PuTTY doesn’t work on Mac, so I tried these alternatives that do
TL;DR
- I spent a few weeks testing out alternatives to macOS’s clunky built-in Terminal for SSH work.
- Core Shell was definitely the cleanest (and prettiest) PuTTY alternative for Mac.
- Terminus and iTerm2 are solid options for people who live in SSH and are probably the closest PuTTY on Mac experience you’ll get.
PuTTY is awesome for SSH and terminal work. But is all the effort to get it going when there are such good alternatives out there really worth it? After trialling a few of the more popular SSH clients for Mac, I think I’ve found the perfect alternatives.
PuTTY on Mac is possible, but it’s not the experience you expect
For my colleagues running Windows, PuTTY is easy. Download it, install it, load the profiles, it’s good to go. On Mac, though, it’s more of a download PuTTY for Mac, then a “some assembly required” caveat at install time. After all, PuTTY isn’t natively designed for it.
You can download PuTTY for Mac and get it working, but it really only makes sense to do so if you’re already running PuTTYgen and Pageant as a part of your workflow. If you’re just after quick file transfers and stable sessions, PuTTY on Mac is really more trouble than it’s worth!
How I tested the alternative of PuTTY for Mac
I tested these the way most of us actually use SSH on a Mac. I was busy, needed to quickly download some files (usually a tar.gz tarball), and carried on with my workflow.
Fancy colors and features aside, I focused on the everyday basics and then decided if the app had earned a permanent spot in my Apps folder.
The five tasks I ran on every alternative:
- Saving sessions, including hostnames, IP addresses, and ports.
- Uploading SSH keys and making sure they were saved.
- File transfers over SCP and sFTP without having to get another tool involved.
- Split-screen work without having to resort to Tmux.
- Session stability is kept through keepalive/null packets and reconnect speed.
It’s SSH, so security is just all part of the protocol. The real test is whether it outshone PuTTY in functionality and efficiency (and maybe how cool CMatrix looked!)
My pick for a PuTTY-style workflow on Mac (Core Shell)
Core Shell is the closest thing I found to a PuTTY-like SSH session, but completely Mac-native. There are a few things that just made it click for me, but the best was the ability to jump from host to host quickly within the same app. PuTTY doesn’t even give you this functionality.
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Secondly, you can drag and drop files straight into the session! No loading up a second app just for SCP/sFTP.
The next was being able to store passphrases in macOS keychain, meaning I didn’t have to spend an eternity copying and pasting a long password every time I needed to sudo.
Core Shell has a free version, but if you’re working in SSH a lot, you’ll want the advanced features. I tested the full setup for free through Setapp. It let me use premium features without adding yet another subscription to my stack.
Micro-tip: With Core Shell, you can give each environment a color scheme, so you know where you are at all times. For my work’s production environment, I chose red, so I know to double-check before I hit enter on an rm -r command!
Two alternatives I’d still recommend, depending on how you work
If you really want the PuTTY terminal style, then these two are the options I’d recommend next.
Terminus: If you love the terminal and a GUI
Terminus feels like PuTTY if it ran in a browser. The UI is modern, and switching between sessions is easy thanks to handy tabs that are always within reach.
One great feature of Terminus is the auto-complete for common commands. It saves you the hassle (and embarrassment) of having to Google “how to view hidden files in a Linux directory.”
iTerm2: For people who really love the terminal feel
I loved iTerm2 because it was fast and really felt like a genuine alternative of PuTTY for Mac. It’s snappy, fast, and simple. Like with PuTTY, you can save session details, IP addresses, and customise font and size.
Unlike PuTTY, you can run it in split-screen mode and playback output from commands that whizzed past just a bit too fast for your brain to catch them.
The helpful tool that narrowed down my search for a PuTTY alternative for Mac
There are a lot of SSH clients out there for macOS, and not all of them are really a good stand-in for PuTTY. I used this helpful productivity tool finder to narrow down the list of tools that I actually need. It actually pointed me straight to the tool I ended up keeping.
My simple rule for picking a PuTTY for Mac alternative
Here’s how you can simplify your choice based on how you use SSH every day:
Want a PuTTY-style session that’s Mac-ready and has cool modern features? Core Shell is your best bet.
Want a more GUI-flavored style for multiple SSH sessions? Grab Terminus
Want an SSH app that’s fast and doesn’t overcomplicate things? iTerm2 is the way to go.
If you’re interested in more remote access solutions for Mac, you’ll probably find this article about AnyDesk alternatives for Mac interesting!
Finally, for all those out there who live in SSH on your Mac, drop a comment below and let me know what’s more important: user experience or management features?
