Operations 6 min read

Discover electerm: A Free Cross‑Platform SSH/SFTP Client for Seamless Server Management

This article introduces electerm, an open‑source, cross‑platform terminal tool that combines SSH and SFTP capabilities, walks through its features, download and installation steps, configuration for SSH connections, split‑screen usage, file transfer operations, and key settings for efficient server management.

macrozheng
macrozheng
macrozheng
Discover electerm: A Free Cross‑Platform SSH/SFTP Client for Seamless Server Management

Programmers rely on terminal tools; electerm is a free open‑source cross‑platform SSH/SFTP client built with electron, ssh2, node‑pty, xterm, antd, and subx.

electerm

electerm is an open‑source terminal connection tool created by Zhao Xudong, with over 5.4K stars on GitHub.

Features

Supports Linux, macOS, Windows.

Multi‑language UI.

Quick command shortcuts.

Batch command execution across terminals.

SSH/SFTP client similar to Xshell.

Global hotkeys for window visibility.

Double‑click to edit remote files.

Built‑in editor for local files.

Public‑key and password authentication.

Sync bookmarks, themes, quick commands to GitHub/Gitee gist.

Download and Installation

Download from https://github.com/electerm/electerm/releases. For Windows, run the installer or extract the .tar.gz and launch electerm.exe.

After installation, the interface is simple. Switch language to Chinese in settings and restart.

SSH Connection

Create a new SSH session by entering host IP, username, password, port, and optional fields such as title, description, local/remote start directories, scripts, delay, and encoding.

Saved sessions appear in bookmarks; selecting one opens the terminal.

Split screen is supported via the UI or

ctrl+/

. Batch command execution can be enabled and commands entered in a dialog.

SFTP File Transfer

Click the SFTP icon to view local and remote file panes. Upload by right‑clicking a file or dragging it; download works similarly.

Settings

Basic settings include SSH/SFTP defaults, terminal type, font, proxy, authentication, and quick commands. Sync settings with GitHub or Gitee.

Conclusion

electerm offers a decent, fully open‑source, cross‑platform terminal and file transfer solution with a Chinese UI; it may not be as mature as commercial tools but suffices for daily server management.

cross‑platformSSHSFTPTerminalServer managementelecterm
macrozheng
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macrozheng

Dedicated to Java tech sharing and dissecting top open-source projects. Topics include Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Docker, Kubernetes and more. Author’s GitHub project “mall” has 50K+ stars.

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