Here’s the Difference Between PuTTY and SuperPuTTY

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You may have heard about PuTTY and SuperPuTTY. But, what are they actually? They have the name which is almost the same. Then, what are the difference between PuTTY and SuperPuTTY? Well, you will be able to know it after you read the explanation below. Here, we provide you some information about it including about the pros and cons of each application.

PuTTY

PuTTY is a terminal emulator application. It can act as a client for the SSH, rlogin, Telnet and raw TCP computing protocols. This application firstly was written for Microsoft Windows. However, it has been ported to other Operating System and it includes some Unix-like platforms. How about Mac? Well, Mac OS and Mac OS X are still being ported while unofficial ports have been ported it to the Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems.

PuTTY

Some features of PuTTY can be seen in the list below.

    • It has Unicode support.
    • It can control over the SSH encryption key and protocol version.
    • It has command-line SCP and SFTP clients named PSCP and PSFTP.
    • It can control over port forwarding with SSH.
    • It can support IP version 6.
    • It can support AES, 3DES, Arcfour, DES, and Blowfish.
    • It has Public-key authentication support.
    • It can support for local serial port connections.

According to the Slant website, PuTTY is ranked in the 3rd  when they ask people about the best SSH clients for Windows. Even they also gathered the information about the pros and cons of this application and you are able to see the information below.

Pros

    • PuTTY is free to use.
    • PuTTY is the standard client for SSH, Telnet and Rlogin. It is one of the oldest and most popular clients. This application also has got the trust of a great number of users over a long period by being reliable. It offers users the useful features and support which is helpful. This application is one of the 15 Essential Open Source Tools for Windows Admins list by InfoWorld.
    • PuTTY can be used on any Windows computer and even without the rights of admin.
    • Source code is available. You will get full source available. You are able to compile and modify it by yourself.
    • This application is portable and lightweight. So, it does not require much resources such as memory and hard-disk. Even you are able to run it on a system by just downloading it without having to install it.
    • Besides having some pros, of course this application also has some cons. What are they? You are able to see in the list that we provide below.

Cons

    • PuTTY is not able to save passwords. However, you are able to use PuTTYgen to be able to generate a key pair and then you are able to use Pageant to do a password-less SSH remote login.
    • It lacks the features. It is just an SSH client and there are a lot of other options with built in X-servers, multitabbing and many more.
    • It has an ugly design and even it is too simple. If you see this application, you will realize that it looks very dated. It does the basic functions very well but unfortunately not much more.
    • It has no global settings. If you have a plan to change a setting for all your connections, you will need to do it individually.
    • It does not have features to organizing session connections like folders. In case you have 5 to 10 connections that is fine. However, if you find that there are 30 to 50 connections, it may be a nightmare for you.
    • It only contains one session. It means that you are not able to open a second session in the similar window.
    • It is tedious logging or tracing. It is tedious to be able to set up logging and tracing for example for serial connections.
    • There is no login scripting.

SuperPuTTY

SuperPutty

SupperPuTTY is a Windows application which is Graphical User Interface – based. It is mainly employed for tab management for PuTTY SSH client. So, SuperPuTTY does not only run basic PuTTY commands but also fills the gaps by offering window management which are needed. Even though SuperPuTTY has some of the basic functions which are free and open source networking client PuTTY lacks, the add-on application does not do any SSH or terminal management. Also, better tabbed interface which is offered by SuperPuTTY allows you to be able to embed PuTTY terminal in a window. So, it is more user-friendly.

When Slant community ask people about the best SSH client for Windows, SuperPuTTY is ranked 11th. As you are able to see that this rank is far from the ranking position of PuTTY which is in the third position. So, what are the pros and cons of SuperPuTTY so that it got the 11th, position? Here are the information for you.

Pros

    • Same as PuTTY, SuperPuTTY is also free to use.
    • It has easy shortcut-driven navigation. You are able to bring up your session quickly by setting up certain shortcuts. Besides, you are also able to choose one by typing out the first letters, return-choosing it and cycle through your tabs.
    • You are able to run tabbed sessions. It has dynamic placement of tabs side-by-side vertically or horizontally which is the same as IDEs like Eclipse or Visual Studio. It is an upgrade of the original PuTTY which does not have this feature.
    • SuperPuTTY has customizable UI to permit for maximum net screen size up to fullscreen.
    • With SuperPuTTY, PuTTY configuration can be reached and it is adjustable as well. Because it uses PuTTY underneath you are able to create and configure sessions or profiles there which you are able to use again in SuperPuTTY and also apply to connection in any fashion that you like.
    • SuperPuTTY is open source. It is an open source and hosted on GitHub.

Cons

Even though SuperPuTTY is in the 11th rank in the Slant community, but the fact is that this application just has one con based on Slant community. What is it?

    • You still have to install PuTTY first. It is important for you to note that SuperPuTTY is a wrapper available for PuTTY, not a standalone program. So, before you are able to use SuperPuTTY, you need to have a PuTTY installation.

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