Core Tunnel 4+

Decent tunnel manager

Let's be honest here, managing ssh tunnels isn't going to be sexy in the slightest, but this application at least gives you one place to do so with a nice graphical interface. You don't have to spend time looking up arcane options to add to a ssh config file, everything is right here along with some basic help. You can easily control groups of tunnels from a nice menu bar icon. Yes, there are other, and free, ways to accomplish the same thing, but you'll spend more time setting them up and more time managing them.

Thoughtfully the developer allows you to try out the application with a single connection. Documentation is lacking, but if you go to HELP > FAQ you'll find some clear explanations of what your connection options are and how to set them up.

Overall, if you have a need for this type of application, I'd say this is worth your money. Go for the "Lifetime" option, as long as the developer doesn't yank support within 3 years it will be the best value.

Developer Response ,

Scott, thank you very much for writing the review! Yang at Codinn

Best tunnel app

I’ve tried quite a few SSH tunnel apps, and this one (and its predecessor SSH Tunnel) are the most intuitive to use and least bug-prone.
Only thing keeping it from 5 stars at the moment is you have to manually re-install an external library (which I assume they can’t bundle for some legal reason) every time the app is updated. It’s a known issue and will hopefully streamline that bit in the future.

Developer Response ,

Hi baohx2000,

As of version 1.2, the external library needs to be installed only once, as long as Core Tunnel does not ask for an updated library.

Thank you so much for writing the review!

Yang at Codinn

Best tunnel manager I have found

I tend to keep multiple tunnels open. So it is very convenient (and much prettier) to have a GUI, which keeps track of all tunnel confugurations and states.

The extra helper sometimes needs to be re-installed, after the main app update. The app detects this condition and shows a prompt, which is nice, but helper component (re)installation is manual, which can be incovenience. I would look for a way to automate it. On the whole the app still saves me much time, so I am happy :-)