mintty vs MobaXterm
mintty
mintty.github.io
MobaXterm
mobaxterm.mobatek.netSide by side
| Figure | mintty | MobaXterm |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $5.75/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 4 |
| Spec score · Terminal Emulators | 8.2 (#17) | 8.6 (#4) |
| Spec score · Terminal apps | 7.9 (#27) | 8.9 (#3) |
| Documentation | The Cygwin package includes a mintty manual page, and the site links to a wiki for keycodes, control sequences, and other hints. | The official manual contains extensive interface, protocol, settings, troubleshooting and FAQ sections. |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Purpose | Mintty is a terminal emulator for Cygwin, MSYS, MSYS2, derived projects, and WSL. | MobaXterm combines remote computing tools and Unix commands in a Windows application for programmers, webmasters, IT administrators, and others handling remote jobs. |
| Security | The manual says mintty prompts for confirmation before pasting multiline clipboard contents when line-ending controls are not filtered, as a measure against malicious command-line pastes. | The product page says X11 forwarding uses SSH for secure transport, and the features page says saved session passwords can be protected with a master password. |
| Support | The project directs bug reports and enhancement suggestions to its GitHub issue tracker and general Cygwin questions to the Cygwin mailing list. | The Home Edition license says Mobatek is not obligated to provide technical assistance or maintenance services. |
| Supported platforms | Windows | Windows |
Plans
MobaXterm
- Professional Edition$69 a year
- Home EditionFree
- Professional Edition$69, paid once
- Professional Edition$69 a year
In their own words
mintty
mintty is a free Windows terminal emulator for Cygwin, MSYS, MSYS2, related projects, and WSL. It provides xterm-compatible emulation and DEC terminal screen controls, with 256 colours, True Colour, Unicode, bidirectional text, emoji, Arabic shaping, image display, Sixel, ReGIS, and Tektronix 4014 graphics emulation. Input features include configurable shortcuts, Unicode composition, AltGr, Windows IME, mouse modes, selection, copy and paste, drag and drop, and Ctrl-click opening of files or URLs. Window features include virtual tabs, session switching, fullscreen, transparency, multiple monitors, and high DPI. Options can be supplied on the command line or in a text configuration file, without registry entries. mintty is the default Cygwin Terminal, installed by default in MSYS2, included with Git for Windows as Git Bash, and able to host WSL. It omits PuTTY networking functionality; the project points to OpenSSH and inetutils packages instead. The listed latest release is 3.8.3.
MobaXterm
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.