PuTTY on a Mac? SSHive brings SSH, serial and Telnet together
PuTTY is a classic SSH client beloved by generations of administrators, and on Windows it is also the usual way to reach a console port or an old Telnet-only switch. On a Mac there is no official PuTTY, and the usual substitutes cover the SSH half while leaving the serial and Telnet half to screen and a Homebrew install. SSHive covers all three in one app.
By Lucas Russo, developer of SSHive · Updated
PuTTY is one of the oldest and most recognized SSH clients in the world. It was built for Windows and reaches the Mac only through unofficial ports. PuTTY has no graphical SFTP manager, no RDP, no VNC and no modern theming. SSHive takes everything that made PuTTY beloved, simplicity and reliability, and puts it in a Mac App Store app with the protocols and tools a system administrator needs, a serial console and a Telnet client included.
Feature-by-feature comparison
| Feature | SSHive | PuTTY |
|---|---|---|
| SSH Terminal | Yes | Yes |
| SFTP File Manager | Yes | No |
| RDP Client | Yes | No |
| VNC Client | Yes | No |
| Serial console (USB adapter) | Yes | Yes |
| Telnet client | Yes | Yes |
| SSH Tunnels | Yes | Yes |
| Broadcast Mode | Yes | No |
| MCP / AI Integration | Yes | No |
| macOS app | Yes | via unofficial port |
| Keychain Integration | Yes | No |
| Mac App Store | Yes | No |
| Modern UI | Yes | No |
| Price | Free / Pro (one-time) | Free |
Competitor prices checked on September 22, 2026.
The verdict
PuTTY is a timeless classic. On a Mac, SSHive covers the two things people look for it for, both free: a serial console (baud rate, framing, flow control and a BREAK signal) and an RFC 854 Telnet client. It then adds SFTP, FTP and FTPS in the same app, RDP and VNC with Pro, and profiles whose passwords are protected by a key kept in the Keychain.
Where PuTTY does better
PuTTY is small, free, and ships for Windows on both x86 and Arm. Its command-line companions (PSCP, PSFTP and Plink) let you script file transfers and remote commands. It also speaks Rlogin and SUPDUP, and its Tunnels panel sets up local, remote and dynamic (SOCKS) forwarding at no cost. In SSHive, remote and SOCKS tunnels are Pro features, and the SOCKS proxy exists on the Mac only.
Who should keep PuTTY
If your desk is a Windows PC, PuTTY remains the obvious choice, and nothing on this page changes that. On a Mac, someone who only opens the odd SSH session can also stay with the ssh command in Terminal. SSHive is for the Mac user who reaches switches and routers over a serial console or Telnet as often as servers over SSH, and wants all three in one app, with saved profiles for the SSH and Telnet hosts.
What each costs over time
PuTTY is free, and so are the parts of SSHive a PuTTY user reaches for first: SSH, serial and Telnet cost nothing on the Mac, within the free tier's limits of 2 SSH sessions at a time and 5 saved profiles. Pro is a single $12.99 purchase that lifts those limits and adds remote and SOCKS tunnels, RDP and VNC. There is no subscription to keep track of in either case.
Moving from PuTTY to SSHive
PuTTY keeps its saved sessions in the Windows Registry, under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY. The command from PuTTY's own manual exports that key: regedit /ea putty.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY. Run it on the PC, copy the .reg file to the Mac, and open it from Settings > Import / Export > Import from another tool. SSH and Telnet sessions come across with their host, port and user name. Serial, Rlogin, raw and SUPDUP sessions are skipped, and the confirmation message counts them; SSHive does not save serial consoles as profiles: you open one from the connection dialog by picking the adapter, and the dialog remembers the baud rate and framing you used last. PuTTY never stores passwords, so there are none to carry over, and the free tier imports up to 5 profiles.