Moving over
What it takes
Bring your keys as they are: Vandle speaks OpenSSH key formats and verifies host keys on first connect, so a fingerprint you already trust stays the thing you trust.
You already know the shortest path to a shell
PuTTY is the reason a whole generation of admins never needed a manual. Vandle keeps that directness and puts the other four protocols beside it, in the same window, on the same connection list.
Credit where it is due
PuTTY is a single executable that has outlived most of the software it was used to administer. It starts instantly, it never nags, and plink and Pageant have quietly automated more infrastructure than most orchestration tools.
What changes
Four things you get that you did not have.
- Saved sessions become connection definitions: host, key, proxy and default download folder in one record instead of a registry branch.
- A terminal tab and a file tab for the same host, side by side, without handing the session to a second tool.
- Every connection carries its own proxy. No machine-wide setting, no separate tunnel you have to remember to start.
- Pins are per connection, not per machine, so one server can appear once as SSH and once as a file surface.
Side by side
PuTTY and Vandle
| Aspect | PuTTY | Vandle |
|---|---|---|
| Protocols | SSH, Telnet, serial, raw | Six protocols on one shell, local sessions included |
| Where sessions live | Windows registry, exported by hand | One central store you point at, encrypted, live-synced |
| Proxy | Per session, configured in a dialog | Per connection, assignable in one place, switchable at runtime |
| File transfer | pscp and psftp on the command line | A file surface in the same window as the terminal |
And the rest of it
Four more protocols came along
Replacing one tool gets you five. Whatever else that machine speaks is already a row on the same record - and every one of them takes the route you assigned.
Web
Real browsing, properly routed
SSH
A terminal that keeps up
SFTP
Two remote panes, no detour
WebDAV
The other half of file transfer
RDP
Desktops on a native surface
Local
Your own machine, in the same list
Also compared