PuTTY alternative

A PuTTY alternative that does the rest of the job too.

Ravelon takes the sessions you know from PuTTY and builds a workspace around them: every host in an encrypted vault, tabs and split panes in one window, a file browser on the same connection, saved tunnels and sync to your second machine. On Windows, macOS and Linux.

PuTTY is the free, minimal SSH and telnet client that's been around since 1999. We at Ravelon wrote this page and keep it up to date. PuTTY is a trademark of its owner.

Ravelon and PuTTY, side by side

Ravelon compared with PuTTY
Compared	Ravelon	PuTTY
Price	Free without sync. Pro is EUR 19.90 once and adds sync. The self-hosted sync server is free and open source.	Free and open source (MIT).
Platforms	Windows, macOS and Linux, on x86_64 and ARM64, with .deb and .rpm packages for Linux.	Windows, plus Unix ports.
Tabs and split panes	Both, plus saved layouts.	One session per window.
File transfer	SFTP browser on the same connection.	Separate tools: pscp and psftp.
Saved connections	Encrypted vault (AES-256-GCM) on your device. Sync only sees encrypted data.	Registry entries, unencrypted.
Sync between machines	End-to-end encrypted. We host it, or you do.	Copy the registry key by hand.
Remote desktops	RDP and VNC in the same tabs as your SSH sessions.	Not part of the product.

PuTTY column last checked: 2026-08

Why Ravelon

Four reasons to move from PuTTY to Ravelon

All your servers in one window

Ravelon puts every session in tabs and split panes in one window. Move them around and the scrollback and running command stay put. Save the whole arrangement as a named layout and open it again with one click.

Files right next to the session

Open the SFTP browser straight from the session you're already in, without a second login. Transfers can resume, run in parallel and keep their timestamps, and small text files open for editing right in Ravelon.

Hosts and passwords in an encrypted vault

Ravelon keeps hosts, keys and passwords in an AES-256-GCM vault and syncs it to your other devices whenever you want. The server never gets the key, and a new machine has your whole host list in minutes.

Tunnels that stay saved

Ravelon saves local, reverse and SOCKS5 forwards as rules on the host, syncs them with the vault and shows you how many connections are going through each one. Rules can start on their own as soon as you connect.

Bring the hosts you already have

Export your PuTTY sessions from the registry as a .reg file and Ravelon imports them, along with an OpenSSH config if you keep one too. Then group your hosts, give them an icon and a colour, and pull up any of them from the command palette.

Import from PuTTY .reg files and SSH config
Groups, colours and host icons
One command palette for hosts, tabs and snippets
Jump hosts, each with its own pinned key

The commands you keep typing

Save a command once, with a clear name, tags and placeholders. Later you find it on the snippets page or in the palette and paste it into the active terminal. Snippets are pasted, never run, so you get one more look before you hit Enter.

Snippets land in the terminal. You press Enter yourself.

Switching

Moving from PuTTY in a few minutes

Export the PuTTY sessions key from the Windows registry as a .reg file and import it into Ravelon. Host names, ports and users come over at once, and you add passwords to the encrypted vault or switch to keys on the way.

Ravelon is free without sync and installs with a signed installer. Ravelon verifies every update before installing it, and if you switch on automatic installation, the app stays current without you downloading anything by hand.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Can Ravelon read my PuTTY sessions?

Yes. Export the PuTTY sessions key from the Windows registry as a .reg file and import it into Ravelon. Passwords never come along, so you add them to the vault afterwards or switch to keys.

Does Ravelon support .ppk keys?

Ravelon uses keys in OpenSSH format. PuTTYgen converts a .ppk file in one step, and the converted key goes into your encrypted vault.

Is there a free version?

Yes. The desktop app is free, with the local encrypted vault, terminal, SFTP and tunnels. You only pay if you want your hosts synced between devices.

Try it first

Try it on your own servers.

The desktop app is free, with everything in it: the encrypted vault, SFTP, RDP, VNC and the assistant. Import your SSH config and work with it for a while before you decide.

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