FAQ
SSH manager questions people actually type
Straight answers for vault location, imports, seats, and cancel. No cloud signup story.
What is iLead?
iLead is a local SSH manager and encrypted SSH vault for macOS, Windows, and Linux. It is an SSH client with inventory, SFTP, tunnels, notes, and fleet SSH. There is no cloud account.
Is iLead a PuTTY alternative or a MobaXterm alternative?
Yes. You can import PuTTY, MobaXterm, WinSCP, and ~/.ssh/config. iLead is built as a local alternative to those tools and to cloud SSH suites.
Where does the encrypted SSH vault live?
On your machine: ~/.ilead/vault.bin on macOS and Linux, or %USERPROFILE%\.ilead\vault.bin on Windows. The license file is separate and is not the vault.
Does the SSH manager need the internet?
Unlock, browse, and export work offline. Activate a yearly seat against license.ileadapp.org. After that, connect and Ops use your hosts, not a hosted control plane.
What is the yearly SSH license?
Solo $16 for 1 device, Duo $25 for 2 devices, Squad $50 for up to 5 devices. After the 7-day trial, unlock and export still work. New connects, Ops, and Arcana need an active seat.
What happens if I cancel?
The vault still opens. Encrypted export still works. We never stored your hosts. You are not locked out of your own SSH inventory.
Can I sync my hosts between two computers?
Yes. Point two devices at the same folder you already use, iCloud Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, or a NAS, and turn on Sync for that destination on both. They merge hosts, keys, snippets, tunnels, and notes automatically, roughly every 30 seconds. There is no separate account and no relay server, it rides on the sync you already have.
Does iLead log everything I type?
No. The command audit log only records deliberate actions, ops commands, log pulls, process kills, and container actions, not interactive keystrokes. If you want a full transcript of a session, turn on session recording for that session specifically; it stays off otherwise.
Can I access a session from my phone or another computer?
Yes, through the browser companion terminal. Share a live session with a link that expires after a duration you pick, from 15 minutes up to 24 hours, or never. It's local-network only by default; opting into wider access asks you to confirm first, and the browser can never pick a different host than the one you shared.
Does iLead support RDP or VNC?
On Windows builds, yes, pick RDP or VNC as a host's protocol to launch it in your native desktop client. The macOS and Linux builds are SSH and SFTP only.
Can I run the same command across many servers at once?
Yes. Select hosts in the Ops view and run a built-in or custom playbook, or an ad-hoc command, and see every host's result together. Save your own commands as playbooks alongside the built-in ones.
Can I record a terminal session and download it later?
Yes. Turn on Record for a session, and replay it afterward at up to 4x speed, or download it as a plain-text transcript to keep or share outside the app. Nothing is recorded unless you turn it on for that session.