Next Terminal is a self-hosted bastion and session auditing system for enterprise IT teams that need recorded, replayable access to remote machines over RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, and HTTP.

What it is

Next Terminal is a simple, secure, and user-friendly interactive auditing system that supports multiple remote access protocols, including RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, and HTTP. It is designed for enterprise IT environments and helps facilitate session recording, audit tracking, and compliance reporting. The registry lists TypeScript as the primary language, with Go, Docker, SSH and RDP among the associated topics, and the project is distributed with an Apache-2.0 licence entry.

The concrete problem it solves is the absence of an auditable path between administrators and the machines they operate. Rather than letting staff connect directly and unrecorded to individual servers, Next Terminal sits in the privileged access layer as a bastion host and jump server, brokering each session and retaining it for later replay. Its topic list places it squarely in the PAM, privileged-access and zero-trust space, alongside general audit tooling, which is where compliance and risk teams look when they need evidence of what was done on production infrastructure and by whom.

Key capabilities

• Multi-protocol remote access in one system: RDP, SSH, VNC, Telnet, and HTTP are all named as supported protocols.
• Session recording and replay, positioned for auditing, audit tracking, and compliance reporting.
• Bastion host and jump server operation, reflected in the bastion-host and jump-server topics.
• Privileged access management alignment through the pam, privileged-access, and zero-trust topics.
• Web interface, with screenshots supplied for the dashboard (screenshots/en/dashboard.png) and the access view (screenshots/en/access.png).
• Docker-based deployment, indicated by the docker topic.
• Documented project surfaces: a docs site, a public demo, and a Telegram community channel at @next_terminal.

Who uses it and how

• Enterprise IT environments that require session recording, audit tracking, and compliance reporting for remote administration.
• Teams replacing direct administrator connections to individual hosts with a single audited gateway in the privileged access layer.
• Self-hosting operators deploying through Docker on their own infrastructure.
• Organisations working under PAM or zero-trust mandates where privileged sessions must be captured and reviewable.
• Evaluators and administrators, for whom the README recommends consulting the IT administrator before deploying within a corporate network.

Getting started

Follow the installation guide published at https://www.next-terminal.com/docs/. A hosted demonstration is available at https://demo.next-terminal.com for evaluation before deployment.

How it compares

No comparable products are named in the supplied facts, and no list of paid products it replaces is provided, so it stands alone in this registry. Assessment against other bastion, jump server, or PAM tools is therefore left to the reader.

When to use it — and when not

The README states that starting with v2.0.0 the backend code for the project is no longer open source, while registry metadata lists Apache-2.0, so the licence position should be verified for the specific version being deployed. The README does not state database, storage, or mail requirements; those prerequisites live in the installation documentation, and the recommended deployment path is a self-hosted instance behind corporate review. It is not the right choice for teams that require a fully open-source backend, or for those unwilling to accept the commercial support terms, which cover after-sales within one year of purchase.