Bast vs XPipe

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.

XPipe is a connection hub for organizing remote connections and opening shell sessions in a terminal of your choice. Its remote file browser can transfer files between a desktop and remote systems, and open remote files in locally installed programs for editing. It supports SSH and SFTP, reading SSH configuration files and working with existing agents, jump servers, tunnels, smart cards, and PKCS#11 libraries. XPipe also connects to container, virtualization, and subsystem tools, including Docker, Podman, Kubernetes, Proxmox, VMware, and WSL. A VNC viewer is included; RDP sessions can be launched, and VNC or RDP traffic can be tunneled over SSH. Shell scripts, templates, shell environments, and automatic port tunneling support automation. Connections can be synchronized across systems and team members using remote Git repositories, including self-hosted ones. XPipe says connection data remains on the local machine and connected systems. The application core is open source under Apache License 2.0, while some paid features are not. It runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows. Community is free; Homelab is $5/month or $40/year, and Professional is $10/month or $80/year.