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 11.24[1] Edit this on Wikidata 2020-08-13 Proprietary Yes No
Bitvise SSH Client Bitvise Limited 2001 Windows 9.17[2][3] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-03-12 Proprietary Yes Yes
ConnectBot Kenny Root
Jeffrey Sharkey		 2007-11[lower-alpha 1] Android 1.9.9[4] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-02-09 Apache-2.0 ? ?
Dropbear Matt Johnston 2003-04-06 AIX 2022.83[5] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-11-14 MIT No Yes
BSD
Cygwin
Linux
HP-UX
iOS
Maemo
macOS
Solaris
eSSH Client Ecode Software 2002-07 BSD 4.2.0[6] Edit this on Wikidata 2007-01-15 Proprietary ? ?
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
lsh Niels Möller 1999-05-23 BSD 2.1[7] Edit this on Wikidata 2013-06-26 GPL-2.0-or-later No Yes
Linux
macOS
Solaris
OpenSSH[lower-alpha 2] The OpenBSD project 1999-12-01[lower-alpha 3] AIX 9.6[8] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-18 BSD No Yes
Android
BSD
Cygwin
Linux
HP-UX
iOS
Maemo
OpenVMS
macOS
Solaris
Windows
z/OS
PuTTY Simon Tatham 1999-01-22 BSD 0.80[9] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-18 MIT Yes Yes
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
SecureCRT VanDyke Software 1998-06 Linux 9.3.1[10] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-12-06 Proprietary Yes No
macOS 9.3.1[10] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-12-06
iOS 2.4.3[11] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-12-13
Windows 9.3.1[10] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-12-06
Tera Term TeraTerm Project 2004[lower-alpha 4] Windows 5.1[12] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-12-18 BSD-3-Clause Yes No
TN3270 Plus SDI USA, Inc. 2006 Windows 4.0.7[13] Edit this on Wikidata 2019-02 Proprietary Yes No
TtyEmulator FCS Software 2002-05 Windows 4.6.0.0[14] Edit this on Wikidata 2021-03-16 Proprietary Yes Yes
wolfSSH wolfSSL 2016-07-20[lower-alpha 5] BSD 1.4.13[15] Edit this on Wikidata 2023-04-04 GPL-3.0-or-later[lower-alpha 6] No Yes
Cygwin
Linux
macOS
Solaris
Windows
ZOC Terminal EmTec, Innovative Software 1995-07-01 macOS 8.04.1[16] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-04-25 Proprietary Yes Yes
OS/2 4.15[17] Edit this on Wikidata 2004-08-25
Windows 8.04.1[16] Edit this on Wikidata 2022-04-25
  1. ↑ Based on Trilead SSH-2 for Java.
  2. ↑ Also known as OpenBSD Secure Shell.
  3. ↑ Based on OSSH.
  4. ↑ Based on Tera Term Pro 2.3 (1994–1998).
  5. ↑ Based on wolfCrypt.
  6. ↑ Also available under a proprietary license.

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 No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Bitvise SSH Client No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No No
ConnectBot No No No No No No No No No No No Yes No No
Dropbear Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes ? ? Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] No Yes ?
eSSH Client Yes Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No ?
lsh Yes No No Partial[lower-alpha 2] Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No ?
OpenSSH[lower-alpha 3] Included Included[lower-alpha 4] Included Included Included[lower-alpha 5] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 1] Yes Yes ?
PuTTY Partial Yes ? Yes Yes Yes ? ? No No No No No Beta
SecureCRT Yes Yes No No Yes No No No No No Yes No No ?
SmartFTP No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Tera Term No Yes 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 ?
TtyEmulator No Yes No No No No No No No No No No No ?
WinSCP No Yes No No No No No No No No Yes[lower-alpha 1] No No ?
wolfSSH Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No No No No
ZOC Terminal Yes Yes No No No No No No No No No No No ?
Name macOS Windows Cygwin BSD Linux Solaris OpenVMS z/OS AIX HP-UX iOS Android Maemo Windows Phone
  1. 1 2 3 Only for jailbroken devices.
  2. ↑ lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.
  3. ↑ Also known as OpenBSD Secure Shell.
  4. ↑ Included and enabled by default since windows 10 version 1803. Win32-OpenSSH can be installed as an optional component in the Windows versions before Windows 10 version 1803 to Windows 10 version 1709. Portable version can be download from Win32-OpenSSH for other versions.
  5. ↑ The majority of Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.

Technical

Name SSH1
(insecure)		 SSH2 Additional protocols Port forwarding and Tunneling Session
multiplexing
[lower-alpha 1]		 Kerberos IPv6 Terminal SFTP/SCP Proxy client[lower-alpha 2]
TELNET rlogin Port
forwarding		 SOCKS
[lower-alpha 3]		 VPN
[lower-alpha 4]
AbsoluteTelnet yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
Bitvise SSH Client no Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5
Dropbear no Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes Yes Yes ?
lsh no Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes ?
OpenSSH[lower-alpha 5] no[lower-alpha 6] Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ProxyCommand
PuTTY yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes[lower-alpha 7] Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 8] SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
SecureCRT yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Generic
SmartFTP no Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
Tera Term yes Yes Yes No Yes No No No No Yes Yes SCP SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet
TN3270 Plus yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No SOCKS 4
TtyEmulator yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes No SOCKS 4,4a, 5; HTTP Local
WinSCP [lower-alpha 9] no[lower-alpha 10] Yes No No limited[lower-alpha 11] No No No Yes Yes simple Yes SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
wolfSSH no Yes No No Yes No No No No Yes simple Yes No
ZOC Terminal yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes[lower-alpha 12][lower-alpha 13] SOCKS 4; 5; HTTP; Jumpserver
Name SSH1
(insecure)		 SSH2 Additional protocols Tunneling Session
multiplexing
[lower-alpha 1]		 Kerberos IPv6 Terminal SFTP/SCP Proxy client[lower-alpha 2]
TELNET rlogin Port
forwarding		 SOCKS
[lower-alpha 3]		 VPN
[lower-alpha 4]
  1. 1 2 Accelerating OpenSSH connections with ControlMaster.
  2. 1 2 Can the SSH client connect itself through a proxy? This is distinct from offering a SOCKS proxy or port forwarding.
  3. 1 2 The ability for the SSH client to perform dynamic port forwarding by acting as a local SOCKS proxy.
  4. 1 2 The ability for the SSH client to establish a VPN, e.g. using TUN/TAP.
  5. ↑ Also known as OpenBSD Secure Shell.
  6. ↑ OpenSSH deleted SSH protocol version 1 support in version 7.6 (2017-10-03)
  7. ↑ The version 0.63 supports GSSAPI. Successfully tested on Win 8 using Active Directory
  8. ↑ The PuTTY developers provide SCP and SFTP functionality as binaries for separate download.
  9. ↑ WinSCP bundles a number of software components including PuTTY. .
  10. ↑ WinSCP Version history.
  11. ↑ WinSCP connection tunneling.
  12. ↑ SCP and SFTP through terminal.
  13. ↑ SCP and SFTP according to ZOC features page.

Features

Name Keyboard mapping Session tabs ZMODEM transfers Find text in buffer Mouse input support[lower-alpha 1] Unicode support URL hyperlinking Public key authentication Smart card support Hardware encryption FIPS 140-2 validation Scripting Shared Database Auto-reconnect CA Certificates
AbsoluteTelnet full Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes ? Yes Yes ? ? ?
Bitvise SSH Client ? No No No Yes Yes No Yes No ? Partial Yes No Yes No
OpenSSH[lower-alpha 2] ? No No ? Yes[lower-alpha 3] Yes not native[lower-alpha 4] Yes Yes Yes Partial[lower-alpha 5] No No ? Yes[lower-alpha 6]
PuTTY No No[lower-alpha 7] No No Yes Yes No[lower-alpha 8] Yes No Yes No No No No No[lower-alpha 9]
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 Yes 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 ? ? ?
wolfSSH No No No No No Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No No Yes
ZOC Terminal full Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes ? ? ?
  1. ↑ The ability to transmit mouse input to text mode applications such as Midnight Commander
  2. ↑ Also known as OpenBSD Secure Shell.
  3. ↑ Only when the terminal itself supports mouse input. Most graphical ones do, e.g. xterm.
  4. ↑ No native URL highlighting; however most graphical consoles support URL highlighting.
  5. ↑ 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
  6. ↑ OpenSSH supports the minimal certificate format since v5.4. "OpenSSH Release Notes: 5.4". OpenBSD Project. 2010-03-08. Retrieved 2021-08-30.
  7. ↑ PuTTY does not support tabs directly, but many wrappers are available that do.
  8. ↑ Putty v71.0 does not support OpenSSH certificates. See Ben Harris' 2016-04-21 wish.[18][19]

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[lower-alpha 1] 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 Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
lsh  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
OpenSSH[lower-alpha 2] Yes[lower-alpha 3] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes
PuTTY Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No[lower-alpha 4] No[lower-alpha 4]
SecureCRT Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?
SmartFTP Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No
Tera Term  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
TN3270 Plus  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
TtyEmulator  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?  ?
WinSCP No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes  ?  ?
wolfSSH No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No
ZOC Terminal[lower-alpha 5] Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No
Name ssh-dss ssh-rsa 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
RSA with SHA-2 ECDSA with SHA-2 EdDSA Security keys
  1. ↑ ssh-dss is based on Digital Signature Algorithm which is sensitive to entropy, secrecy, and uniqueness of its random signature value.
  2. ↑ Also known as OpenBSD Secure Shell.
  3. ↑ By default, disabled at run-time since OpenSSH 7.0 released in 2015.
  4. 1 2 PuTTY does not support security keys / FIDO tokens, but is supported in PuTTY-CAC
  5. ↑ ZOC' SSH is based on OpenSSH and supports the same encryptions.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "AbsoluteTelnet/SSH Version History".
  2. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  3. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  4. ↑ "Release 1.9.9". 9 February 2023. Retrieved 10 March 2023.
  5. ↑ "Release Dropbear 2022.83".
  6. ↑ "Ecode Software Inc". Archived from the original on 31 October 2013.
  7. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  8. ↑ "release-9.6". 18 December 2023. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  9. ↑ Simon Tatham (18 December 2023). "PuTTY 0.80 is released". Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 "SecureCRT 9.3.1". 6 December 2022.
  11. ↑ "SecureCRT on the App Store". Retrieved 30 January 2023.
  12. ↑ "Release 5.1". 18 December 2023. Retrieved 19 December 2023.
  13. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  14. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  15. ↑ "Release 1.4.13". 4 April 2023. Retrieved 3 May 2023.
  16. 1 2 Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  17. ↑ Error: Unable to display the reference properly. See the documentation for details.
  18. ↑ "ssh2-openssh-certkeys.html".
  19. ↑ "ssh2-openssh-certkeys".
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