The best SSH client for Mac in 2026
Seven SSH clients for the Mac compared: what each does best, how it is sold, and where SSHive, the app we make, fits among them.
By Lucas Russo, developer of SSHive · Updated
There is no shortage of SSH clients on macOS. Apple ships Terminal.app, and around it you find terminal emulators such as iTerm2 and Tabby, subscription apps such as Termius, the Windows classic PuTTY, and business tools such as SecureCRT and Royal TSX. The right choice depends on what you do beyond the shell. If you type ssh user@host and stay there, a good terminal emulator is all you need. If the same afternoon also means copying files, opening a Windows desktop or going through a bastion, the answer changes.
The ranking below rewards what gets the most done from one app for sysadmins, developers and on-call engineers: saved profiles, file transfer, tunnels, remote desktops and the cost over time. If moving files is the main job, go straight to our comparison of SFTP clients.
#1 Our pick: SSHive
Disclosure: SSHive is made by NetMeSafe, which also publishes this site, so this ranking is not independent. What we say about the other apps comes from their publishers' own pages, and each one's row says what it does best.
SSHive puts an SSH terminal, an SFTP file manager, RDP, VNC and SSH tunnels (-L, -R and SOCKS5 -D) in one Mac window, with broadcast to every connected SSH session, snippets, network tools and an MCP server for Claude Code, Cursor and Claude Desktop. The iPhone and iPad app covers SSH, SFTP, RDP and VNC under the same purchase. SSH and SFTP are free, capped but with no end date; Pro costs $12.99 once on the App Store, with no subscription, and adds the remote desktops, the remote and SOCKS5 tunnels, jump hosts, broadcast and MCP.
The other SSH clients we compared
| # | App | Best for | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | iTerm2SSHive vs iTerm2 | People who live in the shell and want a richer Terminal: iTerm2 replaces the one macOS ships. It has no SFTP browser, RDP or VNC of its own. | Free |
| 3 | TermiusSSHive vs Termius | People who work across several systems: the same app on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS and Android, with hosts, keys and settings synced between them on the paid plans, not on the free Starter plan. | $10/month, billed annually |
| 4 | Tabbyformerly TerminusSSHive vs Tabby (Terminus) | Anyone after a free, cross-platform terminal that handles local shells, SSH and Telnet in one place. | Free |
| 5 | Royal TSXSSHive vs Royal TSX | Teams that keep their connections in shared documents: RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, FTP and SFTP, with each person's credentials held in a private document of their own. The free Lite edition stops at 10 connections. | €49 excl. VAT |
| 6 | PuTTYunofficial Mac portSSHive vs PuTTY | Windows switchers who know PuTTY's settings by heart. Its developers doubt they will ever finish a Mac version (PuTTY FAQ, A.3.2), so what runs on a Mac is a third-party build. | Free |
| 7 | SecureCRTSSHive vs SecureCRT | Companies that script their sessions in Python and run many tabs side by side. Also on Windows, Linux and iOS; its RDP support is Windows-only. | $119 |
Competitor prices checked on September 22, 2026. Descriptions and pricing models checked against each publisher's own pages on September 24, 2026.
Why we built SSHive instead of using one of these
Everything in one window
SSH, SFTP, RDP, VNC and tunnels open as tabs of the same window. Apart from Royal TSX, none of the other clients here offers RDP or VNC on the Mac, so the usual setup becomes a terminal, a file-transfer app, Windows App (formerly Microsoft Remote Desktop) and a VNC viewer: four windows for one job.
Passwords locked your way
On the Mac, saved passwords are encrypted with a key that macOS keeps in the Keychain, and the setting "Require Touch ID before decrypting passwords" makes SSHive ask first; it is off by default. On iPhone and iPad they stay in the Keychain behind Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode. There is no SSHive account, and no SSHive server ever holds them; iCloud sync, a Pro option, copies them into your own iCloud Keychain.
Ready for AI assistants
On the Mac, SSHive Pro runs an MCP server that listens on 127.0.0.1 only, behind a bearer token, and gives Claude Code, Cursor or Claude Desktop 20 tools to list your profiles, run commands and move files over SFTP. It changes no configuration by itself: you paste the command or JSON shown in Settings > MCP, or install the Claude Desktop extension in one click. What the assistant reads goes to its own model provider. None of the other clients here ships an MCP server.
One price, no subscription
SSHive Pro costs $12.99 once, on the App Store, and one purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad, with Family Sharing. Updates are included for as long as the app is maintained. Among the paid options on this list, it costs the least over a year: SecureCRT lists $119, Royal TSX €49 excl. VAT and Termius $10/month, billed annually.
Frequently asked questions
Is SSHive really free?+
Can I import my SSH config or sessions from another tool?+
~/.ssh/config comes in with one click from the sidebar, as the SSH config import guide shows. PuTTY sessions exported as a .reg file, a MobaXterm .ini saved in cleartext and a Royal TSX .rtsx document come in through Settings > Import / Export > Import from another tool. The free tier stops at 5 profiles, and there is no importer for Termius, SecureCRT, iTerm2 or Tabby.What about Terminal.app, which comes with macOS?+
~/.ssh/config and ssh-add --apple-use-keychain it goes a long way. What it does not give you is a file browser over SFTP, tunnels saved with a profile, or RDP and VNC next to the shell. If a single command is all you need, it is enough.Try SSHive Free for macOS
Get the all-in-one SSH, SFTP, RDP and VNC client for Mac. Free download, no signup required.
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