termique vs Termius

On-device key derivation vs server-side key wrap. Termique derives your encryption key locally using PBKDF2, in its native Rust core. The master password never leaves your device, and the server stores only an AES-GCM ciphertext blob it cannot decode. Termius encrypts credentials too, but its architecture wraps the key on the server side, meaning the service provider holds material that could, under compulsion or breach, expose your credentials. For security-conscious teams connecting to production infrastructure, the difference between these two models is not academic. With Termique, a full backend compromise leaves an attacker with ciphertext they cannot decrypt without your master password.

Free tier: synced across devices vs one device. Both free plans include SSH, SFTP and port forwarding. Where they diverge is where your hosts live: Termius Starter keeps hosts, keys and passwords in a local vault on one device, and sync between devices starts with Pro at $10/month. Termique's free plan syncs up to three hosts and their encrypted credentials between your desktop and phone, with server monitoring and unlimited sessions and tunnels within those hosts. The upgrade to Pro removes the 3-host cap entirely and adds command audit logs, host sharing, and expanded AI usage, all for $5/month.

Pricing breakdown: $5/mo vs $10/mo, and what each actually includes. Termius Pro is $10/month billed annually and adds the personal cloud vault, sync, session logs and snippet automation. Sharing a vault with teammates needs Team at $20 per seat per month. Termique gives you SFTP and sync on every plan, including free - Pro is $5/month and adds unlimited hosts, more AI, command audit logs and host sharing, with no higher tier that unlocks features withheld from Pro. For a five-person team that shares hosts, Termius Team costs $100/month billed annually; Termique Pro costs $25/month. The gap widens with headcount.

Session-aware AI assistant vs autocomplete. Termique ships an AI assistant that is scoped to the active SSH session. It reads your terminal context - recent output, the current working directory, the host you are connected to - and suggests commands. You review the suggestion before anything executes; nothing runs automatically. The free tier includes a meaningful usage quota. Termius has since added AI-powered autocomplete, but it operates on command-line input rather than reasoning over your session's actual output and state. For developers who frequently need to recall flags, construct one-off find/grep pipelines, or troubleshoot unfamiliar services, a session-context-aware assistant is a deeper workflow improvement than input autocomplete.

Audit logs: per-command records at $5 vs shared logs at $20 a seat. Command audit logs record which commands were run, by which person, on which host, with timestamps, and remove secrets before anything is stored. In Termique they are part of Pro ($5/month) and cover everyone a host is shared with. Termius Pro ($10/month) includes session logs for your own sessions; logs shared across a team come with Team, at $20 per seat per month. For a small team that wants one audit trail for a shared server, Termique gets there at the lower tier.

Host sharing: Pro vs $20 per seat Team. Sharing a host with a colleague in Termique requires Pro on your account - the recipient does not need a paid plan to receive the shared host. The share is end-to-end encrypted with the recipient's own key, so the API only ever holds ciphertext it cannot read. In Termius, sharing goes through a team vault on the Team plan, at $20 per seat per month. For contractors, freelancers, or small teams that need to share server access without managing a full organizational account, Termique's approach is materially more practical.

Mobile: both iOS and Android, same E2EE model on your phone. Termius has a mature iOS and Android app with full SSH terminal support, SFTP, and synced host management - a real, long-standing advantage. Termique now ships both iOS and Android companion apps too, with host management, SSH terminal access, and the same on-device E2EE sync as the desktop. The difference isn't platform coverage anymore - it's what happens to your credentials once they're synced to a phone: Termius wraps the key server-side, Termique derives it on-device, on mobile the same as on desktop.

Native Tauri runtime vs Electron. Termius is built on Electron, which bundles a full Chromium rendering engine alongside the application. On a typical machine, Termius consumes 300–500 MB of RAM at idle. Termique uses Tauri, a Rust-based native runtime that delegates rendering to the OS WebView. Cold start time is under two seconds, and idle memory sits around 80 MB. For developers who keep their SSH client open all day alongside editors, browsers, and build tools, the memory difference is meaningful. Tauri also has a smaller attack surface than a bundled Chromium instance, which matters for an app that handles SSH credentials.