Bast vs Royal TS

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.

Royal TS is a remote management solution for organizing connections to remote systems. It supports RDP, VNC, SSH, Telnet, FTP, SFTP, SCP and web interfaces, among other listed protocols. Integrations include TeamViewer, VMware, Hyper-V, Windows Events, Windows Services, Windows Processes, Terminal Services and PowerShell. Users can share connection documents while keeping personal credentials in a separate private document. Sensitive document data is encrypted, and documents can be password protected or locked. Command Tasks, Key Sequence Tasks and PowerShell scripting can automate repetitive work and document management. Its Secure Gateway uses SSH port forwarding to tunnel supported connection types. Dynamic Folders and Dynamic Credentials can bring in external data and retrieve credential properties when a connection opens. Shared documents can be synchronized through a file share or cloud service such as Dropbox without a SQL database backend. The free Lite plan is limited to 10 connections, 10 credentials and one document. The Single User License costs €49 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription or annual fees; a 30-day trial is also available.