electerm Desktop

June 3, 2026

electerm is an open-source, cross-platform terminal emulator, SSH client, SFTP client, and remote desktop tool. It is the original desktop version of electerm, available for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android.

What is electerm?

electerm is a desktop application that combines a terminal emulator with support for multiple remote connection protocols. It is licensed under MIT and is free to use.

Supported platforms:

• Windows — Windows 7 and later (X64/ARM64), also available on Windows Store
• macOS — macOS 10.15 and later (x64/arm64), available via Homebrew
• Linux — x64/arm64/Loong64, available via Snap, AppImage, and Debian/Ubuntu repositories. Also supports older Linux with glibc 2.17+ (UOS, Kylin, Ubuntu 18.04, etc.)
• Android — Available via electerm-android

Features

Terminal and file management

• Multi-tab terminal emulator
• Built-in SFTP file manager — browse, upload, download, and edit files
• Double-click to directly edit remote files
• Split view with terminal and SFTP side by side

Multi-protocol support

• SSH — Full SSH client with key-based authentication
• SFTP — File transfer over SSH
• FTP — FTP client
• Telnet — Telnet client
• Serial port — Serial port communication
• RDP — Remote Desktop Protocol client
• VNC — VNC client
• SPICE — SPICE protocol client

SSH features

• SSH agent forwarding
• Port forwarding (local and remote)
• X11 forwarding
• SSH tunneling (guide)
• Connection hopping and connection jump (guide)
• SSH certificate authentication (guide)
• Zmodem support (rz, sz)
• Trzsz support (trz/tsz), compatible with tmux

Customization

• Many built-in UI and terminal themes (including iTerm themes)
• Custom CSS support (examples)
• Terminal background images
• Terminal keyword highlighting (regex examples)
• Configurable fonts and font sizes
• Transparent window support (macOS, Windows)
• Global hotkey to toggle window visibility (default: ctrl + 2)

Productivity

• Quick commands — save and reuse frequently used commands
• Quick input to one or all terminals (batch and mirror input)
• Workspace feature (guide)
• Deep link support (guide)
• Auto data sync to GitHub Gist, Gitee, WebDAV, custom server, or electerm cloud (guide)
• Data import and export

AI integration

• AI assistant integration supporting DeepSeek, OpenAI, and other OpenAI-compatible APIs
• Generate commands, explain output, create bookmarks from natural language
• MCP (Model Context Protocol) widget for AI assistants and external tools integration (guide)
• Agent mode for automated server operations

How to install

Download from website

Download the installer for your platform from the official website.

Package managers

# macOS (Homebrew)
brew install --cask electerm

# Windows (winget)
winget install electerm.electerm

# Windows (scoop)
scoop install electerm

# Linux (Snap)
sudo snap install electerm

# npm
npm i -g electerm

Other options

• Windows Store
• AppImage for Linux
• Debian/Ubuntu repository packages

For upgrade instructions and troubleshooting, see the GitHub repository.

Source code

electerm is open source under the MIT license:

• GitHub Repository — Source code, issues, and discussions
• Wiki — Documentation and guides

Related products

• electerm online — Use electerm in your browser without installation
• electerm web — Self-hosted web version
• electerm-android — Android app for terminal/SSH/SFTP

Support

• GitHub Discussions — Community discussions
• Discord — Discord community
• Support page — Ways to support the project
• WeChat group — Join the WeChat group

Videos

• Electerm Usage Demo — Full feature walkthrough (10:01)
• Electerm Bookmark Operations — Managing bookmarks (3:00)
• Electerm Theme Settings and Editing — Theme customization (2:21)
• Electerm SFTP Transfer Files and Folders — File transfer with SFTP (1:55)
• Electerm Connection Jump — SSH connection jump (2:04)