Graphic front ends for SSH
Conclusions
The graphical SSH front ends discussed in this article all do their jobs without problems, but there are significant differences in the features each front end offers (see Table 1). PuTTY shows its age visually as well as in terms of the functions it offers: You will not find tabs for open connections or integrated virtual terminal windows. In addition, accessing remote systems with hopelessly antiquated protocols such as rlogin or Telnet also seems obsolete.
Table 1
Graphical SSH Front End Features
| Ásbrú Connection Manager | EasySSH | PuTTY |
|
|---|---|---|---|
| License |
GPLv3 |
GPLv3 |
MIT License |
| Functions |
|||
| Multiple simultaneous connections |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Built-in virtual terminals |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Clusters |
Yes |
No |
No |
| Groups |
Yes |
Yes |
No |
| Authentication via key pair |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
| X11 forwarding |
Yes |
Yes |
Yes |
EasySSH lets users establish connections very quickly and without detours via detailed settings dialogs, but – as a Flatpak application – it is very slow. More importantly, EasySSH has a significant security hole caused by storing the connection data without encryption in plain text on the client, effectively inviting attackers to steal the access credentials.
Ásbrú Connection Manager offers the most balanced and state-of-art, graphical SSH front end. Its modern interface and ability to work with clusters makes Ásbrú Connection Manager the tool of choice for professional use.
Infos
- Ásbrú Connection Manager: https://www.asbru-cm.net
- EasySSH: https://github.com/muriloventuroso/easyssh
- PuTTY: https://www.putty.org
- KSSH: https://sourceforge.net/projects/kssh/
- ssh-gui: https://sourceforge.net/projects/ssh-gui/
- secpanel: https://sourceforge.net/projects/secpanel/
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