When comparing SecureCRT vs OpenSSH, the Slant community recommends OpenSSH for most people. In the question“What are the best SSH clients for Windows?” OpenSSH is ranked 2nd while SecureCRT is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose OpenSSH is:
If you find samples or tutorials about SSH, they almost always refer to OpenSSH. It bascially defines what SSH is.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro VT220 emulation
Some of us still need actual VT220 emulation to log into OpenVMS machines. SecureCRT does a superior job at it.
Pro Buttons bar
SecureCRT while not free has the ability to make common commands in to button for faster command processing. Commands like: exit, clear, :wq!, ls -lha and the etc.
Pro Scriptable via Python API
Has a Python API to control most aspects of the terminal and sessions. Scripts can be bound to buttons, menu items, and keyboard shortcuts.
Pro Puts emphasis on security
SecureCRT has strong data encryption and secure authentication through the support of password and public keys.
Pro The Reference SSH Client
If you find samples or tutorials about SSH, they almost always refer to OpenSSH. It bascially defines what SSH is.
Pro One of the most trustworthy development teams on the web
The development team of OpenSSH is part of the OpenBSD ecosystem. Their implementation is basically today's technical reference for any SSH client.
Pro Available on virtually any platform
MacOS. Windows. Core component on any Linux flavor.
Pro Standard implementation that documentation for all other tools assumes you have installed already
A lot of other tools (e.g. git) are based on this for file transfer.
Cons
Con Not free
Paid product. Some nice additional Cygwin type features and server version are integrated, but for most users the feature set probably does add enough value for a paid only client.
Con Expensive
Con No host list
Has no functions to manage huge numbers of hosts.
Con No way to organize SSH connections
No way to organize SSH connections.
Con Command line tool
It can be difficult to use from a command line interface.