Core Shell vs XPipe

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.

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.