Is Pane an SSH client?

Not exactly. It connects to your machines over Tailscale or SSH, then gives you the machine's terminals, files and agents. Keep Termius for servers where SSH is the only option.

Does Pane sync my SSH hosts?

Pane doesn't store hosts in a cloud. Each device connects to your machines directly.

Yes. Pane is self-hosted by design: the remote host is your own machine.

Alternative

The free, open-source Termius alternative

Termius is a polished SSH client that syncs your hosts across desktop and mobile. People who outgrow it usually want one of three things: something open source they can audit and self-host, something free without a subscription for sync and mobile, or more than a shell once they're connected.

Pane is free and open source (AGPL-3.0), and it runs on macOS, Windows, Linux and in your phone's browser. Instead of a shell on a remote machine, you get the machine itself: its terminals, files, dev servers and coding agents.

When Termius is the right choice

You manage many servers you don't control, and SSH is all they offer.
You need SFTP to and from dozens of hosts, or jump-host chains managed in one place.
You want a native iOS or Android app with a full SSH keyboard.

When Pane fits better

Your own machines. A Mac mini, home server, desktop or cloud VM you develop on.
More than a shell. You want to open files, preview images, and load the machine's dev server in a browser tab, at localhost on your laptop.
Coding agents. You run Claude Code, Codex or other CLI agents and want to watch and answer them from your phone.
Open source and free. No account with a vendor, no subscription, no host list in someone else's cloud.

What you get with Pane

What you get with Pane
	Pane
Price	Free
License	Open source, AGPL-3.0
Desktop	macOS, Windows, Linux
Mobile	Browser app at runpane.com/app, installs to your home screen
Connection	Tailscale by default, or an SSH tunnel
On the remote machine	Terminals, file browser and editor, media previews, dev servers (at `localhost` on a connected desktop, in a browser tab on a phone), coding agents
Where your data lives	On your own machine. Nothing is synced through Pane's servers.

Price
Pane
Free
License
Pane
Open source, AGPL-3.0
Desktop
Pane
macOS, Windows, Linux
Mobile
Pane
Browser app at runpane.com/app, installs to your home screen
Connection
Pane
Tailscale by default, or an SSH tunnel
On the remote machine
Pane
Terminals, file browser and editor, media previews, dev servers (at localhost on a connected desktop, in a browser tab on a phone), coding agents
Where your data lives
Pane
On your own machine. Nothing is synced through Pane's servers.

Switch in five minutes

Install Pane on the machine you connect to: curl -fsSL https://runpane.com/install.sh | sh (Mac and Linux) or irm https://runpane.com/install.ps1 | iex (Windows).
Open Settings → Remote Access → Connection codes → Set Up Host and copy the pane-remote:// code.
Paste the code 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.

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

frequently asked questions

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. Last reviewed October 2026.