# What terminal emulators have the strongest automation features for infrastructure operations and DevOps teams?

<p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">We're mid-way through a pipeline rebuild and hit a gap in our tooling evaluation. The question we couldn't find a clean answer to was which<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/categories/terminal-emulator"> </a><a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/categories/terminal-emulator">terminal emulators</a> have the strongest automation features for infrastructure operations and DevOps teams. Every tool claims scripting support, but what that means in practice ranges from basic macro recording to full Python integration with CI/CD pipelines.</p><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">Three tools that come up most clearly when automation depth is the question: SecureCRT, PuTTY, and MobaXTerm.</p><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">Here's where each one actually lands on automation:</p><ol>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/securecrt/reviews"><strong>SecureCRT</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Python and ActiveX scripting engine built into the session manager, with a Command Manager for organizing frequently used scripts into named folders and executing them across multiple simultaneous sessions. Has anyone integrated it directly with Ansible or a broader orchestration layer?</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/putty/reviews"><strong>PuTTY</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Plink handles the scripting side by running SSH commands from batch files and Windows Task Scheduler, reading keys from Pageant so credentials never end up hardcoded in scripts, covering recurring log pulls and timed tunnels without additional tooling.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/mobaxterm/reviews"><strong>MobaXTerm</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Multi-execution runs the same command simultaneously across an entire group of open sessions, and the macro recorder captures sequences and replays them for fleet-level repetitive tasks.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/iterm2/reviews"><strong>iTerm2</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Shell integration on macOS that recognizes prompts, commands, and directories, letting DevOps teams build per-environment profiles and automate session startup sequences without reaching for a separate orchestration tool.</li>
<li>
<a class="a a--md" elv="true" href="https://www.g2.com/products/conemu/reviews"><strong>ConEmu</strong></a><strong>:</strong> Task system that stores predefined command-line configurations and launches them with one click, used by Windows-based infrastructure teams as a wrapper for running multiple shells simultaneously.</li>
</ol><p class="elv-tracking-normal elv-text-default elv-font-figtree elv-text-base elv-leading-base elv-font-normal" elv="true">For DevOps teams who've actually run one of these inside a real CI/CD pipeline: which one held up, and did the automation depth match what the vendor described before you committed?</p>

##### Post Metadata
- Posted at: 7 days ago
- Author title: Marketing Executive
- Net upvotes: 1


## Comments
### Comment 1

&lt;p&gt;Worth drawing a line between two things that both get called automation. Emulator scripting automates a window on your workstation. That&#39;s great for interactive fleet work, like pushing a command to forty boxes while you watch for anything weird. But a CI/CD pipeline shouldn&#39;t depend on a GUI being open on someone&#39;s desktop, that&#39;s a build that fails when a laptop goes to sleep. Pipelines want the headless route: plain ssh, Plink, Ansible, things a runner can call with no screen attached. So the question isn&#39;t really which emulator scripts best. It&#39;s which parts of your automation belong in an emulator at all.&lt;/p&gt;

##### Comment Metadata
- Posted at: 4 days ago
- Author title: Tech Consultant





## Related discussions
- [How well does Trello scale into a larger team?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/1-how-well-does-trello-scale-into-a-larger-team)
  - Posted at: about 13 years ago
  - Comments: 6
- [Can we please add a new section](https://www.g2.com/discussions/2-can-we-please-add-a-new-section)
  - Posted at: about 13 years ago
  - Comments: 0
- [Quantifiable benefits from implementing your CRM](https://www.g2.com/discussions/quantifiable-benefits-from-implementing-your-crm)
  - Posted at: about 13 years ago
  - Comments: 4