FAQ
Is it really free?
Section titled “Is it really free?”Yes. GPLv3. No paid tier, no nag screen, no “pro” features.
Does it work on Linux / macOS?
Section titled “Does it work on Linux / macOS?”Yes, the binary builds and runs. SSH, SFTP, local shells, and the terminal all work. WSL is Windows-only by nature; X11 forwarding on Linux uses your system X server, and on macOS requires XQuartz.
Why Tauri instead of Electron?
Section titled “Why Tauri instead of Electron?”Smaller binary (~20 MB vs ~150 MB), lower memory, and the Rust backend handles all SSH / SFTP / vault / PTY work directly — no Node runtime in the protocol path.
Can I run my own X server instead of the bundled VcXsrv?
Section titled “Can I run my own X server instead of the bundled VcXsrv?”Yes — install VcXsrv at %ProgramFiles%\VcXsrv\ and delete the vcxsrv/ folder next to ezterm.exe. See X11 forwarding.
Does it support Telnet / RDP / serial?
Section titled “Does it support Telnet / RDP / serial?”No, and not planned. ezTerm is SSH-focused. Out of scope: Telnet, RDP, serial, X11 server, macros, session recording.
How do I import existing sessions?
Section titled “How do I import existing sessions?”From MobaXterm — see Import from MobaXterm. Importers for PuTTY / SecureCRT are not in v1 but tracked on the issue board.
Where does ezTerm store data?
Section titled “Where does ezTerm store data?”- Database (sessions, known-hosts, vault):
%LOCALAPPDATA%\ezterm\ezterm.db(Windows) or~/.local/share/ezterm/ezterm.db(Linux). - Logs: same parent dir,
logs/subfolder. - Config: same parent dir,
config.toml.
How do I report a security issue?
Section titled “How do I report a security issue?”See SECURITY.md — please don’t open a public issue.