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.
Using the built-in SSH client in Mac OS X. Mac OS X includes a command-line SSH client as part of the operating system. To use it, goto Finder, and selext Go - Utilities from the top menu. Then look for Terminal. Terminal can be used to get a local terminal window, and also supports SSH. The best Mac alternative is Hyper, which is both free and Open Source. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to MobaXterm and many of them is available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to MobaXterm are iTerm2 (Free, Open Source), Alacritty (Free.
- Fugu – (an implementation of SFTP and SCP for Mac OS X). It is a classic app and still has more features than most all other ssh clients. I need a mac putty equivalent for some devops self documenting infrastructure stuff and sad to see that putty has not been ported to mac. Putty for Mac is a wonderful free SSH & Telnet Client software.
- Using the built-in SSH client in Mac OS X. Mac OS X includes a command-line SSH client as part of the operating system. To use it, goto Finder, and selext Go - Utilities from the top menu. Then look for Terminal. Terminal can be used to get a local terminal window, and also supports SSH connections to remote servers.
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
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
Virtual farm. 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.
I find passion in writing Tech articles around Windows PC and softwares
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Apple Remote Desktop (ARD) or VNC is a wonderful invention if you want full control over a remote desktop, but what if you only want to access the user display of one single X11 program on a remote machine?
This is possible on Mac OS X with X11 Forwarding.
THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN REWRITTEN (Manual set of the $DISPLAY variable is insecure!)
Prerequisites:
X11 environments on both the local and remote machine (see man X). Ensure network access for X11. In Mac OS X on X11 Quartz check the authorization and client access options under Preferences in the Security pane.
Enable X11 Forwarding with the “X11Forwarding yes” option set in “/private/etc/sshd_config” for your SSH Daemon own local X11 host in order to recieve X11 client request back from the remote machine through ‘ssh‘ with the -X option set.
Start or restart the Remote Login (SSH) Service under System Preference / Sharing pane on Mac OS X. The SSH daemon should run on the remote machine as well!
See “man ssh”, “man ssh_config” and “man sshd_config” for the complete explanation.
3 Simple Steps to X11 Forward on Mac OS X
1.Open “Terminal” in Mac OS X Leopard.
2.ssh -X X11 Forward to your remote host (See “man ssh” for the use of the -X or -Y flag X11 forward):
3.Start your remote X11 program and view the user display on your local machine:
Voila it works! The X application will start up your X11 environment. Its quite easy to do X11 forwarding when you first get the hang of it.
Do elegant X11 stuff with ssh -X -f like:
Caveat Notes:
Have the latest and updated versions of Mac OS X, Developer and X11.
3 Clues to successful X11 forwarding:
A. When you make changes to /etc/sshd_config remember to restart the Remote Login Service (SSH).
B. Remember to allow incoming access to X11 in the X11 preferences and through your firewall(s) and router!
Free Ssh Client For Mac Os X Versions
C. And you have will of curse have to be accurate about your local and remote machine naming convention i.e. John-Does-iMac.local or privat.happycamper.com. Check with “echo $HOSTNAME”. On the remote machine you could also do a check with $REMOTEHOST (if set) to check your own machine name on the remote host.
NOT! Sometimes it is necessary to use xhost +remotehost and set the $DISPLAY environment variable manually on Mac OS X (something -X or -Y flag in ssh should normally do for you). Try “echo $DISPLAY” on the local machine and remote to get hints of the $DISPLAY status. You can always check your environment with “env” and “$”. On Mac OS X Leopard you use EXPORT with bash shell to set environment variables as opposed to tcsh that uses setenv. You should only set the $DISPLAY variable manually in a secure environment i.e. local network.
NEW! Do not set the DISPLAY variable on the client. You will most likely disable encryption. (X connections forwarded through Secure Shell use a special local display setting.)
If you have further problems try to use -v, -vv or even -vvv verbose flag with ssh to debug.
X11 Forwarding:
X11 Forwarding www.ssh.com
Configurering and running X11 Applications on Mac OS X developer.apple.com
X11 FAQ – Technical Q&A QA1232 developer.apple.com
Technical Q&A QA1383 Enabling X11 Forwarding developer.apple.com
Forwarding X11 from a Remote Computer to the Mac oroborosx.sourceforge.net
ssh X forwarding debugging mac.com
Display Names xfree86.org
X11:
X Window System wikipedia.org
The X Window System freebsd.org (Introduktion from FreeBSD Handbook)
XQuartz project xquartz.macosforge.org (X11)
Command-Line Administration Version 10.5 Leopard (PDF) manuals.info.apple.com (Connecting to Remote Computers p. 31 – 37)
Introduction to Command-Line Administration Version 10.6 Snow Leopard (PDF) manuals.info.apple.com (Connecting to Remote Computers p. 27 – 33)
Free Ssh Client For Mac Os X El Capitan
Open Source X11 developer.apple.com
UNIX & Open Source downloads apple.com