Bast vs Termius

The actual product difference

Most "SSH client" comparisons flatten into feature checklists. The real split is simpler: Termius wants to be your SSH home. Bast wants OpenSSH to stay your SSH home.

Termius ships a dedicated app, its own connection engine, and a host database that lives inside that product. That is a good design if you want one branded workspace across phones and laptops, and you are willing to keep inventory there.

Bast runs in the terminal, reads the ~/.ssh/config you already have, and launches the ssh binary already on your PATH. Groups, tags, colors, notes, and favorites sit in local metadata. Connection facts stay in OpenSSH files where every other tool can see them.

Why host lock-in matters

Once hosts live only inside a GUI client, your shell scripts, Ansible inventories, VS Code Remote, Cursor, CI jump hosts, and teammates' configs stop sharing one source of truth. You end up maintaining two worlds: the app database and the real SSH config.

Bast refuses that split. On first run it adds a single Include for managed hosts. Everything else stays where you left it. Delete Bast tomorrow and ssh still works the same way.

That is the core reason Bast beats Termius for terminal-first engineers: the product improves discovery and organization without becoming the system of record.

Native OpenSSH, not a parallel client

Termius implements its own SSH stack. That unlocks a consistent experience across platforms, but it also means ProxyJump quirks, IdentityAgent setups, Match blocks, Include trees, and local SSH config features have to be re-expressed inside Termius's model.

Bast does not reimplement SSH. It prepares the host, then hands off to system OpenSSH. If ssh -G understands your config, Bast does too. File transfers use the same config through SFTP in the TUI, including ProxyJump and cloud ProxyCommand tunnels.

Cloud VMs without spreadsheet busywork

Bast imports live inventory from GCP, AWS, and Azure through each provider's CLI. Synced hosts stay read-only and owned by the cloud. When an instance disappears upstream, sync removes it locally instead of leaving stale GUI bookmarks behind.

Termius can store whatever hosts you type in. Bast treats cloud fleets as something to discover, not something to re-key by hand every sprint.

Sync without turning your hosts into SaaS data

Termius sync is account-shaped: create an account, pay for the plan that unlocks the extras you need, keep inventory in their product.

Bast vault encrypts Bast-managed hosts, keys, and metadata on your machine before anything is uploaded. Servers only store ciphertext. The passphrase never leaves the device. Cloud VM inventory still re-syncs per machine through provider CLIs, which keeps credentials where they belong.

If you want encrypted multi-machine continuity without making a GUI vendor the owner of your fleet map, Bast is the clearer fit.

Price, automation, and AI agents

Bast is free and open source under MIT. There is no paid gate in front of SFTP, sync of Bast-managed state, cloud import, or the host picker. Termius's free tier is real, but the features teams usually want (broader sync, richer SFTP, collaboration) sit on paid plans.

Bast also ships a CLI meant for scripts and agents: bast hosts list --json, structured errors, and an installable agent skill. Termius is optimized for humans clicking through a GUI. Bast is optimized for humans in a TUI and machines that speak JSON.

When Termius is still the better choice

Bast is not a universal replacement. Keep Termius if any of these are the job:

• You need a polished native iOS or Android SSH app as the primary client.
• Your team wants one GUI workspace and is fine storing hosts inside that product.
• You are on Windows today. Bast targets macOS and Linux terminals; Windows support is not there yet.
• You prefer a full graphical terminal emulator bundled with the client rather than using the shell you already have.

Honest positioning beats fake checkmate comparisons. Bast wins for terminal-native OpenSSH workflows. Termius wins for native mobile GUI SSH and account-centric fleets.

Switching from Termius to Bast

1. Recreate important hosts as OpenSSH config entries, or export whatever Termius can give you into ~/.ssh/config.
2. Install Bast with the command below. On first run it discovers existing hosts and adds one managed Include.
3. Organize with groups, tags, colors, and notes inside Bast. Leave hostnames, users, ports, and identities in SSH config.
4. Optionally enable Vault for encrypted sync of Bast-managed state, and cloud sync for live VMs.