electerm vs MobaXterm

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://.

MobaXterm combines remote-computing tools and Unix commands in a Windows application. It supports remote sessions over SSH, Telnet, Rlogin, RDP, VNC, XDMCP, FTP, SFTP, Mosh, and Serial, among other listed protocols. Its embedded X server supports OpenGL and extensions for running remote graphical applications on Windows. An SSH session can open a graphical SFTP browser for transferring files between a computer and a remote server. The terminal includes Unix commands, and additional tools can be added through downloadable plugins or the MobApt package manager. The session manager can route connections through an SSH gateway before reaching an end server. MobaXterm is offered as a single executable that can run from a USB stick without admin rights. The Home Edition has limits of 12 sessions, 2 SSH tunnels, and 4 macros; its license does not obligate the maker to provide technical assistance or maintenance. Professional Edition costs $69 per user per year, with first-year updates and optional renewal. The maker, MobaXterm, was founded in 2008 and is headquartered in Toulouse, France.