tmate is Dead, Long Live tmate

I've been a tmate loyalist for years. SSH into a shared tmux session? Chef's kiss. But here's the thing nobody tells you: try pulling that off on your phone while waiting at the DMV and you'll understand why I'm writing this post.

The Problem

Picture this: I'm debugging a production issue from my kid's tennis match. I've got my phone, a spotty 4G connection, and a terminal sharing link from a colleague. The SSH client on my phone? It's... fine. The tiny keyboard? Torture. The inability to pinch-zoom on terminal output? Criminal.

Wouldn't it be great if I could just open a link in my phone's browser and see the terminal? You know, like how every other modern collaboration tool works?

The Research Rabbit Hole

I did what any reasonable developer would do: I spent way too long researching alternatives. Here's what I found that actually works for Mac-to-phone terminal sharing via browser.

Tool	Stars	Language	Last Release	Browser Access	Install	Key Feature
sshx	6,300+	Rust	Feb 2025	Shareable URLs	brew install sshx	E2E encrypted, infinite canvas
ttyd	9,900+	C	Mar 2024	localhost:7681	brew install ttyd	Fast, ZMODEM file transfer
tty-share	857	Go	Jan 2025	Public URLs	brew install tty-share	Zero dependencies
upterm	988	Go	Nov 2025	SSH over WebSocket	brew install --cask upterm	GitHub auth integration
gotty	19,000+	Go	Aug 2017	localhost:8080	brew install gotty	Abandoned
wetty	~5,000	TypeScript	Sep 2023	SSH in browser	npm -g i wetty	Requires Node.js
Warp	25,300+	Rust	Weekly	Cloud-based	brew install --cask warp	AI Agent Mode (commercial)

The Top 3 (That I'd Actually Use)

1. sshx - The Winner (It's Rust!)

brew install sshx
sshx

One command. Shareable URL. Done. No ngrok, no port forwarding, no fuss.

The URL has your encryption key embedded in the fragment (the part after #), so the server never sees your plaintext. End-to-end encryption without thinking about it.

The "infinite canvas" UI is wild - you can have multiple terminals floating around like some kind of terminal mood board. Live cursors show where other people are looking. There's even a chat. It's like Figma had a baby with tmux.

Why I chose it: - Written in Rust - I try to support the Rust ecosystem when I can - End-to-end encrypted (paranoid developers rejoice) - One command to shareable URL - Active development (Feb 2025 release) - That infinite canvas thing is actually useful for pair programming

2. ttyd - The Battle-Tested Alternative

If you want something more established:

brew install ttyd
ttyd bash

Open http://localhost:7681 in any browser. For remote access, pair it with ngrok:

ttyd -p 7681 bash
# In another terminal:
ngrok http 7681

Why it's solid: - Written in C, so it's blazing fast - Read-only by default (won't accidentally rm -rf / from your phone) - ZMODEM file transfer if you're into that sort of thing - 9,900+ GitHub stars means someone else debugged the hard stuff

3. tty-share - The Lightweight One

brew install tty-share
tty-share

Generates a public URL. Zero dependencies - it's a static Go binary. This is what you want on a Raspberry Pi or any resource-constrained environment.

Why I like it: - Smallest footprint - Works anywhere Go compiles - January 2025 release, so it's not abandoned

The One I'm Watching

Warp Terminal is doing interesting things with AI and collaboration, but it's commercial software and cloud-dependent. If your threat model allows it and you've got $20/month burning a hole in your pocket, it's worth a look. Their "Agent Mode" that accepts natural language commands is genuinely impressive. But I'm a POSIX curmudgeon, so YMMV.

The Ones to Avoid

gotty - 19,000 stars but abandoned since 2017. There's an active fork by sorenisanerd, but why start with technical debt?

wetty - Last release September 2023. Requires Node.js. I have enough JavaScript in my life, thank you.

My Actual Setup

Here's what I ended up with:

# ~/.zshrc or ~/.bashrc
alias share='sshx'
alias share-readonly='ttyd -R bash'

sshx for when I'm pair programming with someone I trust. ttyd -R for when I want to show my phone something without risking accidental keystrokes.

The Security Bit

Look, sharing a terminal to your phone over the internet is inherently risky. Some ground rules:

1. Read-only by default - Both ttyd and tty-share support this
2. Encrypted transport - sshx does end-to-end, others use TLS
3. Don't share production servers - Obvious, but worth saying
4. Kill the session when done - Ctrl+C is your friend

Conclusion

Browser-based terminal sharing has gotten good enough that I don't miss the SSH-based workflow on my phone. The tools are mature, actively maintained, and respect the Unix philosophy of doing one thing well.

sshx is my pick. It's Rust, it's encrypted, it's actively maintained, and it just works. I like supporting the Rust ecosystem when I can - the language attracts developers who care about correctness and performance, and it shows in the tooling.

If Rust isn't your thing, ttyd is the safe bet with years of battle-testing behind it.

What are you using? I'm curious if I missed anything good. Hit me up in the comments or on the socials.

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