11 Free and Open-source Web-based SSH Clients

In today's digital landscape, managing servers and remote machines is essential for developers, system administrators, and IT professionals. Secure Shell (SSH) clients provide a secure and efficient way to access remote systems, allowing users to perform administrative tasks, troubleshoot issues, and manage applications from anywhere. With the rise of web-based SSH clients, accessing remote servers has become even more convenient. These tools offer the flexibility to connect to servers directly from a web browser, eliminating the need for local installations and providing accessibility across different devices.

Use Cases for Web-Based SSH Clients:

1. Remote Server Management: Web-based SSH clients are ideal for managing servers on the go. Whether you're traveling or working remotely, these tools allow you to securely access your servers from any device with a web browser.
2. Educational Environments: In educational settings, web-based SSH clients provide students with easy access to remote systems for learning and practicing command-line skills without requiring complex setups.
3. Multi-Device Compatibility: For professionals who switch between different devices, web-based SSH clients ensure consistent access to remote systems without installing multiple SSH clients on each device.
4. Shared Access: They are also useful in collaborative environments where multiple users need to access the same server. Web-based clients allow easy management of access permissions and sessions.
5. Simplified Setup: These clients are perfect for users who prefer a quick setup. There's no need to configure a local SSH client or deal with platform-specific compatibility issues.

By leveraging these free and open-source web-based SSH clients, you can enhance your workflow, ensure secure connections, and maintain flexibility in your remote server management tasks.

In the following, our list of the best web-based SSH clients, that you can download, install and use for free.

1- WebSSH

WebSSH is a free simple web application to be used as an ssh client to connect to your ssh servers. It is written in Python, base on tornado, paramiko and xterm.js.

Features

• SSH password authentication supported, including empty password.
• SSH public-key authentication supported, including DSA RSA ECDSA Ed25519 keys.
• Encrypted keys supported.
• Two-Factor Authentication (time-based one-time password) supported.
• Fullscreen terminal supported.
• Terminal window resizable.
• Auto detect the ssh server's default encoding.
• Modern browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera supported.

GitHub - huashengdun/webssh: :seedling: Web based ssh client

:seedling: Web based ssh client. Contribute to huashengdun/webssh development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubhuashengdun

2- Sshwifty Web SSH & Telnet Client

Sshwifty is a SSH and Telnet client made for the Web, allow you to access SSH and Telnet services right from your web browser.

It can be installed easily from source or by using Docker.

GitHub - nirui/sshwifty: Web SSH & Telnet (WebSSH & WebTelnet client) 🔮

Web SSH & Telnet (WebSSH & WebTelnet client) 🔮. Contribute to nirui/sshwifty development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubnirui

3- WebSSH

A simple web application to be used as an ssh client to connect to your ssh servers. It is written in Python, base on tornado and paramiko.

Features

• SSH password authentication supported, including empty password.
• SSH public-key authentication supported, including DSA RSA ECDSA Ed25519 keys.
• Encrypted keys supported.
• Fullscreen terminal supported.
• Terminal window resizable.
• Compatible with Python 2.7-3.6.

GitHub - lonjoy/webssh-1: Web based ssh client

Web based ssh client. Contribute to lonjoy/webssh-1 development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHublonjoy

4- WebShell

WebShell is a self-hosted free web-based shell. It runs on any browser capable of JavaScript and AJAX. You can use it from any computer or iPhone/smartphone. With this app you'll get full access to a shell on the server, so you can use it e.g. to connect to other computers using ssh or use an terminal based chat client.

The server is written in Python and is very easy to set up on Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, Solaris, and any Unix that runs python 2.7. WebShell is based on Ajaxterm.

GitHub - xypiie/WebShell: WebShell is a web-based ssh shell.

WebShell is a web-based ssh shell. . Contribute to xypiie/WebShell development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubxypiie

5- Bastillion

Bastillion is a web-based SSH console that centrally manages administrative access to systems. Web-based administration is combined with management and distribution of user's public SSH keys. Key management and administration is based on profiles assigned to defined users.

Administrators can login using two-factor authentication with Authy or Google Authenticator. From there they can manage their public SSH keys or connect to their systems through a web-shell. Commands can be shared across shells to make patching easier and eliminate redundant command execution.

Bastillion layers TLS/SSL on top of SSH and acts as a bastion host for administration. Protocols are stacked (TLS/SSL + SSH) so infrastructure cannot be exposed through tunneling / port forwarding. More details can be found in the following whitepaper: Implementing a Trusted Third-Party System for Secure Shell. Also, SSH key management is enabled by default to prevent unmanaged public keys and enforce best practices.

GitHub - bastillion-io/Bastillion: Bastillion is a web-based SSH console that centrally manages administrative access to systems. Web-based administration is combined with management and distribution of user’s public SSH keys.

Bastillion is a web-based SSH console that centrally manages administrative access to systems. Web-based administration is combined with management and distribution of user's public SSH keys. -…

GitHubbastillion-io

6- Web SSH with UI

This self-hosted app offers a terminal over HTTP and HTTPS. Wetty is an alternative to ajaxterm/anyterm but much better than them because wetty uses ChromeOS' terminal emulator (hterm) which is a full fledged implementation of terminal emulation written entirely in Javascript.

Also it uses websockets instead of Ajax and hence better response time.

GitHub - wsd-team-dev/web-ssh: Web based SSH client

Web based SSH client. Contribute to wsd-team-dev/web-ssh development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubwsd-team-dev

7- SSH or SSHy, HTML5 Based SSH Client

SSHy is a fast and responsive SSHv2 web client with end-to-end encryption supplied by SJCL. SSHy implements a minimal subset of the SSHv2 protocol that provides and controls a pseudo-terminal. The terminal front-end interface is provided by xterm.js.

GitHub - stuicey/SSHy: HTML5 SSH Web Client

HTML5 SSH Web Client. Contribute to stuicey/SSHy development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubstuicey

8- piping-ssh

piping-ssh offers a SSH client over HTTPS via Piping Server on browser. It is secure, written in Go language, and supports secure connections.

GitHub - nwtgck/piping-ssh-web: SSH over HTTPS via Piping Server on Web browser

SSH over HTTPS via Piping Server on Web browser. Contribute to nwtgck/piping-ssh-web development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubnwtgck

9- WebSSH2

This is a bare bones example of an HTML5 web-based terminal emulator and SSH client. We use SSH2 as a client on a host to proxy a Websocket / Socket.io connection to a SSH2 server.

GitHub - billchurch/webssh2: Web SSH Client using ssh2, socket.io, xterm.js, and express. webssh webssh2

Web SSH Client using ssh2, socket.io, xterm.js, and express. webssh webssh2 - billchurch/webssh2

GitHubbillchurch

10- Node-Web-Console

Node-Web-Console is a web-based Node.js application that allows to execute shell commands on a server directly from a browser (web-based SSH). This project is inspired by the php-based web-console. The application is very light, does not require any database and can be installed and configured in about 3 minutes.

Features

• Clean interface, which looks and feels like a real shell terminal
• Easy to extend. Node-Web-Console uses Koa to start the web server. You can easily extend it or integrate it to your own project
• Secure. You can configure HTTPS (SSL) on your web server and all Node-Web-Console traffic will be protected. Also, Node-Web-Console has a mark to search engines that will disallow the Node-Web-Console page from indexing
• Fast configuration. Node-Web-Console is a pure Node.js project and can be installed and configured quickly
• Mobile friendly. Node-Web-Console supports inputs from the virtual keyboard in the mobile browser. So you can use it conveniently in your mobile devices like iPad, iPhone and Android phones.

GitHub - ChrisCindy/node-web-console: A simple web-based SSH, remote shell in your browser built with Node.js

A simple web-based SSH, remote shell in your browser built with Node.js - ChrisCindy/node-web-console

GitHubChrisCindy

11- ssheasy

This is a free and open-source ssh, sftp client running in the browser powered by golang and wasm

GitHub - hullarb/ssheasy: ssh, sftp client running in the browser powered by golang and wasm

ssh, sftp client running in the browser powered by golang and wasm - hullarb/ssheasy

GitHubhullarb