electerm vs TermDesk
electerm
electerm.github.ioTermDesk
termdesk.proSide by side
| Figure | electerm | TermDesk |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| Android | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Remote Connection Manager Software | 8.1 (#10) | 7.3 (#25) |
| AI integrations | Its AI assistant supports OpenAI Chat Completions, OpenAI Responses, and Anthropic Messages formats for command generation, explanations, and scripts. | Its built-in MCP server supports Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients for listing hosts and running commands; agent access is off by default and approval-gated. |
| Purpose | Electerm combines a terminal emulator and graphical SFTP file manager with SSH, SFTP, FTP, Telnet, serial port, RDP, VNC, and Spice clients. | TermDesk is an open-source desktop app for SSH, SFTP, VNC and RDP with a local encrypted vault. |
| Support | The project provides documentation, issue reporting, GitHub Discussions, video guides, and a WeChat community for support and updates. | The site directs users to GitHub Issues for bugs and feature requests and provides a contact form for other questions and security disclosures. |
Plans
In their own words
electerm
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://.