BHTerminal

A free, open-source SSH / SFTP / VNC client for macOS, Windows, and Linux.
A MobaXterm/Termius-style workspace — session tree, terminal, file browser, and
remote desktops in one window. Imports your MobaXterm sessions.

Built and maintained by BiswasHost 🇧🇩

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Platforms

Since v2.0.0 all three are built from one source — a Rust core, a Tauri shell, and your system's own ssh — so a feature lands everywhere at once.

OS	Download	Notes
🍎 macOS	BHTerminal_<version>_aarch64.dmg (Apple silicon) · _x64.dmg (Intel)	Ad-hoc signed, not notarised — see first launch
🪟 Windows	BHTerminal_<version>_x64-setup.exe · _arm64-setup.exe	Installer only, no .msi
🐧 Linux	.deb and .rpm, amd64/x86_64 and arm64/aarch64	WebKitGTK 4.1

Everything is on the latest release.

The original macOS-only Swift app lives on in macos/. It is the reference the Rust version was ported from, and is no longer the shipping build.

Features

• Sessions sidebar — folders and hosts, double-click to connect.
• Real SSH terminal — runs your system ssh, so ~/.ssh/config, the agent, ProxyJump and 2FA all work. Tabs, split panes, broadcast typing to every pane in a tab, snippets, and session recording to a file.
• SFTP browser in the same tab, on the same login — with a path that follows your terminal's directory, taken from the window title rather than injected into your shell. Right-click for the rest: edit a file in the window or in your own editor (saving there uploads it back), download, new file, new folder, rename, delete, and compress or extract on the server so a large folder is never pulled down and pushed back.
• VNC remote desktops in the same tabbed window.
• Port forwards — local, remote and SOCKS, started per host with their live state.
• Saved passwords and key passphrases, encrypted on your computer and typed in for you when the server asks.
• Import from MobaXterm — a .mxtsessions export, a plain .mobaconf or MobaXterm.ini, and the stored-passwords export (which brings the passwords with it). An OpenSSH ~/.ssh/config works too.
• Backup and restore — write every host, folder and snippet to one file, and merge it back on another computer without deleting anything added since. This is how you move a host list between the macOS, Windows and Linux builds. Saved passwords can be included, and are then always encrypted (AES-GCM under PBKDF2) with a passphrase you choose.
• Closing the window does not quit it. BHTerminal stays in the menu bar with your sessions, forwards and SFTP connections alive; click the icon to bring the window back, and Quit BHTerminal from its menu when you really mean it.
• Update check — finds the right installer for your machine and opens it in your browser. It never downloads or runs anything itself; see SECURITY.md.
• Right-click the terminal for copy, copy everything, paste, select all and clear; right-click the file browser for everything described above.
• Drag the edge of either side pane to resize it, or collapse it entirely to give the terminal the whole window — double-click an edge to restore its width. Both are remembered.
• Appearance — light or dark following your desktop, and the terminal's font family and size, with a live preview. Everything applies to open sessions as you change it.
• Secure by design — host-key verification, an ssh argument allow-list, and imports treated as untrusted input. Details in SECURITY.md.

Upgrading from v1.x on macOS

The old macOS app was a different application to the system — a different bundle identifier — so installing v2 does not replace it. Installing over the top leaves two copies of BHTerminal on the Mac. Do this instead:

1. In the old app: File ▸ Export Backup…, and tick include saved passwords. You will be asked for a passphrase; the file is encrypted with it, and there is no way to open it without that passphrase.
2. Remove the old app. Drag BHTerminal from Applications to the Trash (macOS asks for your password, because the old installer wrote it as root).
3. Install BHTerminal-<version>-universal.pkg from the latest release.
4. In the new app: ＋ ▸ Restore a backup…, choose that file, enter the passphrase.

Your hosts and folders are read from the same place the old app kept them, so they are usually there already — the backup is what carries your saved passwords across, because v1 kept them in the macOS Keychain and v2 keeps them in its own encrypted vault.

This is also the way to move a host list to the Windows or Linux build: the backup file is the same format on every platform. A private key file is the one thing that does not travel — it stays on the machine it is on, and a restore tells you which hosts are pointing at a key that is not on this computer.

First launch on macOS

The app is signed, but not notarised — that needs a paid Apple account, and this is free software. Open it, click Done on the warning, then go to System Settings ▸ Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. You only do this once.

How it works

One Rust core, one shell, three platforms:

• crates/bhterm-core — everything portable, and nothing else: the data model, the ssh argument builder and its allow-list, an SFTP v3 client, the credential vault, the backup format, and the import parsers. No UI, no Tauri, and no platform guessing — the shell passes in every path. It is where the tests live.
• app/ — the Tauri shell (pty, SFTP sessions, the VNC bridge, the vault, forwards) and a React front end with xterm.js and noVNC.
• macos/ — the original Swift app, kept as the reference it was ported from.
• docs/PORTING.md — the OS-neutral spec and the security rules, written when each OS was going to get its own shell. Still the contract for the behaviour, and worth reading before changing it.

The terminal runs your system's ssh rather than a bundled SSH library, which is why your config, your agent, ProxyJump and 2FA simply work. The one real platform difference: Windows OpenSSH has no connection sharing, so there the file browser signs in separately instead of riding the terminal's login — the app says so rather than behaving differently in silence.

The saved-session file is the same on every platform, so your sessions move between them.

Repository layout

.
├── crates/bhterm-core/  # portable Rust core (model, ssh, sftp, vault, import) + tests
├── app/                 # Tauri shell (Rust) + React front end — the shipping app
├── docs/PORTING.md      # the OS-neutral spec and security contract
├── macos/               # the original Swift app, kept as reference
├── LICENSE           # MIT
├── SECURITY.md
└── DISCLAIMER.md     # not affiliated with MobaXterm / Termius

License

MIT — see LICENSE. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or derived from MobaXterm, Termius, or any other product — see DISCLAIMER.md.

☕ Support

This project is free and open-source. If it made your server work easier, you can buy me a coffee — it genuinely helps me keep building and maintaining free tools like this. 🙏

• bKash/Nagad (Personal · Send Money): 01710378396

ধন্যবাদ! / Thank you!

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