best ssh program for Windows?

Question

I know of Putty. I currently use rxvt (via Cygwin).

Is there a more "integrated" terminal program for Windows out there? e.g. something closer to KDE's kconsole -- where I can have multiple shells all tabbed within the same window. etc.

Just to be pedantic, Cygwin's rxvt isn't an ssh client. Cygwin's ssh client is OpenSSH, from the OpenBSD project. — Steven Monday, Oct 15 '10 at 01:00

score 24 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

24

So far as I know, Putty is the best open-source non-commercial SSH client for Windows. For tabbed sessions there is http://puttycm.free.fr/cms/

You could also look at commercial programs such as Reflection for Unix and SecureCRT. (Edit:) They both offer tabbed sessions.

Another option might be Putty + screen (man screen)?

(Edit:)

Summary of programs suggested in this & other answers and comments

In no particular order.

Putty _RGB
Putty + PuttyCM _RGB
Putty + screen _RGB
Reflection _RGB - $120
SecureCRT _RGB - $99
Anzio Lite _RGB - $40
mRemote _gWaldo
mRemoteNG _{Mircea Vutcovici}
Kitty - a Putty fork _UniDyne
Poderosa _Cypher
ssh from Cygwin OpenSSH] _{Steven Monai}
Absolute Telnet _Adrien
MobaXterm _miguelo

_{Prices for commercial products are indicative only, check before choosing}

I thought it would be useful to have a concise list. For votes, see also below.

edited Jun 11 '20 at 10:02

Community

1

answered Oct 14 '10 at 23:07

RedGrittyBrick

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+1 for securecrt. using it last 8 years, imho the best. – disserman Oct 14 '10 at 23:24
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+1 for Putty+screen. Screen has the nice side effect that if you ssh connection get terminated, your processes do not. – Dan McClain Oct 15 '10 at 14:43
mRemote (and mRemoteNG) allow for multiple sessions in separate tabs in the same window. – gWaldo Oct 15 '10 at 15:48
another +1 for screen. – pfyon Oct 20 '10 at 19:55
+1 for mentioning Reflection, oh the nostalgia... I recall it being bloody expensive though? ^^ – Oskar Duveborn Oct 20 '10 at 20:31
+1 for the nice summary edited in – 0xC0000022L Mar 08 '11 at 14:25
tmux is a nice alternative to screen as well. Among other things, it supports shared sessions without needing super user privileges for configuration. – Jonatan Apr 19 '12 at 16:23
Reflection is a hellish piece of software. I worked Help Desk at a big corporate investment banking firm and it refused to install from the .msi package if the user wasn't local administrator. I did not have access to the gpo that was pushing it. – ItsGC Sep 07 '12 at 10:52

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 20 '10 at 20:03

4

kiTTY is an up-to-date port of the venerable old puTTY. It supports tabbed sessions and a bunch of other niceties/tweaks to the original puTTY.

www.9bis.net/kitty

Unfortunately, not many people know about this fork yet. If you are currently using puTTY, I would highly recommend kiTTY.

answered Oct 20 '10 at 20:03

I use Kitty since last one tear or so. It's really nice. It's most of the missing features Putty doesnt have – Robert Jul 27 '11 at 14:06
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How do you get tabs to work in KiTTY??? – jmreicha Jan 06 '12 at 20:31

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Oct 15 '10 at 00:28

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I know you already accepted an answer, but I hate Putty and there IS another tool out there for Windows users. A lot of people say Putty is the best - probably because it's the only tool they know about for Windows clients. I thought it was the only option as well until I found Poderosa.

It offers multiple panes/sessions per window, multiple tabs, simple font/color customizations, background images/colors - and probably a few more things I haven't found yet.

It's the only tool I use now for telnet/ssh/console(serial) terminal shell sessions. It might be what you're looking for.

answered Oct 15 '10 at 00:28

Cypher

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But there's been no activity on it since 2006. – Dennis Williamson Oct 15 '10 at 05:55
but but.. putty *is* the best ! – Sirex Oct 15 '10 at 13:57
@Dennis: granted, but it works and the source IS available for special circumstances. – Cypher Oct 15 '10 at 16:45

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Oct 20 '10 at 19:55

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I am using SecureCRT.

answered Oct 20 '10 at 19:55

adamo

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score 1 · Answer 5 · answered Oct 20 '10 at 20:55

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check for MobaXterm, a terminal console for windows which allows ssh, public keys, X forwards, multi-tabs, and many linux commands in windows environment.

answered Oct 20 '10 at 20:55

miguelo

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score 0 · Answer 6 · answered Oct 14 '10 at 23:16

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Absolute Telnet seems to offer some of what you're looking for, including tabbed connections.

answered Oct 14 '10 at 23:16

Adrien

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score 0 · Answer 7 · answered Oct 14 '10 at 23:17

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mRemote is an Open-Source 'connection management' app. (It has since been sold to another company, but the source is still available.) In addition to PuTTy sessions (you need to have it installed), it'll also manage RDP v6, VNC, HTTP and so on.

Development has stopped on mRemote and moved to the new product, but it's fine at the final release, v1.50

answered Oct 14 '10 at 23:17

gWaldo

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There is a fork of it - mRemote NG. You can find it at http://www.mremoteng.org/ – Mircea Vutcovici Oct 15 '10 at 13:56
Thanks for the heads-up. I had downloaded a the installers and source just-in-case – gWaldo Oct 15 '10 at 15:47

score 0 · Answer 8 · answered Oct 15 '10 at 01:07

I use the ssh client in Cygwin's port of the OpenSSH package all the time in Windows XP. The thing I like most about it is that it works pretty much exactly the same way as the ssh on every UNIX and Linux, in terms of capabilities, command-line options, and config files. This means you can cruise the UNIX and Linux forums for help and hints, and their suggestions will almost always apply to the Cygwin client.

score 0 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 08 '10 at 00:11

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I use Console on windows which gives me the tabbed interface, and cygwin underneath, so i get ssh, bash, etc.

It's nice because you can also have a tab with cmd running, or whatever shell you need.

Console is available on sourceforge.

answered Nov 08 '10 at 00:11

Dr. McKay

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score 0 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 08 '10 at 01:11

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I'll add +1 to those suggesting PuTTY, but in conjunction with WinSCP at the same time; that way you can have WinSCP handle the login details and jump into PuTTY at the touch of a key.

answered Nov 08 '10 at 01:11

Arantor

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered May 23 '12 at 18:08

It might also be worth mentioning MindTerm, an SSH client written entirely in Java. This is useful on computers with restrictions or policies about allowed programs.

The most useful (and portable) way to run MindTerm is via the Java applet, over at http://rumkin.com/tools/ssh/

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Sep 07 '12 at 10:28

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http://www.cryptzone.com/products/mindterm/ Nindterm is also located here. Java based, and lots of goodies.

answered Sep 07 '12 at 10:28

Reggie

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best ssh program for Windows?

12 Answers12

Summary of programs suggested in this & other answers and comments

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