Conduit vs electerm

Conduit is a remote connection manager that brings SSH terminals, RDP desktops, VNC sessions, and web tools into a tabbed workspace. It includes a native MCP server with tools for terminal, RDP, VNC, web, credential, and vault operations. Conduit can launch Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build, Cursor Agent, OpenClaw, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot, and OpenCode; other MCP-compatible clients can connect. AI inference is not paid for or proxied by Conduit, so an agent runs under the user's provider subscription.

Connection entries and credentials are stored in a local SQLite vault encrypted with AES-256. Encryption keys are derived locally from the master password and are not transmitted to Conduit servers, including for cloud backups. MCP calls use local sockets or named pipes, redact secrets, apply per-tool rate limits, log activity, and require one-off approval for credential reads. Free accounts and local-mode installs are capped at 50 MCP tool calls per day. The free plan includes unlimited connections; Pro is free for 30 days, then costs $10 a month. Desktop versions are available for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with iPhone and iPad companion apps.

electerm combines a terminal emulator with a graphical SFTP file manager and clients for SSH, SFTP, FTP, Telnet, serial, RDP, VNC and Spice. It is free and open-source under the MIT License, and is listed for Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, web and Windows. The terminal supports multiple tabs, split panes, quick input to one or all terminals, and a global visibility hotkey. Its SFTP manager can edit remote files directly and transfer them by drag and drop. Authentication options include public keys and passwords, with SSH tunnels and global or session proxies. An AI assistant can generate commands, explain them and create scripts using OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses or Anthropic Messages formats. The free AI service uses free-tier accounts and may have usage limits; users can configure their own API key. Bookmarks, themes and quick commands can sync through GitHub or Gitee secret gists, WebDAV, custom servers or electerm cloud. The project also offers an MCP widget and deep links such as ssh:// and telnet://.