Is PuTTY available on Mac?

PuTTY is available on Mac through its macOS port. PuTTY is a Windows SSH client that'southward besides available for Mac – unlike other SSH clients, this tool offers a user interface and allows the user to save their login data and session data.

Your Mac already has a congenital-in SSH client – the Terminal tool that y'all tin can observe in the Utilities binder. For the most part, Final and PuTTY can be used in the same mode. Yet, the thing that may make downloading and installing PuTTY and using it instead of your Mac'due south Terminal is that the latter offers a graphical user interface (GUI). This interface can assist with using PuTTY's command line by allowing you to customize its settings in a more convenient way, rather than having to do everything by entering commands into the command line. Notation that you'd however need to use commands for most of your work, just having a GUI for the tool's settings can withal be very helpful.

Other notable things that you tin practice in PuTTY that you can't do in Terminal are saving your login data and saving information almost your previous sessions. This can speed upward the process of logging dorsum into SSH servers in the future, and besides makes switching between SSH servers quicker and more user-friendly.

How to download PuTTY on Mac?

To download PuTTY on Mac, you must kickoff download and install Xcode and download and install Xcode Control Line Tools. Side by side, accept the Xcode license agreement, install MacPorts, and after that apply the built-in Final app to finally install PuTTY on your Mac.

Equally you can see, the process of downloading and installing PuTTY on a Mac isn't particularly straightforward, and some preparation is required to get everything working. The skillful news is that all of this can exist washed for free, then if y'all have some time and patience to complete the different steps from the installation process, hither are the details of how to download PuTTY on your Mac:

  1. First, go to the Mac App Shop, search for Xcode, and click the Xcode app (should be the first outcome).
  2. Click Become and install Xcode.
    • Notation that, at the time of writing, in order to install Xcode on your Mac, your macOS will demand to be upgraded to macOS Monterey.
  3. Next, go to this link, enter your Apple ID username/email and password, and log in. This is a two-factor authentication, so you will be shown a lawmaking that you must enter before you can finally log in.
  4. In one case you are logged in, click View Details under the Command Line Tools for Xcode entry and and then click the Control Line Tools for Xcode .dmg file to download it.
  5. Open up the downloaded file and perform the Command Line Tools for Xcode installation past following the prompts.
  6. Next, go to Applicaitons > Utilities, open the Last app, copy-paste in the Last the following command, and striking Enter to execute it. If required to, enter your Admin countersign – y'all won't see anything beingness typed, simply this is considering the symbols are subconscious, then type the password anyhow and hit Enter again. Here is the command you must execute:
    • xcodebuild -license
  7. Side by side, click Enter again – this will show yous the license agreement for the Xcode tools.
  8. After that, scroll downwards to the finish of the license understanding, type " Concord ", and hit the Enter key to accept the license agreement.
  9. Next, y'all demand to download MacPorts: go to this link and click the macOS version you lot are using at the moment, and download the file.
  10. Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen prompts to install MacPorts.
  11. Now click here, download the XQuartz.dmg file on the page that opens, open up the downloaded file, and complete the prompts to install XQuartz.
  12. After that, go back to the Terminal, enter this control sudo port -v selfupdate , and printing the Enter cardinal to execute it (you volition probable need to enter your password once more).
  13. Next, enter the sudo port install putty control in the Terminal, execute the command – one time again, your password will be required.
  14. Y'all must at present type Y in the Concluding and press Enter to continue.
  15. This will complete the PuTTY installation, only nosotros also recommend creating a PuTTY shortcut: copy the post-obit command and execute it in the Final and a shortcut for PuTTY volition exist created on your Mac's Desktop:
    • cp /opt/local/bin/putty ~/Desktop/PuTTY

How to install PuTTY on Mac

To install PuTTY on Mac, yous volition demand to do it through the Concluding app on your Mac, by inbound and executing a command that will automatically install PuTTY. Before you can install PuTTY, still, y'all'll first demand Xcode, Xcode Command Line Tools, and MacPorts.

Installing PuTTY on a Mac is relatively easy, but there are several steps that you'd need to consummate. If there isn't a specific reason you demand PuTTY on your Mac, it may be better to stick with your Mac'due south Last tool, which can exercise pretty much the same things that PuTTY can. There are only a couple of important differences that set the two apart and make PuTTY worth installing on your Mac – its GUI and the pick that it gives you lot to salvage login and sessions data. If you need these features to brand your work with a command-line easier, follow the instructions shown above to download and install PuTTY on your Mac. If, instead, you need a more flexible SSH customer that has more features and is more than customizable, cheque out the following paragraph.

PuTTY alternatives for Mac

The principal PuTTY alternative for Mac is Final – this is Mac's own command-line tool that can be used for accessing SSH servers and is preinstalled on every Mac. Other popular PuTTY alternatives for Mac are iTerm2, Termius, and ZOC Terminal.

Here is a quick rundown of the main characteristics of those four PuTTY alternatives:

Terminal: A stiff command line and SSH client tool that should be enough for the majority of users who demand to access SSH servers. To use it successfully, some prior noesis of how to work with a command line is required.

iTerm2: Designed to be a full Concluding replacement, this tool offers a lot more customization options and has a big number of useful features that can make working with the command line more than effective and efficient. People who already know how to work with Terminal should have no trouble getting used to iTerm2. iTerm2 tin can be downloaded and installed for free on your Mac, for more information, click here .

Termius: A specialized SSH client that offers GUI for secure file transfer, then you won't need to use command line commands to transfer data between your device and devices that yous are connected to via the SSH protocol. Termius is also bachelor for both computers and mobile devices. Termius has a free and a paid version, with only the latter including the data transfer GUI.

ZOC Terminal: ZOC Terminal is similar to iTerm2 in that it offers a lot of customization options for its control line and also includes a lot of helpful functions such as split panels, multiple tabs, the option to colour-code different SSH servers, and more. It is a costless tool, only information technology doesn't accept any sort of GUI.

We also take a more detailed article, where nosotros requite more than data almost each of these variants. If you lot are interested, here is a link to that post.