Alternative

A Tabby alternative for working on remote machines

Tabby is a well-loved, open-source terminal for Windows, macOS and Linux. It has tabs, split panes and a built-in SSH manager. If your day is spent in terminals on many servers, it's a strong pick.

Pane is also free and open source. It's built for a different moment: when the remote machine is your dev machine, and you need its files, its dev servers and the coding agents running on it, not only a shell.

When Tabby is the right choice

  • You want one terminal app with SSH, serial and local shells side by side.
  • You connect to many servers and want saved profiles with SFTP.
  • You like heavy theming and plugins.

When Pane fits better

  • You develop on another machine (Mac mini, home server, cloud VM) and want to use it from a laptop or phone.
  • You need the dev server. A server running on the remote machine opens at localhost on your laptop, live reload included.
  • You run coding agents. Watch Claude Code, Codex or Cursor Agent, see which one needs you, and answer it from your phone.
  • Phone access. Pane's phone app runs in the browser: terminals, files, media previews and agent status.

Side by side

Tabby vs Pane
TabbyPane
Open sourceYesYes (AGPL-3.0)
PriceFreeFree
DesktopWindows, macOS, LinuxWindows, macOS, Linux
PhoneNo native app. Tabby Web, a separate browser version, runs SSH through a connection gateway you set upBrowser app built for phones, with terminals, files and live agent status
Remote filesSFTPBuilt-in file browser, editor and previews
Remote dev serversManual port forwardingAutomatic at localhost on a connected desktop; phones open them in a browser tab
Coding agentsRuns them in a terminalManages them: status, branches, needs-input alerts

  • Open source

    Tabby
    Yes
    Pane
    Yes (AGPL-3.0)

  • Price

    Tabby
    Free
    Pane
    Free

  • Desktop

    Tabby
    Windows, macOS, Linux
    Pane
    Windows, macOS, Linux

  • Phone

    Tabby
    No native app. Tabby Web, a separate browser version, runs SSH through a connection gateway you set up
    Pane
    Browser app built for phones, with terminals, files and live agent status

  • Remote files

    Tabby
    SFTP
    Pane
    Built-in file browser, editor and previews

  • Remote dev servers

    Tabby
    Manual port forwarding
    Pane
    Automatic at localhost on a connected desktop; phones open them in a browser tab

  • Coding agents

    Tabby
    Runs them in a terminal
    Pane
    Manages them: status, branches, needs-input alerts

Use both

Many people keep Tabby as their everyday terminal and use Pane for the machine they develop on. They don't conflict.

Switch in five minutes

  1. Install Pane on the remote machine and open Settings → Remote Access → Connection codes → Set Up Host.
  2. Copy the pane-remote:// code.
  3. Paste it into Pane on your laptop under Settings → Remote Access → Your computers → Add with a Code, or, on a phone signed in to the same Tailscale account, into runpane.com/app.

Related

Sources

Corrections
If anything here is wrong or out of date, tell us and we'll fix it and update the date at the top. Open an issue on GitHub
Sources
or
Download*
Windows SmartScreen warningDirect downloads can show a SmartScreen warning while Pane is unsigned. Pane is fully open source, so you can audit the code and build from source yourself.1. Click More info2. Click Run anyway3. Continue the installerThe PowerShell install downloads the official release directly and avoids most browser download friction.npm global install
Paste that in PowerShell.Linux

By Parsa Khazaeepoul, co-founder of Pane. .