PuTTY is one of the most popular SSH, SCP, SFTP and telnet clients, and much of its popularity comes from the fact that it is small and easy to use.

It was developed originally by a person called Simon Tatham for the Windows platform way back in 1999.

Putty Alternative For Mac Free; Putty one of the most popular lightweight remote connection tools for SSH, telnet and serial connection. For software development and network professional’s first choice is putty because of fast and small size. The best thing about putty is support SSH (secure shell), Telnet client as well as serial in a single. Putty for Windows Putty for Linux Putty for Mac. Solar-PuTTY is a great alternative as it provides a tabbed interface that is one of PuTTY’s biggest limitation. To securely transfer files, Solar-PuTTY integrates Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) and Secure copy protocol (SCP). PuTTY by Simon Tatham is a powerful client for the SSH, Telnet and Rlogin network protocols. Unfortunately, the application is not available for use on Mac systems. Still, you can successfully replace PuTTY for Mac with a program from this list of alternatives. Handy, portable PuTTY alternative All in all, if you're in need of a tool that can help you manage your devices and servers remotely, you might want to consider giving Solar-PuTTY a try.

Download PuTTY for Mac and Installation Guide. PuTTY is a free, highly configurable and open-source SSH client which makes it convenient to connect to a remote server and transfer files over the network.

Since then, the popularity of Putty and its widespread use has brought together a group of volunteers who continue to develop and support this open-source tool.

Though Putty is great, it helps to know other alternatives to Putty because a lot of them come with more advanced features.

Below you’ll find some quick Reviews, Highlights and features of some of the most popular Putty replacements on the market.

Here’s the Best PuTTY Alternatives/Replacements of 2020:

Let’s look at each of these Putty Alternatives and Replacements in detail and see what they offer that Putty doesn’t offer:

1. Solar-PuTTY – (100% Free & GUI interface)

Solar-PuTTY is a good choice for managing remote sessions in a professional way. It is offered by SolarWinds, a company renowned for making top-notch monitoring tools. This tool is Absolutely 100% FREE for LIFE!

Features and Highlights of Solar-Putty

The features and options of Solar-PuTTY are as follows.

• Helps to manage multiple sessions from one console that comes with a tabbed interface.
• Saves login credentials or private keys to make it easy to log into any session.
• Automates all scripts when connection is established.
• No installation is required.
• You can search through your saved sessions as the Windows search is integrated with it.
• Supports SCP server connections, SSH, Telnet and SFTP
• Provides quick access to frequently-used sessions.
• Supports graphical SFTP file transfer.

Price:
100% free
Download:
https://www.solarwinds.com/free-tools/solar-putty/registration

2. KiTTY

KiTTY is a fork from version 0.70 of PuTTY and is designed to work only on Microsoft Windows platform.

Besides the features of PuTTY, it comes with additional features such as the ones listed below.

• KiTTY allows you to manage a large number of sessions, as you can organize them into folders. You can have one folder for each application, machine, environment or for any other category.
• Since it uses the Windows registry database to save its configuration sessions, host keys and parameters, it can be directly saved as a tree structure. This means, you can avoid writing anything into the registry.
• Offers shortcuts for many pre-defined commands.
• To start a session, you can simply type “KiTTY.exe -launcher” in the command line.
• Supports automated scripts for logon.
• Allows you to manage URL hyperlinks in your terminal
• Passwords are automatically stored and entered. This way, you can have automatic connections to your sessions.
• You have the option to send an automatic command as soon as the connection is established. All that you have to do is fill the “Command” field in the “Connection/Data” configuration window.
• A script saved locally on your machine can be run on a remote session.
• ZModern patch from LePuTTY is integrated with KiTTY
• You can set a specific icon for each window to easily identify each of them. The icons represent famous cartoon heroes and are chosen randomly by the software.
• You have the option to move any PuTTY window to the system tray at any time.
• With KiTTY, you can customize each window and even make them transparent.
• It gives the choice to protect your session against any unintended keyboard input.
• A roll-up feature makes the main window disappear into the title bar. This option can be particularly useful to save some screen space and to organize your windows.
• KiTTY is integrated with popular browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox.
• To reduce the size of binary file, this software is compressed with a program called Ultimate Packer for Executables, or UPX in short.
• You can print any part of the text on your screen directly.
• KiTTY is integrated with covidimus patch, so you can set any background image in your sessions.

Pricing:
100% free
Download:
You can download KiTTY from http://www.9bis.net/kitty/?page=Download

3. Bitvise SSH Client

Bitvise SSH Client is a free terminal that supports all versions of Windows desktop and server operating systems, starting from the 32-bit and 64-bit of Windows XP SP3 to Windows 10 and Windows Server 2016.

The other features of Bitvise SSH client are,

• Supports single-click remote desktop forwarding.
• You can use bvterm, xterm and vt100 protocols.
• Offers single sign-on feature using SSPI, Kerberos 5, Kerberos 5 host authentication and NTLM user authentication.
• Its encryption and security measures comply with many industry standards such as PCI, HIPAA and FIPS 140-2.
• Comes with A scriptable command-line remote execution client called sexec, and a command-line terminal console client called stermc.
• Provides remote administration features.
• All terminal emulation can be done through a Windows console using standard Windows fonts.
• Offers full color support.
• Large screen buffers, many key combinations like Alt keys and accurate console rendering are other features of Bitvise SSH Client.

Pricing:
100% free
Download:
Download it from https://www.bitvise.com/download-area

4. PuTTYTray

PuTTYTray is a simple terminal that comes with many useful features and a neat interface.

The features and capabilties of PuTTYTray are:

• It is minimized to the system tray on startup.
• The icons are customizable.
• When a bill signal is received, the tray icon blinks as a form of notification.
• Supports URL hyperlinking,
• Provides configurable window transparency.
• Highly portable
• Easy access to different settings
• Supports Android adb.

Pricing:
It is free to use.
Download:
Download it from https://puttytray.goeswhere.com/#download

5. SuperPuTTY

SuperPuTTY is a Windows manager for the PuTTY SSH client. It is open source and hosted on GitHub.

The features of SuperPuTTY include some of the following:

• You can setup keyboard shortcuts for frequently used commands.
• Comes with a customizable user interface for maximum net screen size.
• You can create sessions or profiles easily, and you can even re-use them in any connection.
• The tabs can be placed side-by-side, vertically or horizontally, to suit your preference.
• Supports multiple tabs

Pricing:
100% Free
Download:
You can download it from https://github.com/jimradford/superputty.git

6. MobaXterm

MobaXterm is an enhanced terminal for remote computing and comes with loads of functions that are geared to meet the demands of programmers, webmasters, IT administrators and other types of users.

Some of its features include:

• Supports all the important network tools such as SSH, X11, RDP, VNC, FTP and more.
• It is a single portable executable file that works straight out of the box. No installation is required.
• You can run most of the popular Unix commands.
• You can launch remote sessions automatically and every session is automatically saved and displayed in the left sidebar.
• Comes with a graphical SFTP browser that allows you to drag and drop files directly to and from the remote server using a secure SFTP connection.
• You can execute the same commands across many different servers at the same time.
• You can start network daemons for remote access. No other extra tool is required for running these daemons.
• Comes with useful tools that enhance the productivity of users. Some examples of these tools are network services, list network open ports, network packets capture, network scanner, ports scanner, list running processes and list hardware devices.
• You can work on your remote Solaris desktop from your Windows computer using XDMCP protocol.
• RDP configuration settings are available in the session manager itself.
• You can create SSH tunnels using an intuitive graphical tool.
• When you connect to a remote server through SSH, you can edit remote files directly with a text editor called MobTextEditor.
• This tool allows you to record macros, so they can be replayed later on other servers.
• It saves your session passwords with a Master password!
• You can highlight syntax or use colors for keywords, even on system that do not support colors.

Pricing:
There are two editions of MobaXterm available and they are, home and professional editions. The home edition is free while the professional edition costs $69 per user.

Let’s briefly see the features that come with each edition to help you make the right decision.

Home edition

• Full X server and SSH support
• Remote desktop
• Remote terminal
• X11 forwarding
• Automatic SFTP browser
• Plug-ins support
• Portable and installer versions
• Full documentation.
• Maximum of 12 sessions, two SSH tunnels and four macros.
• Maximum 360 seconds for Tftp, Nfs and Cron.

Professional edition

• All the features present in home edition.
• Customize your startup message and logo.
• Modify your profile script
• Removes unnecessary games, screensaver and tools
• Unlimited sessions, tunnels, macros and run time for network daemons
• Master password feature
• Customer support
• Lifetime right to use

Download:
You can download the free edition from https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/download-home-edition.html. You can subscribe online for the professional edition at https://mobaxterm.mobatek.net/subscription.html

7. mRemoteNG

mRemoteNG is an open-source remote connections manager. It is a fork on mRemote and contains new features and bug fixes of mRemote.

The features of mRemoteNG are:

• You can group certain connections together n panels and tabs.
• You can undock panels and move them to the side, or undock them completely and move them to another screen altogether.
• Sports multiple protocols such as RDP, VNC, ICA, SSH, Telnet, HTTP, HTTPS, rlogin and raw socket connections.
• Maintaining the list of connections is a breeze.
• You can use inheritance feature to store properties on folders, so the underlying connections inherit this information directly.
• Provides support for importing connections from Active Directory
• Allows you to create nested containers for categorizing different connections.
• “Quick Connect” feature helps to open a connection without creating an entry.
• “Quick search” feature helps to find a connection while typing.
• Supports SCP and SFTP file transfers.
• Gives the option to assign icons to connections, so the purpose can be identified easily.
• Screenshot manager allows you to create multiple screenshots and save them together. Alternately, you can even copy them to the clipboard.
• You can view information about remote and log sessions.
• They are portable using command line switches
• Comes with an “Auto-update” feature
• Full screen mode is available.
• You can assign global credentials when no is provided is provided about the connection.

Pricing:
Free to use.
Download:
You can download mRemoteNG from https://mremoteng.org/download

8. XShell

XShell is a terminal emulator that supports many clients such as SSH1, SSH2, SFTP, TELNET, SERIAL and RLOGIN.

XShell offers a range of benefits and features such as:

• Supports simultaneous command line inputs across multiple sessions.
• Offers many customization options to match your preferences.
• You can view, create, edit, delete and launch multiple sessions using your Session Manager.
• With the Highlight Sets feature, you can use visual cues for keywords and regular expressions.
• The tabbed environment enhances productivity in a big way. The tabs can be detached to create a new window and they can be re-attached to an entirely different X shell window altogether.
• The Compose bar allows you to draft a line of string before sending it to the terminal.
• Compose pane supports multi-line string or script drafting. You can even paste your clipboard contents to the pane before sending it to the terminal. This will help to avoid sending any malicious or error-ridden commands.
• Supports PKCS#11 protocol that helps users to securely store the private keys using a hardware token.
• Allows you to designate different fonts for ASCII and non-ASCII characters.
• Supports horizontal scrollbars, so you can get a cleaner view of the servers you want to monitor.
• You can have a Master Password to add a layer of encryption to other session file passwords. This Master password encrypts the passphrase used to encrypt to the server, user key’s passphrase and password string contained within the session file.
• Synchronized input feature allows you to send the same text commands to multiple terminals. When used with split pane window, you can see the results immediately.
• Quick Commands assigns frequently used commands or strings into buttons, to avoid typing them over and over again. You can even group these buttons into sets and apply them to your desired sessions.
• Local Shell Interface lets you control XShell without having to take your hands off the keyboard. It also offers utilities such as ping and netstat, within Xshell itself.
• You can map terminal keys and file menus to preferred keyboard keys to create shortcuts.
• Supports VBScript, JScript and Python.
• Comes with a terminal lock feature that prevents users from accessing your terminal or making any changes to it.
• User defined third-party editors such as Sublime or Visual Studio can be used to edit the terminal contents.
• Any selected string can be searched on the web through Google or Bing search.
• Alerts are available to notify you of changes or errors.

System requirements

The minimum system requirements needed for XShell are:

• Operating system : Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 1, Windows Server 2012, Windows Vista, Windows Terminal Server and Citrix Metaframe for Windows.
• CPU: Intel Premium or faster
• Memory : 512 MB
• Hard disk : 50 MB
• Network : TCP/IP, Microsoft Winsock 1.1 or later

Pricing:
Xshell costs $99 and the license for each year comes to around $19.80, for each license.

Here is a split up of its cost.

License	Qty	New	Upgrade	Maintenance (1 Year)
Xshell 6	1 2-9 10-49 50-99 100+	99.00 94.00 89.00 85.00 81.00	59.00 56.00 54.00 51.00 48.00	19.80 18.80 17.90 17.00 16.10

Download:
There is no trial version, but you can download from https://www.netsarang.com/download/down_form.html?code=622 after you buy the license.

In short, the above alternatives can make it easier for you to connect and work on remote systems. Though PuTTY is a great tool, it also comes with many limitations that are removed in these alternate tools, so you can have a better user experience.

We suggest you download one of these aforementioned Putty Alternatives to get a better feel of other options on the market and how they can benefit you!

While moving from the Windows to Mac OS is a nice experience, you would miss the PuTTY system on Mac if you have been used to using it on Windows. Whether you are a system admin or a website owner, it’s a common application that most of us have used at least once in their lifetime.

PuTTY is a free terminal emulator that helps you transfer files over the same network, by logging from another computer. It can also be accessed over the internet. You can secure the file transfer facility by adding SCP and SFTP. Security is the biggest concern with PuTTY, but you can add verification and encryption by using it in combination with SSH. This helps shield the connections over the internet.

While many dedicated users still prefer using PuTTY, it can be tough for those who have recently shifted to Mac. So, here’s a quick list of some of the best PuTTY alternative for Mac OS that we think can make your life easy.

Terminal

It’s the default terminal emulator that comes embedded in the Mac OS. It’s a wonderful tool that helps break down into the command line. So, when you are logged into multiple servers, you will easily be able to identify the special background colors and the window titles mentioned in profiles. You can either use the built-in profiles in the Terminal or can even make your own custom profiles.

Just Press Command and Spacebar and search Terminal in Spotlight. Now, just write ssh [email protected] to connect to the server.

Moreover, it allows you to add bookmarks while working which can be then used to quickly maneuver through the extended Terminal window. The best part is, the inspector helps you to view and control the ongoing processes, and even lets you adjust the window titles and background colors.

Price: free

iTerm 2

iTerm is one of the best PuTTY alternatives for MacOS that comes loaded with features. It offers solutions for any desire that a terminal user could have thought of. Among its major attractions is the option to split a tab into several windows with each one of them featuring a different session. Whether you choose to divide it vertically or horizontally, it allows you to generate endless panes in any possible alignment.

By registering a hotkey, you can bring the software to the front when working from another program. Simply press a key and the terminal comes up. You can get a terminal that’s always available by setting the hotkey to open a dedicated pane. Moreover, it features powerful search functionality, while the interface stays distant. As soon as you input your search term, the matches are instantly highlighted.

Autocomplete is another feature where as you type the first letter of any word that you might have used earlier, followed with “Cmd” and the word comes up at the top of the list. Find option to look for text, paste history to recheck the last copied or pasted text, or instant replay to travel back in time, are some of its other significant features.

Price: free

ZOC

ZOC is compatible with both Windows and Mac making it universally usable. This terminal emulator is a freeware that offers a splendid list of emulations and robust features. These features make it a dependable and classy tool that links you to hosts and mainframe. It connects you through different modes such as telnet, secure shell, and more.

It boasts an advanced interface that features a tabbed session with thumbnails. It offers address book containing folders and hosts (color-coded). It can be easily customized to suit your choices and requirements. Support for a scripting language with 200 plus commands, huge number of loggings, buttons that are user-defined, or full keyboard remapping features are among some of the major features.

Price: free

vSSH Lite

If you are looking for a free PuTTY alternative to Mac OS, then vSSH Lite could be the right solution. It’s a modern SSH and Telnet client that’s highly customizable. It comes with an enlarged keyboard, touch screen motions, synchronization for iCloud, and more. It offers one of the fastest terminal outputs, comes with SSH and Telnet protocols, offers verification options with username/password and private keys, option to scroll through the touchscreen or use arrows, and multiple sessions.

Among its other major features are, background work for up to 3 minutes for iOS7, and up to 10 minutes for iOS 5/6, notifies on timeout, connections for iCloud/Dropbox, sharing of macros and keys, key and port forwarding options, and so on.

Price: free

Hyper

Hyper is another free and open source software for Mac that works as a strong alternative to PuTTY. It’s also compatible with other major platforms. The project intends to create a pleasant and extendable experience for those using a command-line interface developed on open web models.

The software aims to focus majorly on speed, consistency, and the creation of accurate API for extension creators. Overall, the program can be expanded with add-ons, but without any choice for file transfer or encryption.

Price: free and open source

Shuttle

Shuttle for Mac is an uncomplicated and straightforward shortcut menu application for OS X. All you need to do is to launch the app and select the option that says “Configure to edit ~/.shuttle.json”. Now, describe the items featured in the menu as well as the actions that start functioning when clicked.

Price: free

OpenSSH

Putty Alternative For Mac Serial

A free and open source terminal emulator for Mac OS, OpenSSH is also available for other platforms. It’s a leading connectivity software used to log in from a remote system with the SSH client. It encodes the entire traffic to remove any possibilities of spying, hijacking connection, and other malware attacks. Besides, it also offers an extended range of safe tunneling features, multiple verification techniques, and elegant configuration choices.

The program comes equipped with tools like ssh, scp, and sftp for remote functions, ssh-add, ssh-keysign, ssh-keyscan, and ssh-keygen for key management, and sshd, sftp-server, and ssh-agent as service options.

Price: free

Royal TSX

If you are looking for a PuTTY alternative for Mac that offers easy and safe access to the remote computers, then Royal TSX can be your best bet. It helps you manage your computers remotely on several different platforms at a time. Whether you are a system engineer, IT professional, developer, or system admin, the tool is perfect for your needs.

It also offers assistance for credential management and comes with a tabbed interface for convenience. Simply mention the name of the credential to allocate a credential to connections. This helps you to share a file that features only connections with your personal testimonials saved in a confidential file, locked with a passcode.

It features a smooth and user interface that is completely customizable. Besides, it can manage files accessed by different users concurrently, while letting you integrate file modifications without an SQL database back-end. It can also sync with LastPass and KeePass that allows you to open the documents. It also allows the credentials to be opened to be used as the normal credentials for the software.

Price: free trial available; pro version starts from € 39.00

Chrome Secure Shell

For those looking for one of the best PuTTY alternatives for Mac, Chrome Secure Shell is the right choice It’s a terminal emulator and SSH client designed for Chrome. It’s compatible with x-term that uses the built-in client to connect to the SSH servers right away without needing any outer proxies.

Price: free

Termius

If you are looking for an extensive command-line option, Termius could be the best option for you. This tool is way beyond than just an SSH client as it reexplores remote access for network engineers and system admins. It allows you to access the Linux or IoT based devices safely, and fix any issues much faster and conveniently.

This free application offers an attractive, handmade interface for all major platforms. There are no ads for distraction. Moreover, it couples its servers and credentials for fast access. While it helps make groups to explain the shared themes and settings, it also tags your systems to keep them arranged.

It comes equipped with 10 colorful themes and fonts that can be adjusted. In addition, it allows you to create several connections to the same host or link to different hosts. You can also encode almost all services and connections using port forwarding and tunneling.

Price: free

Kitty Terminal

Kitty Terminal can be easily considered among the best PuTTY alternatives for Mac OS as it’s a robust, multi-platform, and a GPU-supported terminal emulator. The program transfers description to the GPU and makes the OpenGL to work for quick, multi-platform performance. It includes native tiling designs along with support for visual, Unicode, and ligature.

It provides support for every advanced terminal feature like the images, true-color, mouse protocol, and more. It also supports tiling of different terminal windows parallelly in multiple patterns and does not require using the tmux. Best of all, it can be managed from the shell prompt or the scripts. The program can be extended using Kittens structure that helps build small terminal programs.

In addition, it provides support for startup sessions that enable you to fix a design, active directories, and apps to launch at the startup. Besides, it also lets you launch the scrollback option in an individual window that uses random apps.

Price: free and open source

SecureCRT

SecureCRT offers a powerful terminal emulation function for those in the field of computers. While it helps to increase productivity with modern session control, it also sets up many methods to save time and streamline mundane tasks. It offers safe remote access, file transfer facility, and the option of data tunneling for all employees in the organization.

Moreover, it comes with pre-set color schemes, that includes Solarized scheme, making it easy to transform the look of your terminal workstation. You have the freedom to select from a different light and dark color mixups with matching forefront, background, and ANSI shades.

Price: free trial available; pro version starts at $59.95

Codinn SSH

Codinn SSH Proxy helps transform any remote server (SSH) to SOCKS v5 proxy, that’s responsive and user-friendly. It stores the history of your SSH credentials and private key passcode, and save it to the keychain of OS X. What’s more? It can even reconnect you automatically when your Mac wakes you up from your sleep.

Among its major features are, autostart option as the Mac OS X starts, option to share SOCKS v5 proxy on LAN, quick change between multiple SSH accounts create a whitelist, and more.

Price: On request

While there are many alternatives for PuTTY for Windows, not many options are there for Mac OS. However, the ones we have listed are good enough to suffice your needs. Given that Mac OS already comes equipped with its own native SSH client, chances are that you may not require external support. But, those who are looking for additional features, can try any of the apps listed in the above list of the best PuTTY alternative for Mac OS.

DTerm

DTerm is another great PuTTY alternative for MacOS which is context based. This command line works at the simple touch of a key. It syncs the command line process into the user’s regular workflow and improves productivity while removing any clutters from the screen. In short, it simplifies the entire workflow by eliminating the tedious process of functioning as an individual window in an individual application.

As you look for information, the software questions the window for the route to its logs (at the extreme front), while introducing a command line using a suitable active directory. It also lets the log files to be added to the command, easily. Moreover, it allows you to copy the command outcomes to the clipboard and release the software with a single stroke of a keyboard.

The software helps cut down the entire workflow of operating command in a random working directory and copying the outcomes to be used later. It reduces this entire process to as low as just three simple keystrokes.

Putty Alternative For Mac Os

I find passion in writing Tech articles around Windows PC and softwares