Comparison of SSH servers

An SSH server is a software program which uses the secure shell protocol to accept connections from remote computers. SFTP/SCP file transfers and remote terminal connections are popular use cases for an SSH server. This article compares a selection of popular servers.

General

Name	Developer	First release date	Last release	Last release date	License
Apache MINA SSHD	Apache Software Foundation	2009	1.0.0	2015-08-19[1]	Apache License v2
Attachmate Reflection for Secure IT]	Attachmate	2005	8.0	2012-11-14	Proprietary
Bitvise SSH Server (formerly WinSSHD)	Bitvise, Ltd.	2001-05	6.45	2015-11-23[2]	Freeware for non commercial use
Copssh	Itefix	2003-08-12	5.4.1	2015-12-18[3]	Commercial, Free Edition available[4]
CrushFTP Server	CrushFTP, LLC	2003-01-01	7.0.2	2014-02-06	Commercial, shareware
Dropbear	Matt Johnston	2003-04-06[5]	2015.68	2015-08-08[6]	MIT
freeSSHd SSH Server	WEONLYDO Software		1.3.0[Note 1]	unknown[Note 2]	Freeware (source available for purchase)
GoAnywhere MFT	Linoma Software	2009-09-01	5.0.3	2013-08-03	Proprietary, Free
KpyM SSH Server	KpyM Telnet/SSH Server	2002-10	1.19c	2011-01-29	Open Source BSD
lsh	Niels Möller	1999-05-23[7]	2.1	2013-06-26	GPL
Maverick Legacy Server	SSHTOOLS Limited	2004	1.6.13	2015-09-13	Commercial
MobaSSH SSH Server	Mobatek		1.52		Freeware for non commercial use
OpenSSH	The OpenBSD project	1999-12-01	7.1	2015-08-21[8]	BSD
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	Pragma Systems, Inc.	2004-05-24	5.0	2011-04-20[9]	Commercial
Tectia SSH Server	SSH Communications Security (formerly Tectia)	1995-07	6.4.8	2014-10-28	Commercial
PowerShell Server	/n software		6.0.5732 [10]	2015-09-11	Commercial, free personal edition
SilverSHielD	Extenua, Inc.	2008-10	6.1.9.139	2015-07-21	Free for personal use
Georgia SoftWorks SSH Server	Georgia SoftWorks	2004-07	8.05.0031	2014-10-24	Commercial
Syncplify.me Server	Syncplify, Inc.	2014-02	4.0.6.406	2016-03-05[11]	Free for personal use
TinySSH	Jan Mojžíš	2014-02-16	20150501	2015-05-01	Public Domain
SFTPPlus	Pro:Atria Ltd	2011-03-01	3	2015-09-18	Proprietary

Platform

The operating systems or virtual machines the SSH servers are designed to run on without emulation; there are several possibilities:

• No indicates that it does not exist or was never released.
• Partial indicates that while it works, the server lacks important functionality compared to versions for other OSs but may still be under development.
• Beta indicates that while a version is fully functional and has been released, it is still in development (e.g. for stability).
• Yes indicates that it has been officially released in a fully functional, stable version.
• Dropped indicates that while the server works, new versions are no longer being released for the indicated OS; the number in parentheses is the last known stable version which was officially released for that OS.
• Included indicates that the server comes pre-packaged with or has been integrated into the operating system.

The list is not exhaustive, but rather reflects the most common platforms today.

Name	Mac OS X	Mac OS classic	Windows	Cygwin	BSD	Linux	Solaris	Java	OpenVMS	z/OS	AmigaOS	AIX	HPUX	iOS: iPhone,[Note 3] iPod Touch	webOS	Android
Apache MINA SSHD	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Attachmate Reflection for Secure IT	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Bitvise SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Copssh	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
CrushFTP Server	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
Dropbear	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes[Note 4]	Yes
freeSSHd	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
KpyM SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
GoAnywhere MFT	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes
lsh	Yes	No	No	No	Partial[Note 5]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	??
Maverick Legacy Server	Yes	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes
MobaSSH SSH Server	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSH	Included	No	Partial[Note 6]	Included	Included	Included [Note 7]	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[Note 8]	Included	Yes[Note 9]	Yes[Note 4]	Partial
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	??
Tectia SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	??
PowerShell Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
SFTPPlus	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
SilverSHielD	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Georgia SoftWorks SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Syncplify.me Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
TinySSH	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No

Features

Name	SSH1	SSH2	Port forwarding	SFTP	SCP	Supports IPv6	Supports OpenSSH authorized keys	Privilege separation	FIPS 140-2 certified
Apache MINA SSHD	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
Attachmate Reflection for Secure IT	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Bitvise SSH Server	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Copssh	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[12]	?
CrushFTP Server	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
Dropbear	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
KpyM SSH Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
GoAnywhere MFT	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lsh	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	?	?	?
Maverick Legacy Server	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	?
MobaSSH SSH Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
OpenSSH	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[12]	?
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SFTPPlus	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No
Tectia SSH Server	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Partial[Note 10]	Partial
SilverSHielD	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	?
Georgia SoftWorks SSH Server	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	?
Syncplify.me Server	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	?
TinySSH	No	Yes	No	No	No	Yes	Partial[Note 11]	Partial[Note 12]	?

See also

• List of SFTP server software
• Comparison of SSH clients

Notes

1. An authentication bypass vulnerability (CVE-2012-6066) was present in versions 1.2.6 and earlier of FreeSSHd. It is not known if or when this vulnerability was fixed, as no public statement about it from the developers could be found. The security of the current version is therefore unknown.
2. Announcements or release notes showing a date when 1.3.0 was released could not be found, but it was likely in 2014.
3. Unless otherwise noted, iPhone refers to non-jailbroken devices.
4. OpenSSH and Dropbear are available as optware packages installed by PreWare (maintained by WebOS Internals)
5. Lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.
6. Native OpenSSH for Windows is under development and predicted to be production ready some time during 2016. The project is called Win32-OpenSSH (contains 64bit as well), hosted on GitHub.
7. Most Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.
8. Openssh 3.4 was the first release included since AIX
9. Only for jailbroken devices.
10. Different exploit protection mechanism in use
11. TinySSH accepts only keys from authorized_keys file, options not supported
12. TinySSH has similar protection mechanism

References

1. http://mina.apache.org/sshd-project/
2. "Bitvise SSH Server Version History". bitvise.com.
3. "Copssh with subcomponent update". itefix.net.
4. https://www.itefix.net/content/copssh-free-edition
5. Changes in Dropbear in official web page
6. "Index of /dropbear". ucc.asn.au.
7. "Listing of /~nisse/archive/". liu.se.
8. "OpenSSH for OpenBSD". openssh.com.
9. "Windows SSH Server with SFTP and SCP". Pragma Systems.
10. "Download - PowerShell Server". powershellserver.com.
11. Syncplify.me Server! Release Notes
12. sshd_config(5) manual page 2008-04-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.