While moving from the Windows to Mac OS is a nice experience, you would miss the PuTTY system on Mac if you have been used to using it on Windows. Whether you are a system admin or a website owner, it’s a common application that most of us have used at least once in their lifetime.
The command line is not only powerful, it can also be dangerous. Learn how to use commands for deleting files and folders correctly to make sure your time with Terminal is a productivity godsend.
PuTTY is a free terminal emulator that helps you transfer files over the same network, by logging from another computer. It can also be accessed over the internet. You can secure the file transfer facility by adding SCP and SFTP. Security is the biggest concern with PuTTY, but you can add verification and encryption by using it in combination with SSH. This helps shield the connections over the internet.
While many dedicated users still prefer using PuTTY, it can be tough for those who have recently shifted to Mac. So, here’s a quick list of some of the best PuTTY alternative for Mac OS that we think can make your life easy.
Terminal
It’s the default terminal emulator that comes embedded in the Mac OS. It’s a wonderful tool that helps break down into the command line. So, when you are logged into multiple servers, you will easily be able to identify the special background colors and the window titles mentioned in profiles. You can either use the built-in profiles in the Terminal or can even make your own custom profiles.
Just Press Command and Spacebar and search Terminal in Spotlight. Now, just write ssh [email protected] to connect to the server.
Moreover, it allows you to add bookmarks while working which can be then used to quickly maneuver through the extended Terminal window. The best part is, the inspector helps you to view and control the ongoing processes, and even lets you adjust the window titles and background colors.
Price: free
iTerm 2
iTerm is one of the best PuTTY alternatives for MacOS that comes loaded with features. It offers solutions for any desire that a terminal user could have thought of. Among its major attractions is the option to split a tab into several windows with each one of them featuring a different session. Whether you choose to divide it vertically or horizontally, it allows you to generate endless panes in any possible alignment.
By registering a hotkey, you can bring the software to the front when working from another program. Simply press a key and the terminal comes up. You can get a terminal that’s always available by setting the hotkey to open a dedicated pane. Moreover, it features powerful search functionality, while the interface stays distant. As soon as you input your search term, the matches are instantly highlighted.
Autocomplete is another feature where as you type the first letter of any word that you might have used earlier, followed with “Cmd” and the word comes up at the top of the list. Find option to look for text, paste history to recheck the last copied or pasted text, or instant replay to travel back in time, are some of its other significant features.
Price: free
ZOC
ZOC is compatible with both Windows and Mac making it universally usable. This terminal emulator is a freeware that offers a splendid list of emulations and robust features. These features make it a dependable and classy tool that links you to hosts and mainframe. It connects you through different modes such as telnet, secure shell, and more.
It boasts an advanced interface that features a tabbed session with thumbnails. It offers address book containing folders and hosts (color-coded). It can be easily customized to suit your choices and requirements. Support for a scripting language with 200 plus commands, huge number of loggings, buttons that are user-defined, or full keyboard remapping features are among some of the major features.
Price: free
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vSSH Lite
If you are looking for a free PuTTY alternative to Mac OS, then vSSH Lite could be the right solution. It’s a modern SSH and Telnet client that’s highly customizable. It comes with an enlarged keyboard, touch screen motions, synchronization for iCloud, and more. It offers one of the fastest terminal outputs, comes with SSH and Telnet protocols, offers verification options with username/password and private keys, option to scroll through the touchscreen or use arrows, and multiple sessions.
Among its other major features are, background work for up to 3 minutes for iOS7, and up to 10 minutes for iOS 5/6, notifies on timeout, connections for iCloud/Dropbox, sharing of macros and keys, key and port forwarding options, and so on.
Price: free
Hyper
Hyper is another free and open source software for Mac that works as a strong alternative to PuTTY. It’s also compatible with other major platforms. The project intends to create a pleasant and extendable experience for those using a command-line interface developed on open web models.
The software aims to focus majorly on speed, consistency, and the creation of accurate API for extension creators. Overall, the program can be expanded with add-ons, but without any choice for file transfer or encryption.
Price: free and open source
Shuttle
Shuttle for Mac is an uncomplicated and straightforward shortcut menu application for OS X. All you need to do is to launch the app and select the option that says “Configure to edit ~/.shuttle.json”. Now, describe the items featured in the menu as well as the actions that start functioning when clicked.
Price: free
OpenSSH
A free and open source terminal emulator for Mac OS, OpenSSH is also available for other platforms. It’s a leading connectivity software used to log in from a remote system with the SSH client. It encodes the entire traffic to remove any possibilities of spying, hijacking connection, and other malware attacks. Besides, it also offers an extended range of safe tunneling features, multiple verification techniques, and elegant configuration choices.
The program comes equipped with tools like ssh, scp, and sftp for remote functions, ssh-add, ssh-keysign, ssh-keyscan, and ssh-keygen for key management, and sshd, sftp-server, and ssh-agent as service options.
Price: free
Royal TSX
If you are looking for a PuTTY alternative for Mac that offers easy and safe access to the remote computers, then Royal TSX can be your best bet. It helps you manage your computers remotely on several different platforms at a time. Whether you are a system engineer, IT professional, developer, or system admin, the tool is perfect for your needs.
Mac Os X Command Line
It also offers assistance for credential management and comes with a tabbed interface for convenience. Simply mention the name of the credential to allocate a credential to connections. This helps you to share a file that features only connections with your personal testimonials saved in a confidential file, locked with a passcode.
It features a smooth and user interface that is completely customizable. Besides, it can manage files accessed by different users concurrently, while letting you integrate file modifications without an SQL database back-end. It can also sync with LastPass and KeePass that allows you to open the documents. It also allows the credentials to be opened to be used as the normal credentials for the software.
Price: free trial available; pro version starts from € 39.00
Chrome Secure Shell
For those looking for one of the best PuTTY alternatives for Mac, Chrome Secure Shell is the right choice It’s a terminal emulator and SSH client designed for Chrome. It’s compatible with x-term that uses the built-in client to connect to the SSH servers right away without needing any outer proxies.
Price: free
Termius
If you are looking for an extensive command-line option, Termius could be the best option for you. This tool is way beyond than just an SSH client as it reexplores remote access for network engineers and system admins. It allows you to access the Linux or IoT based devices safely, and fix any issues much faster and conveniently.
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This free application offers an attractive, handmade interface for all major platforms. There are no ads for distraction. Moreover, it couples its servers and credentials for fast access. While it helps make groups to explain the shared themes and settings, it also tags your systems to keep them arranged.
It comes equipped with 10 colorful themes and fonts that can be adjusted. In addition, it allows you to create several connections to the same host or link to different hosts. You can also encode almost all services and connections using port forwarding and tunneling.
Price: free
Kitty Terminal
Kitty Terminal can be easily considered among the best PuTTY alternatives for Mac OS as it’s a robust, multi-platform, and a GPU-supported terminal emulator. The program transfers description to the GPU and makes the OpenGL to work for quick, multi-platform performance. It includes native tiling designs along with support for visual, Unicode, and ligature.
It provides support for every advanced terminal feature like the images, true-color, mouse protocol, and more. It also supports tiling of different terminal windows parallelly in multiple patterns and does not require using the tmux. Best of all, it can be managed from the shell prompt or the scripts. The program can be extended using Kittens structure that helps build small terminal programs.
In addition, it provides support for startup sessions that enable you to fix a design, active directories, and apps to launch at the startup. Besides, it also lets you launch the scrollback option in an individual window that uses random apps.
Price: free and open source
SecureCRT
SecureCRT offers a powerful terminal emulation function for those in the field of computers. While it helps to increase productivity with modern session control, it also sets up many methods to save time and streamline mundane tasks. It offers safe remote access, file transfer facility, and the option of data tunneling for all employees in the organization.
Moreover, it comes with pre-set color schemes, that includes Solarized scheme, making it easy to transform the look of your terminal workstation. You have the freedom to select from a different light and dark color mixups with matching forefront, background, and ANSI shades.
Price: free trial available; pro version starts at $59.95
Codinn SSH
Codinn SSH Proxy helps transform any remote server (SSH) to SOCKS v5 proxy, that’s responsive and user-friendly. It stores the history of your SSH credentials and private key passcode, and save it to the keychain of OS X. What’s more? It can even reconnect you automatically when your Mac wakes you up from your sleep.
Among its major features are, autostart option as the Mac OS X starts, option to share SOCKS v5 proxy on LAN, quick change between multiple SSH accounts create a whitelist, and more.
Price: On request
While there are many alternatives for PuTTY for Windows, not many options are there for Mac OS. However, the ones we have listed are good enough to suffice your needs. Given that Mac OS already comes equipped with its own native SSH client, chances are that you may not require external support. But, those who are looking for additional features, can try any of the apps listed in the above list of the best PuTTY alternative for Mac OS.
DTerm
DTerm is another great PuTTY alternative for MacOS which is context based. This command line works at the simple touch of a key. It syncs the command line process into the user’s regular workflow and improves productivity while removing any clutters from the screen. In short, it simplifies the entire workflow by eliminating the tedious process of functioning as an individual window in an individual application.
As you look for information, the software questions the window for the route to its logs (at the extreme front), while introducing a command line using a suitable active directory. It also lets the log files to be added to the command, easily. Moreover, it allows you to copy the command outcomes to the clipboard and release the software with a single stroke of a keyboard.
The software helps cut down the entire workflow of operating command in a random working directory and copying the outcomes to be used later. It reduces this entire process to as low as just three simple keystrokes.
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The Terminal app allows you to control your Mac using a command prompt. Why would you want to do that? Well, perhaps because you’re used to working on a command line in a Unix-based system and prefer to work that way. Terminal is a Mac command line interface. There are several advantages to using Terminal to accomplish some tasks — it’s usually quicker, for example. In order to use it, however, you’ll need to get to grips with its basic commands and functions. Once you’ve done that, you can dig deeper and learn more commands and use your Mac’s command prompt for more complex, as well as some fun, tasks.
Curated Mac apps that keep your Mac’s performance under control. Avoid Terminal commands, avoid trouble.
Download FreeHow to open Terminal on Mac
The Terminal app is in the Utilities folder in Applications. To open it, either open your Applications folder, then open Utilities and double-click on Terminal, or press Command - spacebar to launch Spotlight and type 'Terminal,' then double-click the search result.
You’ll see a small window with a white background open on your desktop. In the title bar are your username, the word 'bash' and the dimensions of the window in pixels. Bash stands for 'Bourne again shell'. There are a number of different shells that can run Unix commands, and on the Mac Bash is the one used by Terminal.
If you want to make the window bigger, click on the bottom right corner and drag it outwards. If you don’t like the black text on a white background, go to the Shell menu, choose New Window and select from the options in the list.
If Terminal feels complicated or you have issues with the set-up, let us tell you right away that there are alternatives. MacPilot allows to get access to over 1,200 macOS features without memorizing any commands. Basically, a third-party Terminal for Mac that acts like Finder.
For Mac monitoring features, try iStat Menus. The app collects data like CPU load, disk activity, network usage, and more — all of which accessible from your menu bar.
Basic Mac commands in Terminal
The quickest way to get to know Terminal and understand how it works is to start using it. But before we do that, it’s worth spending a little time getting to know how commands work. To run a command, you just type it at the cursor and hit Return to execute.
Every command is made up of three elements: the command itself, an argument which tells the command what resource it should operate on, and an option that modifies the output. So, for example, to move a file from one folder to another on your Mac, you’d use the move command 'mv' and then type the location of the file you want to move, including the file name and the location where you want to move it to.
Let’s try it.
- Type cd ~/Documentsthen and press Return to navigate to your Home folder.
- Type lsthen Return (you type Return after every command).
You should now see a list of all the files in your Documents folder — ls is the command for listing files.
To see a list of all the commands available in Terminal, hold down the Escape key and then press y when you see a question asking if you want to see all the possibilities. To see more commands, press Return.
Unix has its own built-in manual. So, to learn more about a command type man [name of command], where 'command' is the name of the command you want find out more about.
Terminal rules
There are a few things you need to bear in mind when you’re typing commands in Terminal, or any other command-line tool. Firstly, every character matters, including spaces. So when you’re copying a command you see here, make sure you include the spaces and that characters are in the correct case.
You can’t use a mouse or trackpad in Terminal, but you can navigate using the arrow keys. If you want to re-run a command, tap the up arrow key until you reach it, then press Return. To interrupt a command that’s already running, type Control-C.
Commands are always executed in the current location. So, if you don’t specify a location in the command, it will run wherever you last moved to or where the last command was run. Use the cdcommand, followed by a directory path, like in Step 1 above, to specify the folder where you want a command to run.
There is another way to specify a location: go to the Finder, navigate to the file or folder you want and drag it onto the Terminal window, with the cursor at the point where you would have typed the path.
Here’s another example. This time, we’ll create a new folder inside your Documents directory and call it 'TerminalTest.'
Putty Macos
- Open a Finder window and navigate to your Documents folder.
- Type cd and drag the Documents folder onto the Terminal window.
- Now, type mkdir 'TerminalTest'
Go back to the Finder, open Text Edit and create a new file called 'TerminalTestFile.rtf'. Now save it to the TerminalTest folder in your Documents folder.
In the Terminal window, type cd ~/Documents/TerminalTest then Return. Now type lsand you should see 'TerminalTestFile' listed.
To change the name of the file, type this, pressing Return after every step:
- cd~/Documents/Terminal Test
- mv TerminalTestFile TerminalTestFile2.rtf
That will change the name of the file to 'TerminalTestFile2'. You can, of course, use any name you like. The mv command means 'move' and you can also use it to move files from one directory to another. In that case, you’d keep the file names the same, but specify another directory before typing the the second instance of the name, like this:
mv ~/Documents/TerminalTest TerminalTestFile.rtf ~/Documents/TerminalTest2 TerminalTestFile.rtf
More advanced Terminal commands
Terminal can be used for all sorts of different tasks. Some of them can be performed in the Finder, but are quicker in Terminal. Others access deep-rooted parts of macOS that aren’t accessible from the Finder without specialist applications. Here are a few examples.
Copy files from one folder to another
- In a Terminal window, type ditto [folder 1] [folder 1] where 'folder 1' is the folder that hosts the files and 'folder 2' is the folder you want to move them to.
- To see the files being copied in the Terminal window, type -v after the command.
Download files from the internet
You’ll need the URL of the file you want to download in order to use Terminal for this.
- cd ~/Downloads/
- curl -O [URL of file you want to download]
If you want to download the file to a directory other than your Downloads folder, replace ~/Downloads/ with the path to that folder, or drag it onto the Terminal window after you type the cd command.
Change the default location for screenshots
If you don’t want macOS to save screenshots to your Desktop when you press Command-Shift-3, you can change the default location in Terminal
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [path to folder where you want screenshots to be saved]
- Hit Return
- killall SystemUIServer
- Hit Return
Change the default file type for screenshots
By default, macOS saves screenshots as .png files. To change that to .jpg, do this:
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
- Press Return
- killall SystemUIServer
- Press Return
Delete all files in a folder
The command used to delete, or remove, files in Terminal is rm. So, for example, if you wanted to remove a file in your Documents folder named 'oldfile.rtf' you’d use cd ~/Documents to go to your Documents folder then to delete the file. As it stands, that will delete the file without further intervention from you. If you want to confirm the file to be deleted, use -i as in rm -i oldfile.rtf
To delete all the files and sub-folders in a directory named 'oldfolder', the command is rm -R oldfolder and to confirm each file should be deleted, rm -iR oldfolder
Just because you can use Terminal to delete files on your Mac, doesn’t mean you should. It’s a relatively blunt instrument, deleting only those files and folders you specify.
Another way to free up space
If your goal in removing files or folders is to free up space on your Mac, or to remove junk files that are causing your Mac to run slowly, it’s far better to use an app designed for the purpose. CleanMyMac X is one such app.
It will scan your Mac for files and recommend which ones you can delete safely, as well as telling you how much space you’ll save. And once you’ve decided which files to delete, you can get rid of them in a click. You can download CleanMyMac here.
As you can see, while Terminal may look scary and seem like it’s difficult to use, it really isn’t. The key is learning a few commands, such as those we’ve outlined above, and getting to know the syntax for those commands.
However, you should be careful when using Terminal, it’s a powerful tool that has deep access to your Mac’s system files. Check commands by googling them if you’re not sure what they do. And if you need to delete files to save space, use an app like CleanMyMac X to do it. It’s much safer!