if you have a VPS or a server running linux need to manage via SSH. On Windows you will have loads of options such as PuTTY, kitty, MobaXterm … but on MacOS majority are paid app to use.
But there are still free apps with great features that satisfy your needs. We list the 5 most prominent apps below.
1. Termius SSH client
Download: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/termius-ssh-client/id1176074088?l=en&mt=12
Termius is more than a mere SSH client – it’s a complete command-line solution that’s redefining remote access for sysadmins and network engineers. Securely access Linux or IoT devices and quickly fix issues from the comfort of your couch via laptop or phone.
Features:
- Termius is available for all major mobile and desktop systems.
- Enjoy a beautiful, hand-crafted interface.
- Supports ECDSA and ed25519 keys as well as chacha20-poly1305 cipher.
- Termius is always ad-free. You are not the product.
- Pair credentials and servers for quick access.
- Create groups to define shared settings and themes.
- Tag your servers to stay organized.
- Make it yours with 12 colorful themes and adjustable fonts.
- Power through late night sessions with dark mode.
- Make multiple connections to the same host or connect to multiple hosts.
- Port forwarding lets you encrypt nearly any service or connection.
2. Core Shell – SSH Client 4+
Download: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/core-shell-ssh-client/id1354319581?l=en&mt=12
A full featured terminal with built-in OpenSSH support, it’s focused on managing and login to hosts efficiently. Don’t waste your time; be productive.
Features
Full-featured Terminal
- Compatible with Terminal.app and xterm.
- Supports ANSI 16 and 256 color palettes, as well as 24bit true color.
- Passed cases of *vttest– a strict VT100/VT220/VT420 terminal functionality test suite.
OpenSSH Compatible
- Everything in OpenSSH, agent forwarding, certificates, proxy jump, etc.
- Can read your existing `ssh_config` file as the source of advanced options, especially helpful for experienced users.
- Can work with GnuPG agent, YubiKey, Authy and Google Authenticator.
Download/Upload
- Upload files by dragging and dropping to the shell window.
- Download remote files with single click on context menu or press a key combination.
Keychain Integration
- Tightly integrated with macOS Keychain, don’t have to enter passwords or passphrases repeatedly.
- It’s totally optionally, you can opt-in or opt-out at any time.
Advanced Options Editor
- A handy way to tune per-host advanced options.
- For every ssh directives, there is a contextual help provides immediate information, no more googling.
Automatic Reconnect
- Always tries to restore your connections after network failure or waking up from sleep.
Theming
- Eight built-in color schemes: Basic, Dracula, Grass, Homebrew, Man Page, Novel, Ocean, Red Sands
- Our color optimization ensure that colorful text always clearly visible.
Tags
- Use tags to organize your hundreds or thousands of hosts.
- Tag your host by a simple drag & drop actions.
Premium Features
- Unlimited number of connections
- Importing and exporting
- Sync hosts and tags between all of your Mac computers
- Scriptable (automation with AppleScript and Automator)
- Prioritized customer support
Premium License
- USD 9.99 for 1-Year License
- USD 29.99 for 4-Year License (save 25%)
3. SSH Proxy 4+
Download: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/ssh-proxy/id597790822?l=en&mt=12
SSH Proxy can help you turn any remote SSH server into a SOCKS / HTTPS proxy, intuitive and easy to use.
SSH Proxy is able to remember the SSH login password & private key passphrase and save it to OS X’s keychain. Furthermore, SSH Proxy is designed to automatically reconnect when your Mac is waking up from sleep.
Features:
- Auto launch when log in OS X
- Create HTTP, HTTPS, SOCKS4/4A and SOCKS5 proxy through SSH tunnel
- Ability to share created proxy on LAN
- Fast switch between multiple SSH accounts
- Automatically reconnect after disconnected by errors or waking up from sleep
- Remember SSH login password & private key passphrase in OS X Keychain automatically
- Whitelist, only sites on the list will be accessed through the proxy server, other sites will be connected directly
SSH Functions:
- Able to compress SSH connection
- Connecting through SOCKS5 / SOCKS4 / HTTPS proxy with authentication
- Support public-key, password, keyboard-interactive and multi-factor authentication methods
- Support Google Authenticator and Authy for two-step verification
- Support multi-factor authentication
- Can deal with DSA, RSA, ECDSA, ed25519 private key types
- RFC4716, PKCS#8 and PEM key formats are supported, compatible with OpenSSH
Note:
- SSH Proxy supports SSH-2 protocol, the vulnerable and obsoleted SSH-1 is not supported. Most modern servers and clients support SSH-2.
- You got to have a remote SSH server before downloading and using SSH Proxy, SSH Proxy does not provide you SSH service.
4. Zen Term Lite SSH Client 4+
Download: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/zen-term-lite-ssh-client/id1422475219?l=en&mt=12
Zen Term Lite is a powerful terminal emulator that supports SSH, ZModem, and provides various authentication methods. You can easily use it to connect to Linux, UNIX and Mac hosts.
Note: Zen Term lite edition doesn’t provide SFTP functionality, please use standard edition to get full experience.
Features:
Terminal
- Supports VT100, XTERM, XTERM-256color terminal emulation.
- Supports encoding and decoding character sets from multiple languages, including Chinese, Japanese and Korean multi-byte character sets.
- The scrollback buffer can be configured to save up to 10,000 lines.
Security
- Master password is encrypted and stored in Apple KeyChain, and connection passwords and passphrases are encrypted by master password, so that you don’t have to input password/passphrase repeatedly.
- Supports RSA/DSA/ECDSA/ED25519 public key, password, and keyboard interactive user authentication.
- User key generation: generate RSA/DSA/ECDSA/ED25519 private keys.
- User key management: allows user keys to be viewed, generated, removed, imported and exported.
- Host key management: allows host keys to be viewed, removed, imported and exported.
Appearence
- Multiple terminal color schemes are provided, and you can create new color schemes with customized foreground, background, and ANSI colors.
- Change font name and size.
- Change cursor color, shape and blinking.
- Supports the creation of multiple TAB groups, the app window can be splitted horizontally or vertically, and tabs can be dragged and dropped between TAB groups.
- Force Touch can open a search engine or dictionary.
- Supports macOS dark mode.
- File transfers
- Send and receives files via ZModem.
- Drag and drop files and folders onto the shell session to start ZModem file transfers.
5. Core Tunnel – SSH Tunnel 2 4+
Download: https://itunes.apple.com/jp/app/core-tunnel-ssh-tunnel-2/id1354318707?l=en&mt=12
The missing ssh tunnel manager, compatible with OpenSSH, automatic and intuitive. Don’t waste your time; be productive.
Features:
- OpenSSH Compatible
- Everything in OpenSSH, local / remote / dynamic port forwarding types, agent forwarding, certificates, proxy jump, etc.
- Can read your existing `ssh_config` file as the source of advanced options, especially helpful for experienced users.
- Can work with GnuPG agent, YubiKey, Authy and Google Authenticator.
- Keychain Integration
- Tightly integrated with macOS Keychain, don’t have to enter passwords or passphrases repeatedly.
- It’s totally optionally, you can opt-in or opt-out at any time.
- Advanced Options Editor
- A handy way to tune per-host advanced options.
- For every ssh directives, there is a contextual help provides immediate information, no more googling.
- Automatic Reconnect
- Always tries to restore your connections after network failure or waking up from sleep.
- Tunnels can be set to connect on app startup.
- Menubar Icon
- Control and monitor tunnels without switching out your current working window.
- Tags
- Use tags to organize your hundreds or thousands of tunnels.
- Tag your tunnel by a simple drag & drop actions.
Premium Features
- Unlimited number of connections
- Importing and exporting
- Sync hosts and tags between all of your Mac computers
- Scriptable (automation with AppleScript and Automator)
- Prioritized customer support
Premium License
- USD 9.99 for 1-Year License
- USD 29.99 for 4-Year License (save 25%)
