01999-05-23 May 23, 1999 02007-09-05 September 5, 2007 GPL Yes
MindTerm Cryptzone Active 01998-11-13 November 13, 1998 Commercial Yes
OpenSSH The OpenBSD project Active 01999-12-01 December 1, 1999 02011-09-06 September 6, 2011 ossh BSD Yes
PenguiNet Silicon Circus Active 02000-04-07 April 7, 2000 02011-07-24 July 24, 2011 Proprietary No
PowerTerm InterConnect Ericom Software Active 01994 1994 Proprietary No
Pragma Fortress SSH Client Suite Pragma Systems, Inc. Active 02004 2004 Commercial No
Private Shell Imposant Active 02003-04 April 2003 Proprietary No
ProxyCap Proxy Labs Active 02002 2002 Commercial No
PuTTY Simon Tatham Active 01999-01-22 January 22, 1999 02011-12-10 December 10, 2011 MIT Yes
Reflection Attachmate Active 02011-11-02 November 2, 2011 F-Secure SSH Proprietary No
SecureCRT VanDyke Software Active 01998-06 June 1998 02011-11-08 November 8, 2011 Proprietary No
SFTPPlus Pro:Atria Ltd Active 02005 2005 OpenSSH/PuTTY Proprietary No
SmartFTP SmartSoft Ltd Active 01998 1998 Proprietary No
SSH Tectia Client/ConnectSecure SSH Communications Security (former Tectia) Active 01995-07 July 1995 02011-12 December 2011 Own implementation, C language Proprietary No
SunSSH Open Solaris Active 02001 2001 OpenSSH 2.3 OpenSolaris License Yes
Tera Term TeraTerm Project Active 02004 2004 TeraTerm 2.3 (1994–1998) BSD Yes
TN3270 Plus SDI USA, Inc. Active 02006 2006 Proprietary No
WinSCP Martin Prikryl Active 02000 2000 PuTTY GPL Yes
ZOC Terminal EmTec, Innovative Software Active 01995-07-01 July 1, 1995 02012-01-12 January 12, 2012 Proprietary No
TtyEmulator FCS Software Active 02002-05 May 2002 Proprietary No
Xshell www.netsarang.com Active 02012-02-13 February 13, 2012 Proprietary

[edit] Platform

The operating systems or virtual machines the SSH clients are designed to run on without emulation; there are several possibilities:

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

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

Name Mac OS X Mac OS Classic Windows Cygwin BSD Linux Solaris Palm OS Java OpenVMS Windows Mobile z/OS AmigaOS AIX HP-UX iPhone,[Note 1] iPod Touch Android Maemo
AbsoluteTelnet No No Yes No No No No No No No Not Yet No No No No No No No
CopSSH No No Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Connectbot No No No No No No No No N/A N/A N/A N/A No No No No Yes No
Dropbear Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No N/A N/A N/A N/A No No No No Yes Yes
eSSH Client Yes No Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes No N/A N/A N/A N/A No No No No No No
GoAnywhere Director Yes Yes Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes[Note 2] Yes No Yes[Note 2] No N/A Yes Yes Yes[Note 2] Yes[Note 2] N/A[Note 2]
lsh Yes No No No Partial[Note 3] Yes Yes No N/A N/A N/A N/A No No No No No No
MindTerm Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] No Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] No Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] Yes[Note 4] No No No
OpenSSH Included No Yes Included Included Included[Note 5] Yes No N/A Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes[Note 6] Yes Yes[Note 7] No Yes
PenguiNet No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
PowerTerm InterConnect Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
Pragma FortressSSH Client Suite No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Private Shell No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
ProxyCap Yes No Yes No No No No No No No Yes No No No No No No No
PuTTY Partial Partial Yes N/A Yes Yes No N/A N/A Yes N/A No No No No No No
Reflection for Secure IT No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes No No No
SecureCRT Yes No Yes No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
SFTPPlus No No Yes No No Yes Yes No N/A N/A N/A N/A No No No No No No
SmartFTP No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
SSH Tectia Client/ConnectSecure No No Yes No No Yes Yes No Partial No No Yes No Yes Yes No No No
Tera Term No No Yes No No No No No N/A N/A N/A N/A No N/A No No No No
TN3270 Plus No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
TtyEmulator No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
WinSCP No No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No Only on non-MC model iPod touches No No
ZOC Terminal Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No No No No
Name Mac OS X Mac OS Classic Windows Cygwin BSD Linux Solaris Palm OS Java OpenVMS Windows Mobile z/OS AmigaOS AIX HP-UX iPhone,[Note 1] iPod Touch Android Maemo
  1. ^ a b Unless otherwise noted, iPhone refers to non-jailbroken devices.
  2. ^ a b c d e Client runs on a server and files can be securely administered or transferred from an internet capable mobile or wireless device.
  3. ^ lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Requires Java 1.1 or later.
  5. ^ The majority of Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.
  6. ^ Openssh 3.4 was the first release included since AIX
  7. ^ Only for jailbroken devices.

[edit] Technical

Name User interface SSH1 SSH2 Additional protocols Tunneling Session
multiplexing[Note 1]		 Kerberos IPv6
TELNET rlogin Port
forwarding		 SOCKS[Note 2] VPN[Note 3] Terminal SFTP/SCP Proxy client[Note 4]
AbsoluteTelnet/SSH GUI (multi-session,
single-window)		 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
CopSSH GUI or command line Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ?
Connectbot GUI No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes No No
Dropbear command line No Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes ?
GoAnywhere Director GUI or command line Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
lsh command line No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
MindTerm GUI Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet
OpenSSH command line Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ProxyCommand
PenguiNet GUI Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No No No No Yes SCP ?
PowerTerm InterConnect GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes SFTP ?
Pragma FortressSSH Client Suite GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  —  —  — Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
Private Shell GUI or command line Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 5
ProxyCap GUI Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes No No SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; SSH
PuTTY GUI or command line Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No[Note 5] Yes Yes Yes[Note 6] SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
Reflection for Secure IT GUI or command line Yes Yes Optional Optional Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS; HTTP
SecureCRT GUI Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Generic
SFTPPlus GUI or command line Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No No Yes ?
SmartFTP GUI (multi-session,
single-window)		 No Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
Tectia Client/ConnectSecure GUI and/or command line No[Note 7] Yes No No Yes[Note 8][Note 9] Yes Yes[Note 8] Yes Yes No [Note 10] Yes Yes, including legacy SCP and modern SCP (SCP using SFTP) SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
Tera Term GUI Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes SCP SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet
TN3270 Plus GUI Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No SOCKS 4
TtyEmulator GUI or command line Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No, not yet Yes No, use external tool SOCKS 4,4a, 5; HTTP Local
WinSCP GUI or command line Yes Yes No No No No No No Yes Yes simple Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
ZOC Terminal TDI or command line Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No ? No Yes Yes SCP SOCKS 4
Xshell GUI (Multi-tab,
single-window)		 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5
  1. ^ Accelerating OpenSSH connections with ControlMaster.
  2. ^ The ability for the SSH client to perform dynamic port forwarding by acting as a local SOCKS proxy.
  3. ^ The ability for the SSH client to establish a VPN, e.g. using TUN/TAP.
  4. ^ Can the SSH client connect itself through a proxy? This is distinct from offering a SOCKS proxy or port forwarding.
  5. ^ 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. [1][2]
  6. ^ The PuTTY developers provide SCP and SFTP functionality as binaries for separate download.
  7. ^ SSH Tectia versions prior to 5.0 have SSH1 support; 5.0 and later do not support SSH1.
  8. ^ a b Tectia SSH Client/ConnectSecure supports transparent TCP tunneling which captures application traffic on-the-fly without the need to point application to connect to local host address. You can get point-to-point encrypted connections easily in order to secure legacy application traffic.
  9. ^ In port forwarding, Tectia also supports automatic listener/tunnel creation (aka automatic tunnels)
  10. ^ In 2012

[edit] Features

Name Keyboard mapping Session tabs ZMODEM transfers Find text in buffer Mouse input support[Note 1] Unicode support URL hyperlinking Public key authentication Smart card support Hardware encryption FIPS 140-2 validation Scripting
AbsoluteTelnet full Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes
CopSSH ? ? ? ? No Yes No Yes Yes[Note 2] Yes No ?
Connectbot No Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No
GoAnywhere Director No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No[Note 3] Yes
MindTerm Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No
OpenSSH ? ? ? ? ? Yes ? Yes Yes[Note 2] Yes Partial[Note 4] No
PenguiNet Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No No ?
PowerTerm InterConnect full No Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes
Pragma FortressSSH Client Suite Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes
Private Shell full No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes
ProxyCap No No No No No Yes No Yes No No No No
PuTTY No No[Note 5] No No Yes Yes No[Note 6] Yes No[Note 7] ? No No
Reflection for Secure IT Yes No ? Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes ?
SecureCRT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
SmartFTP Partial Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes AES-NI Yes No
SSH Tectia Client/ConnectSecure Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes PKCS#11/Entrust/MSCAPI z/OS only Yes Yes
Tera Term Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
TN3270 Plus Yes Yes No No No No Yes Yes No No No Yes
TtyEmulator No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
ZOC Terminal full Yes Yes Alt+F Yes UTF-8 No Yes No No No Yes
Xshell Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes
  1. ^ The ability to transmit mouse input to text mode applications such as Midnight Commander
  2. ^ a b OpenSSH needs to be patched to ask for the pin of the smartcard. If you don't want to patch OpenSSH you can use ssh-agent (the link is in french)
  3. ^ Uses FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic libraries.
  4. ^ Validated [3] when operated on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 in FIPS mode
  5. ^ PuTTY does not support directly, but with installing PuTTY Connection Manager or SuperPuTTY session tabs support is available.
  6. ^ PuTTY does not support smart cards but PuTTY-CAC does, see http://www.risacher.org/putty-cac/.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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