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 Initial release Platform Latest release License GUI TUI/CLI Version Date AbsoluteTelnet Celestial Software (Brian Pence) 1996 Windows Bitvise SSH Client Bitvise Limited 2001 Windows ConnectBot Kenny RootJeffrey Sharkey 2007-11 Android Dropbear Matt Johnston 2003-04-06 AIX rowspan="9" rowspan="9" rowspan="9" BSD Cygwin Linux HP-UX iOS Maemo macOS Solaris OpenSSH The OpenBSD project 1999-12-01 AIX rowspan="13" rowspan="13" rowspan="13" Android BSD Cygwin Linux HP-UX iOS Maemo OpenVMS macOS Solaris Windows z/OS PuTTY Simon Tatham 1999-01-22 BSD rowspan="5" rowspan="5" rowspan="5" Linux macOS Solaris Windows SecureCRT VanDyke Software 1998–06 Linux rowspan="4" rowspan="4" rowspan="4" macOS iOS Windows Tera Term TeraTerm Project 2004 Windows TN3270 Plus SDI USA, Inc. 2006 Windows WinSCP Martin Přikryl 2000 Windows 6.3.3 2024-04-16 GNU GPL wolfSSH wolfSSL 2016-07-20 BSD rowspan="6" rowspan="6" rowspan="6" Cygwin Linux macOS Solaris Windows ZOC Terminal EmTec, Innovative Software 1995-07-01 macOS rowspan="3" rowspan="3" rowspan="3" OS/2 Windows
Platform The operating systems or virtual machines the SSH clients are designed to run on without emulation include 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 macOS Windows Cygwin BSD Linux Solaris OpenVMS z/OS AIX HP-UX iOS Android Maemo Windows Phone AbsoluteTelnet Bitvise SSH Client ConnectBot Dropbear lsh OpenSSH PuTTY SecureCRT SmartFTP Tera Term TN3270 Plus WinSCP wolfSSH ZOC Terminal Name macOS Windows Cygwin BSD Linux Solaris OpenVMS z/OS AIX HP-UX iOS Android Maemo Windows Phone
Technical
Name SSH1(insecure) SSH2 Additional protocols Port forwarding and Tunneling Sessionmultiplexing Kerberos IPv6 Terminal SFTP/SCP Proxy client TELNET rlogin Portforwarding SOCKS VPN AbsoluteTelnet Bitvise SSH Client Dropbear lsh OpenSSH PuTTY SecureCRT SmartFTP Tera Term TN3270 Plus WinSCP wolfSSH ZOC Terminal Name SSH1(insecure) SSH2 Additional protocols Tunneling Sessionmultiplexing Kerberos IPv6 Terminal SFTP/SCP Proxy client TELNET rlogin Portforwarding SOCKS VPN
Features
Name Keyboard mapping URL hyperlinking Hardware encryption AbsoluteTelnet Bitvise SSH Client OpenSSH PuTTY SecureCRT SmartFTP Tera Term TN3270 Plus wolfSSH ZOC Terminal
Authentication key algorithms This table lists standard authentication key algorithms implemented by SSH clients. Some SSH implementations include both server and client implementations and support custom non-standard authentication algorithms not listed in this table.
Name ssh-dss ssh-rsa RSA with SHA-2 ECDSA with SHA-2 EdDSA Security keys rsa-sha2-256 rsa-sha2-512 ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 ecdsa-sha2-nistp384 ecdsa-sha2-nistp521 ssh-ed25519 ssh-ed448 sk-ecdsa-sha2-nistp256 sk-ssh-ed25519 AbsoluteTelnet Bitvise SSH Client ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Dropbear ? lsh ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? OpenSSH PuTTY SecureCRT ? SmartFTP Tera Term ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? TN3270 Plus ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? WinSCP ? ? wolfSSH ZOC Terminal
See also Comparison of SSH servers Comparison of remote desktop software
References