Yes, and there is no paid tier, account or licence key.

Does it do SSH tunnelling like PuTTY?

Not general tunnelling. A saved connection can go through another one as a jump host, and the Windows OpenSSH agent can hold the key, but there is no port forwarding. If forwarding is what you use PuTTY for, keep using PuTTY — the two sit happily on the same machine.

Can it talk to a console port?

Yes. USB-to-serial adapters are detected automatically and the usual console settings (9600 8-N-1) are the default.

Where are saved passwords kept?

In the app's own store, encrypted with ChaCha20-Poly1305 under a key derived from your app password with Argon2id. The password itself is never stored, so nothing — including CySecTek — can recover it or the credentials without you.

Instead of PuTTY

A free PuTTY alternative for Windows

For when the job is: SSH into a switch, or get on the console port with a USB-to-serial adapter.

PuTTY has been the default way to reach a switch from Windows for twenty years, and it is still perfectly good at it. CySecTek covers the same two jobs — an SSH terminal and a serial console — with tabs instead of one window per session, saved connections grouped by site, and session transcripts in the spirit of PuTTY logging.

The practical difference is what surrounds it. On a callout you usually need more than a terminal: the IP of the thing you are connecting to, which switch port it is patched into, a TFTP server to push firmware from. Those are separate downloads alongside PuTTY and separate windows on a laptop screen. Here they are the same app, and the IP scanner can open an SSH session against a host you just found.

What CySecTek does here

Tabbed SSH sessions, so five switches are five tabs rather than five windows.
A serial console for COM and USB-to-serial adapters (FTDI, Prolific, CP210x), detected automatically.
Saved connections with a folder per site or customer, and passwords encrypted with a key derived from your app password — not stored anywhere in recoverable form.
Session transcripts written to a file named for the host and the moment it opened, and encrypted, because a switch session routinely prints running-config and SNMP communities.
Host keys pinned on first connect and a change refused, rather than a dialog nobody reads.
Private key authentication as well as passwords, with the keys already in ~/.ssh offered on the connection form.
The rest of a callout in the same window: subnet scan, port scan, LLDP/CDP switch-port discovery, TFTP and DHCP servers.

When to keep using PuTTY

SSH tunnelling and port forwarding. CySecTek reaches a device through one jump host, which is what a bastion needs, but has no general port forwarding; if you use PuTTY to forward ports, keep PuTTY.
Pageant's own protocol. CySecTek uses the Windows OpenSSH agent (ssh-add), and recent PuTTY releases can make Pageant answer on that pipe too — but PuTTY's .ppk still needs converting in PuTTYgen before the app can read it as a file.
Anything scripted around plink.
Platforms other than Windows.

Questions

Is CySecTek free?: Yes, and there is no paid tier, account or licence key.
Does it do SSH tunnelling like PuTTY?: Not general tunnelling. A saved connection can go through another one as a jump host, and the Windows OpenSSH agent can hold the key, but there is no port forwarding. If forwarding is what you use PuTTY for, keep using PuTTY — the two sit happily on the same machine.
Can it talk to a console port?: Yes. USB-to-serial adapters are detected automatically and the usual console settings (9600 8-N-1) are the default.
Where are saved passwords kept?: In the app's own store, encrypted with ChaCha20-Poly1305 under a key derived from your app password with Argon2id. The password itself is never stored, so nothing — including CySecTek — can recover it or the credentials without you.

Free, and one download

CySecTek 0.8.1 for Windows 10 and 11, 64-bit. No account, no licence key, no paid tier. The installer’s SHA-256 is published beside it so you can check that what you downloaded is the published file.

Download for Windows All fourteen tools

PuTTY and other product names are trademarks of their respective owners, referenced here only to describe comparable functionality. CySecTek is not affiliated with or endorsed by them.