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 popular clients.

General

Name	Developer	Status	First release	Based on	License	Source available
AbsoluteTelnet	Celestial Software (Brian Pence)	Template:Active	1996		Template:Proprietary	No
CopSSH	ITeF!x	Template:Active	February, 2009	OpenSSH	BSD	Yes
eSSH Client	Ecode Software	Template:Active	July, 2002		Template:Proprietary	No
Dropbear [1]	Matt Johnston	Template:Active	January, 2005		MIT	Yes
lsh	Niels Möller	Template:Active	May 23, 1999 (0.1)		GPL	Yes
OpenSSH	The OpenBSD project	Template:Active	December 1, 1999	ossh	BSD	Yes
Poderosa [2]	Poderosa Project	Template:Active	2005	.NET Framework 2.0[3]	Apache License / GPLv3 compatible	Yes
PenguiNet [4]	Silicon Circus	Template:Active	April 7, 2000	N/A	Template:Proprietary	No
PuTTY	Simon Tatham	Template:Active	January 1999		MIT	Yes
Reflection for Secure IT	Attachmate	Template:Active			Template:Proprietary	No
SecureCRT	van Dyke Software	Template:Active	2002-Jul-06		Template:Proprietary	No
SFTPPlus	Pro:Atria Ltd	Template:Active	2005	OpenSSH/PuTTY	Template:Proprietary	No
SSH Tectia	SSH Communications Security	Template:Active	July 1995		Template:Proprietary	No
SunSSH [5]	Open Solaris	Template:Active	2001	OpenSSH 2.3	OpenSolaris License	Yes
Tera Term	TeraTerm Project	Template:Active	2004	TeraTerm 2.3 (1994-1998)	BSD	Yes
Tunnelier	Bitvise	Template:Active	2002		Template:Proprietary	No
WinSCP	Martin Prikryl	Template:Active	2000	PuTTY	GPL	Yes
XShell	NetSarang Computer, Inc.	Template:Active	2004		Template:Proprietary	No
ZOC SSH client	EmTec, Innovative Software	Template:Active	January, 1999		Template:Proprietary	No
SSH Secure Client		Template:Active				No

Platform

The operating systems or virtual machines 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 Classic	Windows	Cygwin	BSD	Linux	Solaris	Palm OS	Java	OpenVMS	Windows Mobile	IBM z/OS	AmigaOS	AIX	HPUX	iPhoneTemplate:Refun / iPod Touch	Android OS
AbsoluteTelnet	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No
ConnectBot	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes
CopSSH	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dropbear	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	No	No	No	No
eSSH Client	Yes	No	Yes	Template:N/a	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	No	No	No	No
JTA	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Yes	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	No	No	No	No
lsh	Yes	No	No	No	PartialTemplate:Refun	Yes	Yes	No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSH	Included	No	YesTemplate:Refun	Included	Included	IncludedTemplate:Refun	Yes	No	Template:N/a	Yes	Template:N/a	Yes	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	No
PenguiNet	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Poderosa	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
PuTTY	Partial	Partial	Yes	Template:N/a	Yes	Yes		No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Yes	Template:N/a	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
SFTPPlus	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	No	No	No	No
SSH Tectia	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Partial	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Yes	Template:N/a	Yes	Yes	No	No
Tera Term	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	Template:N/a	No	Template:N/a	No	No	No
Tunnelier	No	No	Yes	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	No	No
XShell	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
ZOC SSH client	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

• ^  lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.
• ^  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
• ^  Unless otherwise noted, iPhone refers to non-jailbroken devices.
• ^  [6]
• ^  Only for jailbroken devices.

Technical

Name	User interface	SSH1	SSH2	Additional protocols		Tunneling			Session MultiplexingTemplate:Refun	Kerberos	IPv6
				TELNET	rlogin	Port forwarding	SOCKSTemplate:Refun	VPNTemplate:Refun				Terminal	SFTP/SCP	Proxy clientTemplate:Refun
AbsoluteTelnet	GUI (multi-session, single-window)	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP
CopSSH	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
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
PenguiNet	GUI	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	SCP	?
Poderosa	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
PuTTY	GUITemplate:Refun or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	NoTemplate:Refun	Yes	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
Reflection for Secure IT	GUITemplate:Refun or command line	Yes	Yes	Template:Optional	Template:Optional	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	SOCKS; HTTP
SFTPPlus	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[citation needed]	Yes[citation needed]	No		No		No	Yes	?
SSH Tectia	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	?
Tera Term	GUI	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?	?	?	?	?
Tunnelier	GUI or command line	No	Yes	No	No	C2S, S2C	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP CONNECT
WinSCP	GUI or command line	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	SOCKS 4, 5; HTTP; Telnet; Local
XShell	TDI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	?	Yes	Yes	SOCKS 4, 4A, 5; HTTP 1.1; SSH_PASSTHROUGH
ZOC SSH client	TDI or command line	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?	No	No	Yes	SCP	SOCKS4 support in the upcoming beta version

• ^  The ability for the SSH client to establish a VPN, e.g. using TUN/TAP.
• ^  The ability for the SSH client to perform dynamic port forwarding by acting as a local SOCKS proxy.
• ^  Can the SSH client connect itself through a proxy? This is distinct from offering a SOCKS proxy or port forwarding.
• ^  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. [7][8]
• ^  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 encryption only with third-party library.
• ^  Accelerating OpenSSH connections with ControlMaster.

Features

Name	Keyboard mapping	Session tabs	ZMODEM transfers	Find text in buffer	Mouse input supportTemplate:Refun	Unicode support	URL Hyperlinking	Public key authentication	Smart card support	Hardware encryption	FIPS 140-2 Validation
AbsoluteTelnet	full	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes
CopSSH	?	?	?	?	No	Yes	No	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	Yes	No
OpenSSH	?	?	?	?	?	Yes	?	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	Yes	No
PenguiNet	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
Poderosa	Yes	Yes	YesTemplate:Refun	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	?	YesTemplate:Refun	?
PuTTY	No	NoTemplate:Refun	No	No	Yes	Yes	NoTemplate:Refun	Yes	NoTemplate:Refun	?	?
Reflection for Secure IT	Yes	No	?	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
Tera Term	?	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
Tunnelier	No	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No
XShell	partial	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?
ZOC SSH client	full	Yes	Yes	Alt+F	Yes	UTF-8	No	Yes	No	No	No

• ^  Poderosa support Z MODEM transfers. It's available as a free plug-in.
• ^  Poderosa support the following encryption: AES128, Blowfish, TripleDES.
• ^  The ability to transmit mouse input to text mode applications such as Midnight Commander
• ^ 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)
• ^ PuTTY needs patches for the smartcard http://www.opensc-project.org/scb/.
• ^ SecureCRT 5.1 and later uses a FIPS 140-2 validated cryptographic library.
• ^ PuTTY does not support directly, but with installing PuTTY Connection Manager session tabs support is available.
• ^ PuTTY does not support this but a branch of PuTTY named PuTTY Tray does.

See also

• Comparison of SSH servers
• Comparison of FTP client software

External links

• SSH clients at the Open Directory Project
• SSH for Java - Comparing Java clients
• SSHBlackbox - 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