Bast vs Core Shell
Bast
bast.sh
Core Shell
coreshell.appSide by side
| Figure | Bast | Core Shell |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $2.50/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 2 |
| Spec score · SSH Clients | 8.1 (#9) | 8.4 (#5) |
| Host management | It can search, sort, organize, favorite, and hide SSH hosts, with groups, tags, and colors. | Users can organize hundreds or thousands of hosts with tags and edit per-host advanced SSH options with contextual help. |
| OpenSSH | Bast uses the system OpenSSH client and treats the existing SSH configuration as its source of truth. | It supports OpenSSH features including remote shell sessions, certificates, and proxy jump. |
| Purpose | Bast is a command-line tool and terminal interface for managing SSH hosts and connecting to servers. | Core Shell is a terminal with built-in OpenSSH support for managing hosts and logging in to remote shells. |
Plans
In their own words
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.
Core Shell
Core Shell is a terminal app for managing hosts and opening remote shells with built-in OpenSSH support. It supports remote sessions, certificates and proxy jump, and the maker says a remote host can be reached with one click. Tags help organize large host lists, while per-host advanced SSH options come with contextual help. The app integrates with macOS Keychain for passphrases and can try to restore connections after network failure or waking from sleep. It also supports USB, Bluetooth and built-in serial interfaces, with common UART, RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 adapters. Its terminal supports Terminal.app, iTerm2 and xterm compatibility and ANSI 16-color, 256-color and 24-bit color modes. SFTP is supported, and sessions use tabs. The free Basic plan allows unlimited hosts. Premium costs $29.99 a year, billed as a 4-Year License, and adds unlimited SSH and serial connections, profile importing and exporting, profile and tag sync across Macs, Shortcuts automation and priority support. It is listed for Mac, iPhone and iPad; macOS 15.0 or later is specified.