ConchshellConchshell and PuTTY share SSH and little else
PuTTY is free, MIT-licensed and has been in development since 1997. Nothing here argues that it is bad software; parts of it are engineered better than the clients that came after. The argument is narrower. PuTTY is a Windows terminal for SSH, serial lines and Telnet, and if your day also holds a Mac, a file pane, an FTPS server or an RDP host, three other applications are already open beside it.
Everything said here about PuTTY was read from the project's own site on 20 August 2026.
What each one costs
PuTTY costs nothing, and the MIT licence keeps it that way. The licence page says in as many words that anybody, companies included, may use it commercially and owe nobody anything. No paid client argues its way out of that.
The Conchshell application is free on macOS, Windows and Linux. One feature is paid: syncing saved connections between your own machines, $19 once. That is an introductory price and it rises to $29. It is a purchase rather than a subscription, updates are included and no limit counts your machines. Neither side asks for an account, and the licence key is checked on your own machine, without a network.
There is no PuTTY for the Mac
This is the largest gap, and the project is the one that says so. Their FAQ, asked whether a Mac version will ever appear, answers that ports have been started over the years and never finished, and doubts the core team will ever finish one. The 0.85 download page of 16 August 2026 carries Windows binaries for four architectures and a Unix source tarball, and nothing for macOS.
Conchshell is one codebase on macOS (Apple silicon and Intel), Windows, Linux as .deb, .rpm and .AppImage, and Android as an APK. One thing to know before you download: that APK comes from this site rather than Google Play, and there is no iOS build yet. PuTTY's Windows binaries are Authenticode-signed and every release file is GPG-signed. On provenance PuTTY is ahead: neither of our .dmg files has a detached signature, only the packages the updater installs are signed, and what we publish beside them is a SHA256SUMS file.
Neither of us has a mobile app in a store. PuTTY has none for iOS or Android; our Android build is an APK you install from the site yourself.
File transfer is a second program in PuTTY
PSFTP and PSCP are good tools, and they are separate command-line programs. The PuTTY window cannot list a remote directory, cannot accept a dragged file and has no file pane. A graphical SFTP client sits at low priority on the wishlist, and the project's own links page sends people to WinSCP and FileZilla, both of which grew out of PuTTY's SSH code.
Conchshell keeps both panes in the terminal window: local on one side, remote on the other, drag and drop between them, a transfer queue with progress, speed, ETA, cancel and retry, and directory compare in four explicit steps with nothing implicit. A remote file opens in your own editor and saving sends it back. FTPS, which is FTP over TLS and not SFTP, is here as well, over rustls, checking the system root certificate store, where PuTTY has no FTP or FTPS in any form.
RDP, and the tunnel people build instead
PuTTY does not speak RDP, and there is no entry for it on the wishlist. People forward a port over SSH with -L and point Remote Desktop Connection at the local end. That works, and the remote desktop is still a separate application sitting on top of the terminal.
Conchshell opens RDP in the same window as the SSH tabs, with a limit better read before downloading than after: CredSSP, that is NLA, only, and there is no fallback path. A host with NLA switched off will not connect, so this does not replace mstsc for the hosts that need it.
Where sessions and credentials live
On Windows, PuTTY keeps saved sessions in the registry under HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY, unencrypted: hosts, ports, usernames and cached host keys. There is no export or import in the interface, and manual section 4.33 says storing configuration in a file is not supported, offering a batch-file and regedit recipe instead. On Unix the same settings sit in the ~/.putty directory.
PuTTY stores no passwords and refuses to. That is a position rather than an oversight: it sits on the list of features the team is actively opposed to.
Conchshell exports connections, folders, profiles and settings as a JSON bundle and reads the same file back, with credentials deliberately left out. They live in a store encrypted with XChaCha20-Poly1305, its key derived by Argon2id from a master phrase, with independent slots over one data key for that phrase, the system keychain and a recovery code. The interface can create a credential and delete it, and cannot read one back, because no such command exists. Each one is bound to host, port, user, proxy chain and jump host, so change any of those and the password is not offered. Host keys are trust on first use, and the confirmation is drawn by the operating system rather than by us; RDP and FTPS certificates are checked the same way.
Where Conchshell is the better tool
- Your working machine is a Mac, and there is no official PuTTY build for macOS.
- You move files by hand every day: two panes, drag and drop, a queue with progress, speed, ETA and retry, in the terminal window itself.
- Your day includes an FTPS server, or a Windows host with NLA enabled.
- You have more servers than fit on one screen: folders, tabs, tab groups, a four-way split and session restore, against one window per session and an alphabetical list.
- You want the same host list on a desktop and a laptop without going through regedit, and $19 once is a fair price for never doing it again.
Where PuTTY is the better tool
- Serial consoles. Choose Serial and the host and port boxes become a line and a baud rate. Conchshell has no serial support at all, and no Telnet, Rlogin or raw TCP either. If your week includes console cables or a BMC, PuTTY stays installed, and it should.
- Tunnels, X11 and Kerberos. Local, remote and dynamic SOCKS forwarding, X11 forwarding, GSSAPI single sign-on, OpenSSH host and user certificates. Conchshell has proxies (HTTP CONNECT, SOCKS4, SOCKS4a, SOCKS5) and a jump host, and no port forwarding of any kind.
- Pageant. It holds decrypted keys in memory and hands them on to other programs. Conchshell talks to no key agent at all: it takes a password, a private key, or an encrypted key with its passphrase, typed into the application.
- Post-quantum key exchange, shipped early: NTRU Prime since 0.78, ML-KEM since 0.83. Conchshell is on russh 0.44 and uses its default set, led by curve25519-sha256, which is not post-quantum.
- Size and provenance. About 1.7 MB of putty.exe on the 0.85 download page, no installer, no administrator rights, builds for four Windows architectures including Arm, GPG signatures on every file. Conchshell is a 9.1 MB download and 18 MB on disk on Apple silicon, 20.6 MiB on Intel, measured 20 August 2026, and its Windows installer pulls Microsoft Edge WebView2 from the network when the machine has none.
What moving across actually involves
- Dump what PuTTY holds. On Windows: regedit /e putty-sessions.reg HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SimonTatham\PuTTY. The .reg is text you can read: hosts, ports, usernames and an SshHostKeys section with the cached fingerprints. On Unix it is the ~/.putty directory.
- Install Conchshell and enter the hosts from that file. There is no PuTTY importer, because a .reg is a registry dump and Conchshell imports its own JSON bundle. Ten hosts take a couple of minutes to type; past thirty, write the JSON instead.
- Convert the keys you actually use: in PuTTYgen, Conversions, Export OpenSSH key, once per .ppk. Conchshell takes a private key, or an encrypted key with its passphrase. The .ppk stays where it is.
- Type each password once. Nothing carries across: PuTTY never stored passwords, and the JSON export leaves credentials out on purpose. Each one is then bound to that host, port, user, proxy chain and jump host.
- Confirm host keys as you connect. The prompt is drawn by the operating system, and the SshHostKeys fingerprints in your .reg are there to compare against.
- Keep PuTTY installed. Serial lines, Telnet and port forwarding remain its job, and nothing in Conchshell touches its registry keys.
Questions people actually ask
Is Conchshell really free?
The application is free on macOS, Windows and Linux. One feature is paid: syncing saved connections between your own machines, $19 once, an introductory price that rises to $29. It is a purchase rather than a subscription, so there is nothing to renew, updates are included, no limit counts your machines, and the key is checked on your machine without a network. No trial runs out and nothing greys itself out after a month.
Does PuTTY support RDP?
No, and there is no entry for it on the wishlist. The usual workaround is to forward a port over SSH with -L, through a jump host if you need one, and point Remote Desktop Connection at localhost. That works, and the remote desktop remains a second application. Conchshell has RDP built in, with one limit worth knowing: CredSSP, that is NLA, only, so a host with NLA disabled will not connect.
Is there a PuTTY for Mac?
There is no official build. The project FAQ says Mac ports have been started over the years and never finished, and doubts the core team will finish one. The 0.85 download page of 16 August 2026 lists no macOS binaries. Homebrew carries a third-party formula that gives you plink, pscp and psftp on the command line; the graphical side on macOS is not something the project supports.
Do I need an account?
Not for either one. PuTTY has no sign-in, no registration and no activation. Conchshell has no account at all and no cloud of its own, and the licence key is verified on your machine without a network. If you buy syncing, the encrypted store is mirrored into a folder you already sync, such as iCloud Drive, Dropbox or a git checkout. Without such a folder only the first copy travels, by reading a code off the desktop screen.
Can I import my PuTTY sessions?
Not directly. PuTTY has no export feature, so what you have is a registry dump made with regedit, and Conchshell imports its own JSON bundle. Read the hosts, ports and usernames out of that .reg file and either type them in or build the JSON. Passwords are not in there to import, because PuTTY stores none.
Does PuTTY have tabs?
No, and by the project's own tracker it probably never will: the wishlist entry sits at low priority with a note that it is close to never unless somebody makes the case for it. MTPuTTY, SuperPuTTY, QuTTY and KiTTY exist largely to add them. Conchshell has tabs, tab groups, draggable tabs, a four-way split and session restore at launch.
Where is it safe to download PuTTY from?
From the project's own pages at chiark.greenend.org.uk, and from nowhere else without checking. Their FAQ states that putty.org is not theirs, that it was registered by somebody selling a competing client, and that its content is out of their hands. Darktrace reported SEO-poisoned fake PuTTY download sites delivering the Oyster backdoor to IT staff from June 2025, so the address matters.
Which of the two belongs on your machine
If you are on Windows, live on serial consoles and SSH tunnels, and your host list fits on one screen, PuTTY is not something to replace. It starts faster than anything described here and it will behave the same way in ten years.
If you are on a Mac, or you keep WinSCP and Remote Desktop Connection open beside the terminal all day, or a new laptop means exporting the registry by hand again, a second tool pays for itself. The Conchshell application is free to try against your own hosts; the only money involved is $19, once, for sync.