AbsoluteTelnet vs Bast
AbsoluteTelnet
celestialsoftware.net
Bast
bast.shSide by side
| Figure | AbsoluteTelnet | Bast |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | Free |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 2 | 1 |
| Spec score · SSH Clients | 8.1 (#8) | 8.1 (#9) |
| Purpose | AbsoluteTelnet is a Telnet and SSH client for Windows with SFTP file transfer and terminal emulation. | Bast is a command-line tool and terminal interface for managing SSH hosts and connecting to servers. |
Plans
In their own words
AbsoluteTelnet
AbsoluteTelnet has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
Bast
Bast is a command-line tool and terminal interface for managing SSH hosts and connecting to servers. It uses the system OpenSSH client and relies on the existing SSH configuration as its source of truth. Users can search, sort, group, tag, color, favorite, and hide hosts, then connect through SSH or use port forwarding. A dual-pane Files tab supports local and remote file browsing and transfers through OpenSSH SFTP. The key manager can generate, import, export, and install SSH keys. Bast documents host synchronization with GCP, AWS, Azure, box.ascii.dev, Upstash Box, Vercel Sandbox, and Hetzner Cloud. Its Vault encrypts managed hosts and keys on the client using a passphrase-derived key and XChaCha20-Poly1305; the server stores ciphertext. Users can self-host the web app and keep Vault data on their own infrastructure. Bast is free, with plans for macOS, Linux, and Windows 11. Windows requires OpenSSH Client commands on PATH. Vercel Sandbox sessions are capped at five hours.