Termius vs PuTTY: Which SSH Client Should You Use?

Termius vs PuTTY in one line

PuTTY is a free, open-source, no-frills SSH client that has worked essentially the same way since 1999 — a single Windows executable, no account, no cloud, no subscription. Termius is a modern commercial client that runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS and Android, with an end-to-end encrypted vault that syncs your hosts and keys between devices, SFTP, snippets and AI command help. Neither is "better" in the abstract; they're built for different decades and different problems.

The fast rule:

• You SSH from one Windows PC, occasionally, and want zero cost and zero accounts → PuTTY. It is still maintained, still free, and still hard to beat at that job.
• You manage more than a handful of servers, from more than one machine → Termius. The synced host list is the whole point, and it's the thing PuTTY structurally cannot do.
• You need the same host list on desktop and Android or iPhone → Termius Pro. PuTTY has no official mobile app. For phone-only access, compare mobile clients in the mobile section.

Pricing and release information were checked on October 14, 2026: PuTTY 0.85 (released August 16, 2026) and Termius's current published pricing. Prices and versions change — treat each vendor's own page as authoritative. Disclosure: TermAI is our app, and I've tried to state its limits as plainly as its strengths.

Termius pricing: what is the price in 2026?

Termius is free on Starter. Pro costs US$10/month when paid annually: US$120 for a year. Team is US$20/seat/month and Business US$30/seat/month on annual billing; Enterprise is custom-priced. These are the advertised rates on the official pricing page, checked October 14, 2026. The $10 figure is an annual-plan monthly equivalent, not a verified month-to-month checkout price.

PuTTY has no subscription charge. To compare fairly, first decide whether you need a local SSH client or a synced credential vault. Termius Starter and PuTTY both serve local access; paying for Termius becomes relevant when your workflow needs desktop-to-phone sync or shared team access. See the plan details and billing caveats below.

Termius vs PuTTY: side-by-side comparison (October 2026)

Two rows carry most of the decision: sync and mobile. If you don't need either, PuTTY's zero-cost, zero-account, runs-from-a-USB-stick model is genuinely hard to argue against. If you need both, no amount of PuTTY tweaking gets you there.

PuTTY in 2026 — free, minimal, and still shipping

The most common wrong assumption about PuTTY is that it's abandoned. It isn't. Version 0.84 shipped in May 2026 (superseded by 0.85) with three minor security fixes (a remotely triggerable double-free in RSA key exchange, a crash in NIST ECDSA signature verification, and a trust-sigil fix for Telnet/Rlogin proxy prompts). More interesting: 0.83 (February 2025) added ML-KEM, the NIST-standardised post-quantum key exchange, alongside NTRU Prime which has been there since 0.78. PuTTY's crypto is more current than its dialog boxes suggest.

The official download page lists 0.85, released August 16, 2026, as the current stable version. What you get is a suite, not just one app:

• putty.exe — the terminal itself. SSH-2, Telnet, Rlogin, raw sockets, SUPDUP and serial. That last one is why a lot of network engineers will never delete it.
• PuTTYgen — generate and convert keys. Its native format is .ppk, which the PuTTY suite uses; PuTTYgen is also how you convert to and from OpenSSH format.
• Pageant — the SSH agent, so you type your passphrase once per session.
• plink — the command-line SSH runner that makes PuTTY scriptable from batch files and scheduled tasks.
• pscp / psftp — file transfer, command line only. There is no drag-and-drop file browser; that's WinSCP's job, and the two are commonly installed together.

The friction is real and it is all about scale. Saved sessions live in the Windows registry under HKCU\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY, so moving to a new laptop means exporting a .reg file. There are no tabs — five servers means five taskbar windows, which is why wrappers like SuperPuTTY and MTPuTTY exist at all. Settings are per-session and easy to get out of sync. And there is no official mobile version: the "PuTTY" apps in the App Store and Play Store are not from the PuTTY project (more on that here).

Best for: Windows users who want free, minimal, portable and offline; anyone who needs serial console access; scripted jobs via plink.
Trade-off: no sync, no tabs, no GUI file transfer, no mobile, and manual management of saved sessions across devices.

What is Termius? Free vs paid plans and billing

Termius is what most people move to from PuTTY, and the pitch is straightforward: one host list, everywhere. Add a server on your Windows desktop, and it's on your MacBook and your phone before you've closed the dialog. Around that sit tabs and split panes, a GUI SFTP browser, snippets, port forwarding, Mosh, tags and groups, and — since 2025 — AI command help.

Termius documents end-to-end encryption for its cloud vault in its security overview. PuTTY has no vendor-hosted sync vault. Decide whether cloud storage fits your credential policy; an encrypted vault and a local client have different recovery, endpoint-security and access-control requirements.

The desktop changelog lists 10.2.0 / 10.2.1 on October 12, 2026. Its September 21 update made proxy, agent forwarding, host chains and serial connections free. Those features should not be described as reasons you must buy Pro. Termius also documents ML-KEM and ML-DSA support; availability depends on compatible server algorithms.

Termius price by plan: free, Pro, Team, Business and Enterprise

Source: Termius pricing. Annual totals above are rate × 12, before any applicable taxes or add-ons.

Monthly vs annual billing, trials and cancellation

A monthly-equivalent annual price does not establish the monthly-billed price. The published Pro price is $10 per month when paid annually; it is not a verified month-to-month or regional app-store quote. Check the billing period, currency, tax and renewal total at checkout. Compare the same purchase channel when evaluating a quote; an app-store listing is not proof of the website's monthly rate.

The subscription terms describe monthly or annual cycles with automatic renewal unless cancelled. If billing information is entered for a trial, the terms allow charging after it expires. Confirm the trial end date and cancellation instructions for your purchase channel. Starter is the free plan; a paid-plan trial is a separate offer. Do not assume cancelling creates a refund or that downgrading preserves every paid feature.

Can students or open-source teams get Termius free?

Users with an active GitHub Student Developer Pack can access Pro and Team features through Termius Education. The open-source programme is application-based, restricted to qualifying team accounts and non-commercial use, and advertises a full year of Team. Open-source participation alone does not automatically make an individual subscription free.

Best for: people running more than a handful of servers across more than one machine, who want polish and don't mind a subscription.
Trade-off: the feature that justifies the switch is the one behind the paywall. See Termius alternatives if that's a dealbreaker.

The five differences that actually decide it

Feature checklists blur together. In practice five things determine which client you end up using every day.

1. Where your host list lives

PuTTY: the Windows registry, on that one machine. New laptop, second machine at home, work PC — each is a separate island, and keeping them aligned is a manual reg export job. Termius: an encrypted vault that syncs. This is the single biggest reason people switch, and there is no PuTTY configuration that fixes it.

2. Key formats — .ppk vs OpenSSH

PuTTY invented its own private key format, .ppk. For a client that expects an OpenSSH private key, export the key in that format; Termius also has a PuTTY import workflow. The conversion itself is trivial — open the key in PuTTYgen, then Conversions → Export OpenSSH key — but it's the step that catches people mid-migration. Going the other way, PuTTYgen's Load button imports an OpenSSH private key and saves it as .ppk.

While you're in there: if you're still on an old RSA key, this is the moment to generate ed25519 instead. Smaller, faster, and — see the security section — not affected by the P-521 signing vulnerability discussed below.

3. Working with more than one server at once

PuTTY is one window per connection, by design. Termius gives you tabs and split panes, so several servers sit side by side in one window, plus snippets you can fire into a session instead of retyping. If your day involves three servers open side by side, this alone is worth more than every other difference combined. If your day is "SSH into the one box, do the thing, close it", it's worth nothing.

4. Moving files

PuTTY's file transfer is pscp and psftp — command-line only. Most PuTTY users pair it with WinSCP for a GUI, which is a fine setup and also free. Termius has an SFTP file browser built into the same app, on the free tier, on desktop and mobile. One app instead of two.

5. Accounts, telemetry and offline use

PuTTY needs no vendor account and offers a standalone Windows executable. Termius Starter uses a local vault, but that does not establish that every current build has an account-free setup flow or works under your organization's offline restrictions. Check installation, sign-in and network requirements before replacing a client on an isolated machine. Neither product automatically passes an organization's security review.

Security: is PuTTY still safe in 2026?

Yes — if you're on a current version, and that caveat is doing real work. The history worth knowing:

• CVE-2024-31497: affected PuTTY releases had a flaw in P-521 signing, fixed in 0.81. Review the official change log and rotate affected keys used with vulnerable software. Updating the client does not revoke an old key: add a replacement, test access, then remove the old public key from the server.
• 0.84 (May 2026) fixed three lower-severity issues, including a remotely triggerable double-free in RSA key exchange. Nothing dramatic, but it is a reason to update old installations; the current stable download is 0.85.
• Download from the real place. chiark.greenend.org.uk is the project's site. "PuTTY" download portals bundling installers are a long-running malware vector, and ad-injected typo domains have distributed trojanised builds more than once.

Termius's risk profile is different rather than worse: the crypto is modern and the vault is end-to-end encrypted, but you're trusting a vendor's client-side implementation and accepting that an encrypted copy of your credentials exists off your machine. For most individuals that's a reasonable trade for sync. For an air-gapped or heavily audited environment, it usually isn't.

One thing neither client does for you: verifying host keys the first time you connect. Both show you a fingerprint; both let you click past it. That prompt is the only thing standing between you and a machine-in-the-middle on a network you don't control.

PuTTY vs Termius cost: one user, a team, and five years

PuTTY and Termius Starter have no subscription fee. At the advertised annual Pro rate, one year is $10 × 12 = $120; five years would be $600 if the price stayed unchanged. That is arithmetic, not a five-year price guarantee. Five Team seats would cost $20 × 12 × 5 = $1,200 per year before tax; five Business seats would be $1,800 before tax or add-ons.

Start with Starter if you need local SSH and file transfers. Pay for Pro when moving between desktop and phone makes shared hosts and credentials useful. Evaluate Team for shared access, and Business for granular vault permissions. Shared credentials are not a replacement for server-side authorization, key revocation or an audit policy.

Migrating from PuTTY to Termius (without losing anything)

The official import guide documents importing PuTTY connections, tunnels and keys. Back up settings and private-key files before starting; a registry export alone is not a backup of every referenced key file.

1. On the same Windows machine: in Termius desktop, go to the Hosts screen, open the New Host dropdown, choose Import, and pick PuTTY as the source. Select what you want and import — connections, tunnels and keys come across into your Personal vault.
2. Moving to a different machine (or to Mac/Linux): export PuTTY's registry branch first. In PowerShell:
   reg export HKCU\Software\SimonTatham ([Environment]::GetFolderPath("Desktop") + "\putty.reg")
   Then drag the .reg file into the same Import dialog on the other machine.
3. Convert any .ppk keys you're moving by hand: PuTTYgen → Load the key → Conversions → Export OpenSSH key. Do it on-device; never email a private key to yourself.
4. Don't uninstall PuTTY yet. Two SSH clients coexist happily. Connect to every important host from Termius on a fresh session before you remove anything — especially anything using a jump host, an agent-forwarded key or a tunnel, since those are the settings most likely not to survive a move.
5. Then decide about keys. A migration is a good excuse to rotate to ed25519 per device: add the new public key while old access still works, verify, revoke the old one last. Keep a provider console (DigitalOcean/Hetzner/Proxmox/IPMI) reachable as your undo button.

Also worth importing: Termius can read an existing ~/.ssh/config and known_hosts, so if you've accumulated OpenSSH config on a Mac or Linux box alongside PuTTY on Windows, both sides come in.

Migration edge cases: proxies, key files and rollback

For OpenSSH imports, Termius documents that ProxyCommand is ignored, jump-host settings become a host chain, and importing IdentityFile requires the website-downloaded app. Reconfigure custom proxy commands and check key paths before removing the old setup. A successful terminal connection does not prove that SFTP, tunnels or every jump-host route works.

Keep a separate tested route to your server and avoid relying on cloud sync as your only credential backup. The desktop changelog warns that installing a pre-10.0.6 version over the newer storage format resets local storage; downgrading the app is not a safe rollback strategy. MultiKey is scheduled to end October 15, 2026, so existing users should review the vendor's migration guidance before relying on it.

PuTTY for Android or iPhone: which SSH client should you use?

PuTTY has no official Android or iOS release. A mobile app using its name is a separate product: verify its publisher, update history and credential handling before importing keys. Termius has Android and iOS apps as well as desktop versions, so it is a direct option for desktop-plus-phone access. See Termius for Android and our PuTTY for Android guide.

SSH client for Android: Termius or an Android SSH terminal?

Choose Termius when you want a graphical host manager, terminal and SFTP interface, with paid desktop/mobile sync. Choose a local Android terminal environment with an SSH package when you prefer command-line configuration and scripts. A local terminal and a remote SSH session are different: after connecting, commands run on the server, not on your phone. Compare keyboard controls, key import, VPN reachability and background behaviour in our Android SSH app guide.

How to SSH from Android

1. Install a maintained SSH client from its official publisher. Create a host with the server's reachable hostname or IP, SSH port and login username.
2. Import your private key securely or create a dedicated phone key and install its public key on the server. A PuTTY .ppk may need conversion to OpenSSH format with PuTTYgen.
3. Connect your VPN first if the host has a private address. Being able to SSH from your desktop does not prove the phone's mobile network can reach the same address.
4. Compare the host-key fingerprint with a trusted server console or administrator before accepting it. Then connect and check a harmless command such as whoami.
5. For long-running work, start a server-side tmux session. Reconnect and reattach after a network change instead of assuming the phone connection will remain open.

Timeout usually calls for checking the route, firewall and port; connection refused calls for checking the SSH service and listening port; permission denied calls for checking the username, key and server authorization. Buying Pro does not resolve a firewall or authentication error. Phone battery policies and operating-system suspension can interrupt connections; tmux preserves the remote work, while Mosh requires compatible server support and network access.

Disclosure: TermAI is our app. You can also compare it for phone-focused work; verify its current plans and platform availability before choosing it. This article's desktop-to-phone comparison centres on Termius and PuTTY.

If neither one fits: the rest of the field

"Termius vs PuTTY" is a false binary more often than people realise. On Windows in 2026 you also have:

• Windows Terminal + built-in OpenSSH — Windows has shipped an OpenSSH client since Windows 10 1809, and Windows 11 ships Windows Terminal by default. Typing ssh user@host and keeping a ~/.ssh/config is free, native, tabbed, and the closest thing to how Mac and Linux users already work. For many people this, not Termius, is the real PuTTY replacement.
• MobaXterm — PuTTY's power-user cousin: tabs, X11 server, built-in SFTP pane, and a bundled Unix toolset. Free Home edition with limits, paid Professional. See Termius vs MobaXterm.
• Tabby — free, open source, cross-platform, with an SSH connection manager and optional config sync. The open-source answer to Termius's shape: Termius vs Tabby.
• WinSCP — not a terminal replacement, but the GUI file transfer PuTTY lacks; it integrates with PuTTY directly.
• Tailscale SSH — if the actual problem is reaching machines behind NAT, the network layer may be a better fix than the client: how it works.

The broader roundup is in the best SSH client in 2026.

How to pick, in thirty seconds

• Free, minimal, one Windows PC, no account → PuTTY (0.85).
• Serial console, legacy gear, air-gapped machines → evaluate PuTTY first; Termius also supports desktop serial connections.
• Free and modern on Windows, no subscription → Windows Terminal + OpenSSH.
• Many servers, several computers, one synced host list → Termius Pro.
• Shared host lists across a team → Termius Team (or a bastion product if you need audit trails).
• Desktop and phone with one synced host list → Termius Pro.
• Desktop and phone without paying for sync → separate local configurations in maintained clients.

Termius pricing and Termius vs PuTTY FAQ

What is Termius?

Termius is a commercial SSH client for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android and iOS. It combines a terminal with host and credential management and file transfer. Its free local plan and paid cloud-sync plans serve different workflows; see the plan breakdown.

What is the Termius price? How much does Termius cost?

Starter is free. The advertised annual rates are Pro $10/month, Team $20/seat/month and Business $30/seat/month; Enterprise needs a quote. Pro's annual base total is $120. Check the billing explanation before treating a monthly-equivalent figure as a monthly subscription price.

Is Termius free, or only a free trial?

Starter is a free plan, distinct from a paid-plan trial. It works for local SSH access; it does not supply the paid cloud vault's cross-device sync. Check which plan is active before entering payment details.

Termius vs PuTTY: which is better?

Choose PuTTY for account-free Windows access and its command-line utilities. Choose Termius for a graphical cross-platform workflow or paid desktop/mobile sync. Both can be useful on the same machine; keeping PuTTY for scripts while using Termius interactively is a valid choice.

PuTTY vs Termius: when should I stay with PuTTY?

Stay with PuTTY when existing sessions and plink scripts already do the job and you do not need a synced vault. Termius snippets do not automatically replace unattended scripts, scheduled tasks or their exit-code handling. Serial access alone is no longer a decisive difference: Termius also documents desktop serial support.

Is the latest PuTTY version still 0.84?

No. The official stable download lists 0.85, released August 16, 2026. Download the appropriate Windows architecture or source package there.

What is the current Termius version?

The desktop changelog groups 10.2.0 and 10.2.1 under October 12, 2026. Android and iOS have separate release tracks; compare the installed app with its official store listing rather than expecting one version number across platforms.

Can I migrate PuTTY keys and sessions to Termius?

See the migration checklist. Keep private-key files separate from session backups, check imported paths and test each host. For manual key transfer, PuTTYgen can export a .ppk private key in OpenSSH format. Keep working access until the new connection succeeds.

Is there an official PuTTY for Android?

No. Use a maintained Android SSH client rather than assuming a similarly named store app belongs to the PuTTY project. Termius is one option, with a mobile terminal and SFTP workflow.

How do I SSH from Android without paying for sync?

Configure a host and credentials locally in a client that supports local SSH, then verify the server fingerprint and connect. You need network access and an authorized login; cross-device sync is optional. See the Android setup steps.

Can either client reach a server behind NAT or a VPN?

An SSH client does not create a network route by itself. Connect a suitable VPN or configure a reachable bastion first, then use the host address available through that route. Do not expose an SSH port merely to avoid diagnosing reachability.

Does Termius's encrypted vault eliminate credential risk?

No. Encryption protects stored and synced data under the vendor's documented model; it does not protect a compromised unlocked endpoint, verify your server's identity or revoke a departed colleague's server access. Review Termius security documentation alongside your own access policy.

Decision checklist

• Local Windows SSH, no subscription or account: PuTTY.
• Graphical SSH and SFTP without cross-device sync: evaluate Termius Starter.
• One host vault across desktop and phone: evaluate Termius Pro.
• Shared team access: compare Team and Business permissions and billing.
• Android access: choose a maintained mobile client and verify network reachability.
• Before migrating: keep key backups, test tunnels and preserve working access.