I ended paying for Termius as soon as this open-source app put my servers on each gadget I personal

I assumed setting up a homelab was a tedious job till a month of subscription charges from totally different providers that I calculated over the previous yr modified my thoughts. I began small, constructing a media server with Jellyfin after which adding Tailscale to access home services when away. I’ve already arrange Pi-Hole for network-wide blocking, and maybe sooner or later, I’ll arrange my very own NAS as effectively.

As this setup will get extra advanced, I want an SSH shopper to handle all these servers, and the preferred possibility is Termius, however its helpful options are locked behind a paywall, and that defeats the aim of why I arrange a homelab within the first place. Luckily, I used to be capable of finding a greater possibility than Termius that’s utterly free and has an all-in-one homelab panel for simpler entry. It’s known as Termix.

How Termix changed Termius for my homelab

A free dashboard that does greater than SSH

For these not acquainted, Termius is likely one of the hottest server administration apps. It’s primarily an SSH shopper, and a unbelievable one. However, the free plan for Termius affords little, even for a starter home-lab fanatic like me, and the Pro plan is difficult to justify at $120 a yr for simply an SSH shopper.

This is the place Termix is available in, and it takes the SSH shopper concept and expands it extra in direction of a server-management dashboard with a variety of handy options.

You get SSH terminal entry, SSH tunnels, a distant file supervisor for accessing your code and media, plus a number and credential supervisor, a Docker supervisor, and the flexibility to arrange connections and automate duties, which is appreciable for a free platform.

Setting up Termix on an older Mac

Docker, guacd and a primary host connection

For now, my homelab runs on my 2015 MacGuide Pro, which, regardless of its age, is fairly helpful as a result of the specs aren’t half-bad (16GB DDR3 RAM, a quad-core i7 2.2GHz processor, and an Intel Iris GPU with over 1.5GB of VRAM). Fortunately, Termix nonetheless helps my 11-year-old Intel Mac, despite the fact that the platform is comparatively new and was launched in 2025.

After downloading Termix, setup is straightforward, although the app will immediate you to put in the guacd container for distant desktop entry (just for RDP/VNC and never SSH). Assuming you might have Docker put in, first obtain the container utilizing this command in Terminal: docker pull guacamole/guacd.Then begin it: docker run -d --name guacd --restart unless-stopped -p 4822:4822 guacamole/guacd.

Now, to check for those who’ve established a working connection, open Host in Termix → Host Manager, and add a brand new host. Enter your IP deal with, password, and SSH key, and after saving, it ought to seem Connected. Since that is the primary time connecting to the host, Termix will immediate you to confirm the SSH Host Key. Accept and Continue to avoid wasting the fingerprint displayed for future connections.

Now, you can run instructions inside Termix’s terminal and check it out for your self by typing in instructions like whoami to see the consumer account logged in, and lsof -nP -iTCP -sTCP:LISTEN to see the processes listening on TCP ports.

Connecting my homelab providers to Termix

Remote Login enabled on the host Mac

On Mac, you need to allow Remote Login to attach through SSH and handle servers on one other system; on Windows, it’s good to configure the SSH server.

Right now, all my providers run on my MacGuide, and it is tiring and inconvenient to handle providers and servers from my laptop computer. When they go down, and I don’t have my MacGuide with me, it will get actually onerous to maintain issues working persistently.

Termix bypasses that requirement by storing your server information and logs, multi functional place. Tailscale lets my cellphone attain Termix from anyplace, and I open Termix as soon as I’m in. This is very useful for homelabs hosting a 24/7 service like a private cloud, which might trigger issues if it goes down.

Reaching Termix from my cellphone with Tailscale

Termix Server working in Docker behind Tailscale

The Termix software and server are separate. The server hosts the dashboard, and the app connects to it. That mentioned, you may have to configure a server earlier than you may view the dashboard exterior your MacGuide and from anyplace exterior your community. To begin, I deployed Termix Server in Docker through Terminal by working: docker run -d --name termix --restart unless-stopped -p 8080:8080 -v termix-data:/app/information ghcr.io/termix-ssh/termix:newest.

Since I had already arrange Pi-hole, the 8080 port was already occupied on my MacGuide, so I opted for a unique port as a substitute.

Before continuing, do be sure that MagicDNS and HTTPS Certificates are enabled in Tailscale, below the DNS setting, The subsequent step was to run Tailscale in Docker for those who do not have already got it, and expose Termix at a personal HTTPS deal with to ahead site visitors to the Termix server through this command in Terminal: docker exec tailscale tailscale serve --bg --https=443 http://host.docker.internal:30002.

After getting the personal deal with, set up Tailscale on the cellphone, register with the identical account because the Mac’s Tailscale container, join, and open the HTTPS deal with from earlier within the cellphone’s browser.

This opens Termix entry in your browser, and you may hook up with your host by coming into the SSH connection particulars and account particulars.

Enable Remote Login on macOS or OpenSSH Server on Windows to permit the connection to work, relying on which OS you are working the Termix Server on.

Now that you’ve got related to the host, run docker ps to examine in case your servers are exhibiting up. docker ps -a exhibits stopped containers. The dashboard additionally exhibits your server’s system sources, permits you to handle storage, and allows you to hook up with different computer systems or servers you might have entry to.

Plugins make Termix even higher

I by no means would’ve imagined working a homelab can be this thrilling, and I’m glad I began with Termix out of all of the SSH purchasers.

For now, I’ve solely scratched the floor of Termix as a result of the actual payoff is the plugins. You can set up plugins like Alerts to get a devoted inbox for each Termix alert that may go to Discord or different platforms, and Automations to run steps or schedules when one thing occurs when you’re away out of your setup.