When PuTTY is a good fit
PuTTY offers saved sessions, an SSH terminal, serial connections and port forwarding. Companion tools PSFTP and PSCP transfer files. The suite is MIT-licensed and free to use; it would be misleading to describe it as terminal-only.
When integrated administration helps
CH-J combines a terminal, graphical SFTP editing, local encrypted credentials and server tools. Beta 0.1.0 and Rust/Tauri Alpha 0.1.1 are public. CH-J uses a proprietary license with free commercial and non-commercial use under its terms. SSH port forwarding is not available in CH-J yet.
Compare a real task before choosing
On a test server, compare host-key verification, opening a saved connection, editing a file and reconnecting. PuTTY suits focused terminal and tunnel work; CH-J suits an integrated administration workflow. Current CH-J packages target Windows 11 x64, macOS Apple Silicon and Ubuntu 24.04 amd64. No performance ranking is claimed.