Free web SSH clients compared (2026)

Browser-based SSH clients have gotten better. A few years ago the options were limited to enterprise tools that required self-hosting a server component, or simple JavaScript toys that would not handle anything more than a basic connection.

The situation now is more practical. Here is what is out there for free.

SSHDock

SSHDock runs in any modern browser with no installation. You enter your hostname, username, and optionally a private key, and get a full terminal. It supports RSA and Ed25519 key authentication, jump hosts and bastion server tunneling, and basic connection management through local storage.

The main design choice is that the SSH connection happens directly from your browser to the server. No traffic routes through a third-party relay. That is a reasonable approach for anyone who cares about where their credentials go.

It works well on mobile browsers too, which not all browser SSH clients can say.

Apache Guacamole

Guacamole is not purely a browser client. It is a server-side application that you self-host. Users access it through a browser, but all the SSH connections happen on the Guacamole server, not in the browser directly.

The advantage of this architecture is that it can handle more complex network topologies. If your servers are on a private network that Guacamole can reach but your browser cannot, Guacamole acts as a jump point.

The disadvantage is that you need a server to run it, and the setup is not trivial. It requires Tomcat or a Docker setup, and the configuration for adding hosts and user accounts is done through a web admin interface or a MySQL database. It is genuinely capable software but overkill for personal use or a small team.

Wetty

Wetty (Web + TTY) is an open-source project that runs a terminal in the browser by serving an SSH client over WebSockets. Like Guacamole, it requires self-hosting.

The setup is lighter than Guacamole. You run a Node.js process on a server, and it proxies SSH connections through a web interface. The terminal quality is good because it uses xterm.js, the same terminal emulator used by VS Code's built-in terminal.

Wetty is the right choice if you want to give colleagues or clients browser access to a specific server without them needing SSH knowledge. You control what they can access by controlling what Wetty connects to.

Shell In A Box

Shell In A Box is older and simpler than the other options. It runs a web server on the remote host that serves a terminal interface. Users browse to a URL on the server and get a shell.

The downside is that this means the SSH daemon and the web interface are both running on the server you are connecting to. It is a different threat model than having the client-side do the SSH work.

It is rarely the right choice for anything new. It shows up in older documentation and self-hosted setups that pre-date better options.

What to pick

For occasional access from different machines or devices: SSHDock, because it requires nothing.

For a team that needs controlled access to internal servers: Guacamole or Wetty, self-hosted.

For a personal homelab where you want browser access from your local network: Wetty is lighter to set up.

The self-hosted options give you more control and handle more network configurations. The browser-side options like SSHDock are faster to start using and require no infrastructure.