If you’re still juggling between PuTTY, the default Windows terminal and three SSH windows scattered all over the place, Tabby will probably make your life easier. It’s a modern, open source terminal that bundles an SSH client and serial terminal into a single app. After trying many others (Termius, Ghostty, …) I always end up coming back to Tabby. I’ve been using it daily for a while now and it’s become my main terminal on all my machines.
Tech sheet#
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Type | Terminal / SSH Client / Serial terminal |
| Open Source | Yes (MIT) |
| Language | TypeScript (Electron) |
| Platforms | Windows, macOS, Linux |
| Use case | Replace PuTTY, your default terminal and centralise all your SSH connections |
| Alternatives | iTerm2 (macOS), Windows Terminal, Alacritty, Warp |
Pros / Cons#
All-in-one: terminal, SSH, serial — everything in one place. No more juggling between multiple tools.
Split panes: you can split your terminal into multiple panels, handy for monitoring several machines in parallel.
SSH connection manager: no more typing ssh user@host by hand — you save your connections and find them in a single click.
Cross-platform: same experience on Windows, macOS and Linux, which is rare for a terminal.
Customisable: themes, plugins, shortcuts — you can tailor everything to your workflow.
Resource-hungry: it’s Electron, so it uses more RAM than an Alacritty or a native terminal. That’s the trade-off.
Lots of options: the sheer amount of settings can be a bit overwhelming at first, but you get used to it quickly.
A few features worth knowing#
Plugins. Tabby has a fairly rich plugin ecosystem: Docker integration, workspace management, config sync, and many more. It lets you really adapt it to your workflow and switch between projects (personal, work, …).
Themes. On my end I use the Dracula theme which accompanies me across most of my tools.
Session logging. Tabby can automatically log all your sessions to files. Very handy in an audit context or simply to keep a trace of what was done on a machine. Be careful with sensitive data though: if you type passwords or handle secrets, they’ll end up in the logs. Enable this knowingly.
Useful links#
My take#
Tabby is the kind of tool that once you’ve adopted it, you wonder how you ever managed without it. The SSH connection manager alone is worth the look, and when you add split panes and plugins, it’s hard to go back. Yes it’s heavier than a minimalist terminal, but the productivity gains more than make up for it.
My tip: set up SSH profiles for your most frequent machines with different tab colours — you’ll always know at a glance which machine you’re on.
