Discover Tabby: The Open‑Source Terminal That Beats Xshell

Talking about Xshell

Previously I used Xshell for Linux virtual machines, but it is limited to non‑commercial use and requires Xftp for FTP transfers.

I discovered Tabby, an open‑source, cross‑platform terminal that integrates SFTP and offers a sleek UI.

Tabby Overview

Tabby is a modern, open‑source terminal supporting Windows, macOS, and Linux. It has over 20k stars on GitHub, indicating strong popularity.

Installation

Download the portable Windows package from the GitHub releases page and extract it.

Run Tabby.exe to launch the application.

Usage

Tabby can serve as an SSH client, supports SFTP, PowerShell, and Git commands.

SSH

Use SSH to manage remote Linux servers.

Create a new profile via the Settings button, select “SSH connection”, enter host and credentials, then connect.

SFTP

Use the built‑in SFTP button to browse remote files, download, or upload by dragging.

Tabby also supports the legacy lrzsz tool for file transfer.

PowerShell

Tabby supports PowerShell, allowing commands like ls that are unavailable in CMD.

Create a PowerShell profile via “Profiles and connections”.

Git

Git commands can be run directly in Tabby without needing Git Bash.

Create a Git profile and execute commands such as git status.

Settings

Appearance

Adjust terminal font size in the Appearance section.

Color Scheme

Tabby supports many color schemes; you can import them via the Color Scheme option.

Hotkeys

Configure or view shortcuts in the Hotkeys section.

Window

Select a window theme in the Window settings.

Plugin Support

Tabby offers a plugin system; install plugins via the Plugins menu.

clickable-links – adds click‑through for URLs, IPs, and paths.

docker – connects to Docker container shells.

title-control – manages window tab positions.

sync-config – syncs configuration to GitHub or Gitee.

theme-windows10 – Windows 10‑specific theme.

Conclusion

Tabby is a free, open‑source terminal with rich themes, powerful features, and extensible plugins; it is highly recommended for developers and operations engineers.