When comparing Xshell 6 vs SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem, the Slant community recommends SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem for most people. In the question“What are the best SSH clients for Windows?” SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem is ranked 5th while Xshell 6 is ranked 12th. The most important reason people chose SSH of Windows' Linux subsystem is:
All you have to do is go to the Microsoft store, choose a Linux distro you like, and install the client for free.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Connections management
Pro Has tabs
Pro Compose bar to send a string to multiple servers at once
Pro Local shell interface to control Xshell
Pro Great option for enterprises
Xshell 6 caters to enterprises with features such as multi-tab UI, dynamic port forwarding, scripting support, support for ASCII as well as non-ASCII characters, etc.
Pro Can use any system font
Pro Tunneling bar
Channel monitoring and dynamic port forwarding.
Pro User defined key map support
Pro Task automation with VB script
Pro It's extremely easy to get running
All you have to do is go to the Microsoft store, choose a Linux distro you like, and install the client for free.
Pro Based on OpenSSH
OpenSSH is the reference for all ssh clients.
Pro Excellent way for Windows users to learn Linux
It is much easier and more convenient than dealing with a dual boot Linux installation.
Pro Full Linux shell
Uses all relevant Linux ssh commands as normal.
Cons
Con Not free
The subscription costs $89 per year.
Con No stable portable version
Any portable version present is wrapper. It moves files from portable folder to appdata and backward, which often cause dataloss
Con Graphical problems
For example running Midnight commander (MC) makes terminal blinking.
Con Crontab and other background jobs don't work properly
Crontab only runs on ROOT, and it needs Windows to stay open. If you close it, you will kill the crontab. Some background jobs don't run on Windows WSL.
Con Command line editing does not work properly
Overrides chars instead of inserting them... depending on position and moon phase?
Con Does not install on PC virtual machines
Con Forces window to a certain size
Any other SSH client will render the remote server at whatever size the local client window is. The built-in SSH client on Windows, however, forces you to use a standard size, and it's small enough to cause problems.
Con Windows' SSH key agent service is broken
Attempting to use the built-in ssh-agent provided with Windows will cause errors and authentication failures due to an incompatibility between Windows' ssh-agent and OpenSSH on remote systems.
Con Cut & paste works like the Windows prompt
Older versions of the Windows Command Prompt select text in a rectangular region of the console, rather than starting at a character position and selecting forward or backward along with the logical flow of text. To copy a sentence, for example, would require that you select all content in the two lines that contain the sentence, then trim what isn't needed, rather than just selecting the sentence. In later versions of Windows 10, this may not be an issue, as the cut-and-paste behavior has changed.
