termalCompare · Termalin vs Teleport
The Teleport alternative you set up in minutes.
Teleport is an infrastructure identity platform — a control plane you deploy and agents you run, priced through a sales form. Termalin is a dedicated SSH client with published prices, a free tier and keyless agent access built in: one curl line on each Linux box, and your servers reach the terminal, SFTP, monitoring and a hosted MCP. Simple SSH access management, set up in minutes — not a cluster to stand up. Free tier — plus a 14-day Pro trial.
Free tier · 14-day Pro trial · Windows, macOS, Linux & iOS
Termalin vs Teleport at a glance
| Termalin | Teleport | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A dedicated SSH/SFTP client with keyless hosted access built in | An org-wide identity platform — SSH, Windows, Kubernetes, databases, apps and MCP servers behind one control plane |
| Pricing | Free tier · Pro $8/mo billed yearly · Team $15/user/mo · 14-day trial, no card | No public prices — a "Get Pricing" form, billed by active users and protected resources |
| Free / no-cost use | ✓The whole desktop app — no host limits, no company-size cap | Community Edition free only for companies under 100 employees and $10M revenue; source is AGPL-3.0 |
| Setup | ✓One curl line per Linux box — the Connector is outbound-only, works behind NAT | A control plane (Auth + Proxy) plus at least one Agent you run; Enterprise (Cloud) runs the control plane for you |
| Keyless access | ✓A short-lived SSH certificate per login, scoped to your tenant — the same cert model Teleport uses | ✓Short-lived certificates from its own CA (the Auth Service) |
| AI agents on your servers | ✓A hosted MCP that runs commands on enrolled servers under a per-connection policy and an audit log | Protects MCP servers you run and exposes databases and Kubernetes to MCP clients; we didn't find a tool that runs SSH commands in its MCP docs |
| Session recording | ✓Output only, agent actions marked, E2E-encrypted on paid plans | ✓Full PTY recording with fail-closed sync modes; File, S3 or GCS storage |
| Resource breadth | SSH, SFTP, FTP, Telnet, Serial, S3 and databases | ✓SSH, Kubernetes, databases, Windows desktops, apps and MCP servers |
| Access governance | Enterprise adds SAML SSO and SCIM; agent governance is a preview, SOC 2 planned | ✓JIT access requests, device trust and identity locks (Enterprise) |
| Clients | Desktop, native iOS, and a browser cabinet — no cluster to run | tsh CLI, Teleport Connect and a Web UI — all need a Teleport cluster |
Teleport pricing and features from its public pages as of October 2026 — check their site for the latest.
Comparing tools? See every Termalin comparison — or Termalin vs Tailscale SSH and Termius.
01 / prices on the page
Published prices and a free tier — no sales form.
Teleport's pricing page doesn't list a number: it asks you to fill in a "Get Pricing" form and bills by active users and protected resources. Its Community binaries are free, but only for companies under 100 employees and $10M in revenue. Termalin's prices are on the page — Free, Pro at $8/mo billed yearly, Team at $15/user/mo — and the Free tier is the whole desktop app with no host limits and no company-size cap.
- ▸Free means the full app. SSH, SFTP with a built-in editor, session recording & replay, the watch grid and the MCP agent — local-only, no host limits.
- ▸Pro for $8/mo billed yearly adds the encrypted cloud, Connectors, server monitoring, the hosted MCP and the browser cabinet.
- ▸Every account gets 14 days of Pro with no card — you can see the hosted side working before you decide.
02 / keyless, without a cluster
Short-lived certs — one curl line, no control plane.
Teleport's minimum deployment is a control plane — the Auth and Proxy services — plus at least one Agent on your infrastructure. It's powerful, and it's a platform you operate. Termalin gets you keyless access with one curl line per box. On enrolment the Connector teaches sshd to trust Termalin's SSH CA, and every login uses a short-lived certificate scoped to your tenant — the same certificate model Teleport's Auth Service uses, with no long-lived key left on the server. How the Connector works →
- ▸Outbound only. The Connector never listens on a port, and works behind NAT and CGNAT.
- ▸Per-tenant isolation. Other tenants' certificates are refused, and a per-Connector switch keeps AI apps off a server entirely.
- ▸Nothing to operate. No Auth or Proxy service to run, patch and scale — the hosted side is managed for you.
03 / agents that act on servers
A hosted MCP that runs commands — under rules you set.
Teleport's MCP story is about governing MCP servers you already run, and exposing your databases and Kubernetes clusters to MCP clients — its agents proxy traffic for humans, machines and AI alike. Termalin's angle is more direct: a hosted MCP endpoint where Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex or Cursor sign in and run commands on the servers you enrol — keylessly, through the Connector. Each signed-in app and API key gets a scope (which servers) and a policy (full, allowlist or read-only), every command lands in the audit log, and the same servers feed monitoring and alerts. We didn't find a tool that runs SSH commands on servers in Teleport's MCP docs.
04 / switching — honestly
Where Teleport wins, and what Termalin isn't.
Be clear-eyed: Teleport does things Termalin doesn't try to. If you need one identity-based access layer across Kubernetes, databases, Windows desktops and apps, with just-in-time access requests, device trust and identity locks, fail-closed synchronous recording, or a self-hosted control plane with AGPL source for a compliance team at scale — that's Teleport's job, and it's mature at it. Termalin is a client and an agent layer, not an org-wide access platform. The two can sit side by side: in a company already on Teleport, Termalin is still a fast personal client, though its Connector uses its own CA rather than your Teleport certificates. When you're ready, Termalin imports hosts from an ~/.ssh/config, a CSV, PuTTY or MobaXterm, and exports back any time — no lock-in, either direction.
Questions
Is Termalin free?
Yes — the Free tier is the whole desktop app with no host limits, local-only. Pro adds the encrypted cloud (sync, cloud recordings), Connectors, monitoring and the hosted MCP at $8/mo billed yearly or $10 monthly. Every new account starts with a 14-day Pro trial — no card required. See pricing →
How is Termalin different from Teleport?
Teleport (formerly Gravitational) is an infrastructure identity platform: a control plane you deploy — the Auth and Proxy services — plus agents you run, giving one org a zero-trust way to reach SSH, Windows, Kubernetes, databases, apps and MCP servers. Termalin is a dedicated SSH client with keyless hosted access built in. It doesn't run your whole access layer; it's the daily-driver client and an agent layer, set up with one curl line per Linux box. See how it works →
Does Teleport publish prices?
Not on its pricing page — it asks you to fill in a "Get Pricing" form, and bills by active users and protected resources. Its Community Edition binaries are free only for companies with fewer than 100 employees and under $10M in annual revenue; the source is AGPL-3.0. Termalin's prices are on the page: Free, Pro at $8/mo billed yearly, Team at $15/user/mo, and a 14-day Pro trial with no card. See pricing →
Can AI agents run commands on my servers through Termalin?
Yes. Termalin's hosted MCP endpoint lets Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Codex and Cursor sign in and run commands on the servers you enrol — keylessly, through an outbound Connector, with a per-connection policy (full, allowlist or read-only) and an audit log of every command. Teleport's MCP docs focus on governing MCP servers you already run and exposing databases and Kubernetes to MCP clients; we didn't find a tool that runs SSH commands on servers in them.
My company already runs Teleport. Can I still use Termalin?
Yes, as a personal client. Note that Termalin's Connector enrols a server against Termalin's own SSH CA and issues short-lived certificates scoped to your tenant — it doesn't use your Teleport certificates, so the two are separate access paths. Plenty of people keep a company platform for org-wide policy and use Termalin as the faster day-to-day terminal, with its own SFTP, recordings and monitoring.
Try the Teleport alternative — free.
The Free tier is the full desktop app — no host limits, on Windows, macOS and Linux. New accounts get Pro free for 14 days, and the hosted side is one curl line per server.
Free tier · 14-day Pro trial · all features · pricing
Teleport is a trademark of its respective owner. Termalin is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by Teleport. Comparison based on publicly available information as of October 2026.