No. 15 of 29 ·Remote Connection Manager Software

TermDesk

Windows · Mac · Linux

Freedom report

Two barsScore 5.3

Free tierA free tier is on its own pricing page
Open codeNo open-source code on record
Runs widely3 of 6 device platforms
DocumentedThinly documented

TermDesk is ranked #15 of 29 in remote connection manager software on Freedom251. It runs on Linux, macOS, Windows. There is a free plan.

TermDesk plans and pricing

All plans

Free forever Free MIT-licensed; runs from source today; prebuilt signed installers are on the way termdesk.pro · 5 Oct 2026

Compared on remote connection manager software

Free plan: Yes
Supported protocols: SSH, SFTP, VNC, RDP
Desktop platforms: macOS, Windows, Linux
Credential vault: Yes

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The record

Purpose: TermDesk is an open-source desktop app for SSH, SFTP, VNC and RDP with a local encrypted vault.
SSH and SFTP: It supports saved hosts, jump hosts, agent and port forwarding, drag-and-drop SFTP transfers, tabs, splits and tagged host groups.
SSH configuration: TermDesk reads the user's existing ~/.ssh/config.
Remote desktop: VNC sessions are tunneled over SSH, and Windows hosts connect over RDP with trust-on-first-use certificate pinning.
AI integrations: 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.
Vault storage: Hosts, keys, snippets and known hosts are stored in a local SQLite vault, while passwords and passphrases are encrypted using the operating system keychain.
Keychain support: The site names macOS Keychain, Windows DPAPI and Linux libsecret as supported secret-storage systems.
Security controls: The site says the renderer is sandboxed without Node access and secrets remain in the main process behind a Zod-validated IPC contract.
Privacy: The site says there is no mandatory cloud account or telemetry and that hosts, keys and history stay on the user's machine.
Open source: TermDesk is MIT-licensed, developed in public and available to build from source.
Availability limit: The site says TermDesk runs from source today and that prebuilt signed installers are on the way.
Support: The site directs users to GitHub Issues for bugs and feature requests and provides a contact form for other questions and security disclosures.
Price from: Free

Where it ranks on Freedom251

Best Remote Connection Manager Software in 2026#15 of 29

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Sources

termdesk.pro· checked 5 Oct 2026