Comparison of SSH servers

An SSH server is a software program which uses the secure shell protocol to accept connections from remote computers. This article compares a selection of popular servers.

General

Name	Developer	Status	Date of first release	Last release	Date of last release	License	Official web page
CopSSH	Itefix	Active	2009-01-16	4.2.1	2011-10-18	BSD	CopSSH
Dropbear	Matt Johnston	Active	2003-04-06 [1]	0.53.1	2011-03-02	MIT	Dropbear
GoAnywhere Services	Linoma Software	Active	2009-09-01	2.5.2	2011-08-11	Commercial	GoAnywhere Services
lsh	Niels Möller	Active	1999-05-23 [2]	2.9-exp	2007-04-04	GPL	LSH
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	Pragma Systems, Inc.	Active	2004-05-24	5.0	2011-04-20[3]	Commercial	SSH SFTP Server for Windows
OpenSSH	The OpenBSD project	Active	1999-12-01	5.9	2011-09-06[4]	BSD	OpenSSH
Tectia (formerly SSH2)	Tectia (formerly SSH Communications Security)	Active	1995-07	6.2		Commercial	Tectia
WinSSHD	Bitvise	Active	2001-05	5.26	2011-11-17	Freeware	Bitvise

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	Palm OS	Java	OpenVMS	Windows Mobile	IBM z/OS	AmigaOS	AIX	HPUX	iPhone[Note 1] / iPod Touch	WebOS
CopSSH	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Dropbear	Yes	No	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	Yes[Note 2]
GoAnywhere Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
lsh	Yes	No	No	No	Partial[Note 3]	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	No	No	Yes	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No
OpenSSH	Included	No	Yes[Note 4]	Included	Included	Included [Note 5]	Yes	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes[Note 6]	Included	Yes[Note 7]	Yes[Note 2]
Tectia	No	No	Yes	??	??	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	No	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	No	No
WinSSHD	No	No	Yes	??	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No	No

Features

Name	SSH1	SSH2	Port forwarding	SFTP	SCP	IPv6 support	Compatible with OpenSSH authorized keys	Privilege separation
CopSSH	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[5]
Dropbear	No	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
GoAnywhere Services	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lsh	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	??	??
Pragma Fortress SSH Server	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
OpenSSH	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes[6]
Tectia	?	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	??
WinSSHD	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	?	Yes	Yes

See also

• List of SFTP server software
• Comparison of SSH clients

Notes

1. ^ Unless otherwise noted, iPhone refers to non-jailbroken devices.
2. ^ ^{a b} OpenSSH and Dropbear are available as optware packages installed by PreWare (maintained by WebOS-Internals.org)
3. ^ lsh supports only one BSD platform officially, FreeBSD.^{[citation needed]}
4. ^ SSHWindows, last release on 2004-07-09
5. ^ The majority of Linux distributions have OpenSSH as an official package, but a few do not.
6. ^ Openssh 3.4 was the first release included since AIX
7. ^ Only for jailbroken devices.

References

1. ^ Changes in Dropbear in official web page
2. ^ Archive of lsh releases in official web page
3. ^ [1]
4. ^ OpenBSD changes in official web page
5. ^ sshd_config(5) manual page 2008-04-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.
6. ^ sshd_config(5) manual page 2008-04-05. Retrieved on 2008-04-27.