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Conchshell for macOS

Version 2.16.0 · Apple silicon and Intel, macOS 12 Monterey or later. A terminal, a file manager and a remote desktop — one window, one process.

Download for macOS

macOS

macOS 12 Monterey or later
Apple silicon .dmg 9.3 MBIntel .dmg 9.9 MB

First launch on a Mac

The builds are not notarised yet, so macOS refuses the first launch. On macOS 13 Ventura and later, open System Settings → Privacy & Security; on macOS 12 Monterey, System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General. Scroll to the message naming Conchshell and press Open Anyway. Once is enough — later launches and updates go straight through.

Apple silicon or Intel?

Apple menu → About This Mac. A chip named Apple M-something takes the Apple silicon build; a line reading Intel takes the other. The Apple silicon build is native arm64, so Rosetta is not involved, and auto-update keeps you on the architecture you started with.

Verify what you downloaded

Auto-update checks a detached signature and refuses a build that does not match it. A file you download by hand is not checked for you, so compare its SHA-256 against the published list:

shasum -a 256 Conchshell_2.16.0_aarch64.dmg

What it needs

System
macOS 12 Monterey or later
Architecture
Apple silicon and Intel, as separate native builds
Installed size
18 MB on Apple silicon, 21 MB on Intel
Protocols
SSH, SFTP, FTPS, RDP
Account
Not required — there is nothing to register
Price
Free. One build, no tiers, nothing to unlock
Auto-update
Built in, and refuses a build whose signature does not match

What you get on a Mac

A real terminal
xterm.js over a real PTY, drawn with WebGL. vim, tmux and top behave the way they do in Terminal.app, because the same thing is underneath. Split panes in four directions, tab groups, and the workspace comes back on the next launch.
Files without a second app
Local and remote directories side by side over SFTP or FTPS, drag and drop between them, a transfer queue with speed and ETA, and directory comparison before anything is synchronised.
Remote desktop in the same window
RDP docked next to the terminal, or popped out into a window of its own. Not a second application, and not behind a paid tier.
Credentials in a vault, not a text file
XChaCha20-Poly1305 with Argon2id. Each saved credential is bound to its whole route — host, port, user, proxy and jump host — so pointing the connection somewhere else gets it refused.

Questions people actually ask

Is it really free on macOS?

Yes. One build, no tiers, no account, nothing held back for a paid version — the free build is the only build.

Does it run natively on Apple silicon?

Yes. The Apple silicon .dmg is a native arm64 build rather than a translated x86 one, and Rosetta is not required.

Why does macOS say it cannot check the app for malicious software?

Because the builds are not notarised yet. On macOS 13 Ventura and later, open System Settings → Privacy & Security; on macOS 12 Monterey, System Preferences → Security & Privacy → General. Find the message naming Conchshell and press Open Anyway. That is needed once, on the first launch.

Can it do RDP without a second application?

Yes. The remote desktop lives in the same window as the terminal and the file manager, in the free build, on every platform.

Does it handle FTPS as well as SFTP?

Yes — both, in the same dual-panel file manager, alongside SSH and RDP.

Do I have to retype my connections?

No. Connections, folders, profiles and settings import from a JSON bundle. Key files are referenced where they already sit on disk rather than copied into the application.

Does it need Homebrew or the command line tools?

No. It is an ordinary .dmg — open it and drag the application to Applications.

The same application, elsewhere

One codebase, one feature set. Nothing is held back for a particular operating system.

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