The best SSH clients in 2026, compared
Twelve SSH clients for macOS, Windows and Linux compared on price, platforms, jump hosts, SFTP and AI: Termius, MobaXterm, PuTTY, SecureCRT, Tabby and more.
SSH guides, written down.
SSH guides you can paste from, straight comparisons of SSH clients, and notes on how Gatesys SSH is built.
Compare SSH clients
Gatesys SSH beside the clients people already use: what each does well, what each costs, and who should stay put.
Termius alternative: an SSH client for bastions
Looking for a Termius alternative on desktop? Termius and Gatesys SSH compared on price, jump hosts, AI, sync, and where your hosts and keys are kept.
MobaXterm alternative for Mac, Linux and Windows
MobaXterm runs on Windows only and its free edition stops at 12 sessions and 2 tunnels. How Gatesys SSH compares, and when MobaXterm is still the right tool.
PuTTY alternative: when to move on, and to what
PuTTY still works, but it has no tabs, no file browser and no jump-host manager. What a modern PuTTY alternative adds, and how to bring your keys with you.
SecureCRT alternative: SSH without the $119 licence
SecureCRT costs $119 a seat and has no AI. A fair comparison with Gatesys SSH on price, jump hosts, SFTP, scripting and serial, and who should keep SecureCRT.
Xshell alternative for Mac, Linux and work use
Xshell runs on Windows only and its free licence is for home and school. A cross-platform Xshell alternative that is free at work, compared in detail.
Tabby alternative: a terminal or an SSH client?
Tabby is a free, open-source terminal with SSH built in. When a Tabby alternative makes sense, how Gatesys SSH differs, and when Tabby is the better pick.
AI in SSH clients compared: Termius, Warp, Gatesys
Three ways to put AI beside a remote shell: autocomplete, an agent with a host extension, and an assistant that cites measured facts. What each installs.
SSH guides
Jump hosts, tunnels, keys and the errors you meet on the way, with commands you can paste.
SSH ProxyJump: a practical guide to jump hosts
Reach servers behind a bastion with ssh -J and ProxyJump: config examples, multi-hop chains, scp and rsync through a jump host, and bastion hardening.
Debugging a failed ProxyJump chain, hop by hop
An SSH connection through a bastion can fail at five steps on every hop. How to read the error, find the hop that broke, and test from the hop in front of it.
How to edit sshd_config without locking yourself out
A safe routine for changing sshd_config over SSH: validate with sshd -t, check the effective settings for your login, and arm a timed rollback first.
SSH port forwarding explained: -L, -R and -D
Local, remote and dynamic SSH tunnels with examples you can paste: reach a database behind a bastion, expose a local port, or run a SOCKS proxy.
Permission denied (publickey): causes and fixes
SSH says Permission denied (publickey)? See in one command whether your key was never offered or was refused, then fix it: eleven causes, each with a check.
SSH key best practices: Ed25519, agents, rotation
Which SSH key type to use in 2026, how to protect it with a passphrase and an agent, when to rotate, and how to find the weak keys you forgot you had.
Agentless server monitoring over SSH: how far it goes
What you can learn about a Linux server with nothing installed on it: the read-only commands, how to forecast a full disk, and where agentless monitoring stops.
How Gatesys SSH is built
The decisions behind the app, and the reasons for them.
Autocomplete over SSH, without installing anything
Gatesys SSH suggests commands, services, containers and folders as you type over SSH, with nothing installed on the server. How it works and what it keeps.
Why our AI is not allowed to rate its own commands
In Gatesys SSH a model may suggest a command, but 167 local rules decide how dangerous it is. Why the judge is code, and how a command is parsed.
Your servers, understood.
Download Gatesys SSH free. Start Pro when you want Farabi — the first 3 months are on us.