Comparison of SSH clients

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 notable clients.

General

Name	Developer	Status	First release	Latest release	Current version	Based on	License	Source available
AbsoluteTelnet	Celestial Software (Brian Pence)	Active	1996	2014-01-31	9.83^[1]		Proprietary	No
ConnectBot	Kenny Root / Jeffrey Sharkey	Active	2007-11	2015-08-28	1.8.6		Apache	Yes
CRAX Commander	Soft4U2 Marcin Słowik	Active	2013-09	2015-12-01	1.10.6	libSSH2	Proprietary	Yes
Dropbear	Matt Johnston	Active	2003-04-06	2016-07-21	2016.74		MIT	Yes
eSSH Client	Ecode Software	Inactive	2002-07				Proprietary	No
lsh	Niels Möller	Active	1999-05-23	2013-06-26	2.1		GPL	Yes
OpenSSH	The OpenBSD project	Active	1999-12-01	2016-08-01	7.3	ossh	BSD	Yes
PACManager	David Torrejón Vaquerizas	Active	2010-01-01	2016-07-21	4.5.5.7	OpenSSH, Telnet, FTP, vncviewer, rdesktop, cu, remote-tty, mosh, cadaver	GPL	Yes
PuTTY	Simon Tatham	Active	1999-01-22	2016-03-05	0.67^[2]		MIT	Yes
Reflection for Secure IT	Attachmate	Active		2012-11-12		F-Secure SSH	Proprietary	No
SecureCRT	VanDyke Software	Active	1998-06	2016-03-31	8.0		Proprietary	No
SSH Tectia Client/ConnectSecure	SSH Communications Security (former Tectia)	Active	1995-07	2016-03-30	6.4.13	Own implementation in C	Proprietary	No
SunSSH	Open Solaris	Active	2001			OpenSSH 2.3	CDDL	Yes
Tera Term	TeraTerm Project	Active	2004	2016-05-31	4.91^[3]	TeraTerm 2.3 (1994–1998)	BSD	Yes
TN3270 Plus	SDI USA, Inc.	Active	2006				Proprietary	No
TtyEmulator	FCS Software	Active	2002-05				Proprietary	No
ZOC Terminal	EmTec, Innovative Software	Active	1995-07-01	2016-11-07	7.10.2		Proprietary	No

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	OS X	Windows	Cygwin	BSD	Linux	Solaris	Java	OpenVMS	z/OS	AIX	HP-UX	iOS	Android	Maemo	Windows Phone
AbsoluteTelnet	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
CRAX Commander	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dropbear	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?
eSSH Client	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
lsh	Yes	No	No	Partial^{[Note 1]}	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	?
OpenSSH	Included	partial	Included	Included	Included^{[Note 2]}	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[Note 3]}	Yes	Yes	?
PACManager	No	No	No	Partial	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PuTTY	Partial	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	No	No	No	No	No	Beta
SecureCRT	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	?
SmartFTP	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
SSH Tectia Client/ConnectSecure	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[Note 4]}	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?
Tera Term	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
TN3270 Plus	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
TtyEmulator	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
WinSCP	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes^{[Note 3]}	No	No	?
ZOC	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	?
Name	OS X	Windows	Cygwin	BSD	Linux	Solaris	Java	OpenVMS	z/OS	AIX	HP-UX	iOS	Android	Maemo	Windows Phone

↑ lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.
↑ The majority of Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.
1 2 Only for jailbroken devices.
↑ In the form of a Java Secure File Transfer API.

Technical

Name	User interface	SSH1	SSH2	Additional protocols		Tunneling			Session multiplexing^{[Note 1]}	Kerberos	IPv6	Terminal	SFTP/SCP	Proxy client^{[Note 2]}
Name	User interface	SSH1	SSH2	TELNET	rlogin	Port forwarding	SOCKS^{[Note 3]}	VPN^{[Note 4]}	Session multiplexing^{[Note 1]}	Kerberos	IPv6	Terminal	SFTP/SCP	Proxy client^{[Note 2]}
AbsoluteTelnet	GUI (multi-session, single-window)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
Dropbear	command line	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
lsh	command line	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
OpenSSH	command line	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	ProxyCommand
PACManager	GUI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Generic
PuTTY	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes^{[Note 5]}	Yes	Yes	Yes^{[Note 6]}	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
SecureCRT	GUI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Generic
SmartFTP	GUI (multi-session, single-window)	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	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	Yes	No	SOCKS 4,4a, 5; HTTP Local
WinSCP	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	No	No	limited^{[Note 7]}	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	simple	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
ZOC	TDI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	No	Yes	Yes	SCP	SOCKS 4

↑ Accelerating OpenSSH connections with ControlMaster.
↑ Can the SSH client connect itself through a proxy? This is distinct from offering a SOCKS proxy or port forwarding.
↑ The ability for the SSH client to perform dynamic port forwarding by acting as a local SOCKS proxy.
↑ The ability for the SSH client to establish a VPN, e.g. using TUN/TAP.
↑ The version 0.63 supports GSSAPI. Successfully tested on Win 8 using Active Directory
↑ The PuTTY developers provide SCP and SFTP functionality as binaries for separate download.
↑ WinSCP connection tunneling.

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	Shared Database
AbsoluteTelnet	full	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	?
OpenSSH	?	No	No	?	Yes^{[Note 2]}	Yes	not native^{[Note 3]}	Yes	Yes^{[Note 4]}	Yes	Partial^{[Note 5]}	No	No
PACManager	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?
PuTTY	No	No^{[Note 6]}	No	No	Yes	Yes	No^{[Note 7]}	Yes	No^{[Note 8]}	No^{[Note 9]}	No	No	No
SecureCRT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
SmartFTP	Partial	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	AES-NI	Yes	No	?
Tera Term	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No
TN3270 Plus	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?
TtyEmulator	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	?
ZOC	full	Yes	Yes	Alt+F	Yes	UTF-8	Yes	Yes	pkcs#11	No	No	Yes	?

↑ The ability to transmit mouse input to text mode applications such as Midnight Commander
↑ Only when the terminal itself supports mouse input. Most graphical ones do, e.g. xterm
↑ No native URL highlighting; however most graphical consoles support URL highlighting
↑ 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).
↑ Validated when running OpenSSH 2.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6.2 in FIPS mode or when running OpenSSH 1.1 on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 in FIPS mode
↑ PuTTY does not support directly, but many wrappers are available that do (e.g. PuTTY Connection Manager, SuperPuTTY, MTPuTTY, PuTTYTabManager, mRemoteNG, and WinSSHTerm).
↑ PuTTY does not support this, some branches of PuTTY do (e.g. PuTTY Tray and KiTTY).
↑ PuTTY does not support smart cards, but is supported in puttywincrypt, PuTTY-CAC, and in Smartcard Authentication – Secure & Easy putty version.
↑ PuTTY does not support AES-NI but a branch of PuTTY named PuTTY-AES-NI does.

References

External links

SSH clients at DMOZ
SSH for Java – Comparing Java clients

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.