MXterm Pro vs Emdash
A side-by-side of two tools that overlap but start from different places. Facts come from each vendor's own pages, checked 2026-10-20.
| MXterm Pro made by us | Emdash | |
|---|---|---|
| platforms | macOSWindowsLinux | macOSWindowsLinux |
| price | FreemiumFree plan, no account (unlimited terminal panes, up to 5 SSH servers, 1 Control Room with 2 agents). Pro: lifetime licence from $29 for 3 devices for the first 100 licences, then from $8.9/month (seen 2026-10-20 on mxterm.net). | FreeDescribed as free and open source; no tiers or prices on the homepage (seen 2026-10-20). Emdash 2.0 pricing not stated. |
| source | Proprietary | Open source |
| SSH | ✓ yes | ✓ yes |
| SFTP | ✓ yes | ? not verified |
| Tabs | ✓ yes | ? not verified |
| Split panes | ✓ yes | ? not verified |
| Port forwarding | ✓ yes | ? not verified |
| Jump host | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| X11 | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Serial | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Telnet | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Mosh | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Cloud sync | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Team sharing | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Scripting / API | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| AI agents | ✓ yes | ✓ yes |
| MCP | ? not verified | ✓ yes |
| Phone control | ? not verified | ? not verified |
| Mobile app | ✓ yes | ? not verified |
| Multi-agent | ? not verified | ✓ yes |
| Git worktrees | ? not verified | ✓ yes |
+ Emdash is stronger at
- Apache-2.0 licensed with desktop builds for macOS, Windows and Linux
- Parallel tasks each in a git worktree with own branch, terminal and review state, including on remote machines over SSH
- Works with 25+ agent CLIs and syncs MCP servers and reusable prompts/skills to supported agents
- Issue context from Linear, Jira, GitHub and others; commit, push, PR and CI monitoring in-app
+ MXterm Pro is stronger at
- Runs several AI coding agent CLIs side by side in a Control Room, optionally one git worktree per agent
- SSH hosts, an SFTP panel with an editor, and local terminal panes live in the same tabbed window
- Local-first: conversation records stay on your machine and provider keys sit in the OS keychain
- Free plan needs no account and has no pane limit
~/which to pick
- pick Emdash if
- Developers on any desktop OS who want a free, open-source worktree-per-task agent manager with SSH remote support and issue-tracker intake.
- pick MXterm Pro if
- Developers who run AI coding agents and SSH sessions together and want one native window, plus phone access to those sessions.
- skip Emdash if
- Users who need a mobile companion or a lightweight terminal-only tool.
- skip MXterm Pro if
- Anyone who needs an X11 server, RDP/VNC, serial consoles or a hosted team vault today.