Free sshfs GUI for macOS — mount remote folders in Finder

#opensource #electron #ssh #macfuse

If you manage Linux servers from a Mac, you've probably been here:

sshfs user@host:/var/www ~/mnt/prod -o reconnect,auto_cache,noappledouble

It works. Until you have four servers, a laptop that sleeps, and a LaunchAgent you copied from a gist two years ago.

I wanted real sshfs mounts in Finder — not another SFTP client, not SMB on the VPS — with saved configs and one-click mount/unmount. So I built SSHFS GUI: free, open source, signed macOS DMG.

The problem with sshfs on macOS

Linux makes this easy. On Mac, it's a stack:

A FUSE implementation (FUSE-T or macFUSE)
An sshfs binary (Homebrew core sshfs is Linux-only — you need fuse-t-sshfs or gromgit/fuse/sshfs-mac)
Your mount command, local mount point, reconnect flags, auth

Finder can't mount SSH natively. Tools like Cyberduck are excellent for transfers, but a different workflow than "this remote path is a volume."

I kept rewriting the same commands. That felt like a small app problem, not a big framework problem.

What SSHFS GUI does

Save servers — host, port, remote path, local mount point, auth method
One-click mount/unmount — still real sshfs under the hood
Keychain — passwords via keytar, never in plain JSON
SSH agent, key file, or password
Favorites & filters — all / favorites / mounted
Auto-mount on startup — per server
Menu bar mode — tray access in packaged builds
Import/export — move configs between Macs as JSON
EN + IT — i18next, system locale detection

The app also checks for missing FUSE/sshfs and points you to Homebrew install steps if something's missing.

Install FUSE + sshfs (once)

Pick one stack:

Option A — FUSE-T (no kext, often easiest on recent macOS):

brew tap macos-fuse-t/homebrew-cask
brew install --cask fuse-t fuse-t-sshfs

Option B — macFUSE (classic stack):

brew install --cask macfuse
brew install gromgit/fuse/sshfs-mac

On some FUSE-T setups, Finder needs extra flags (e.g. -o nonamedattr). You can add those in the app's SSHFS extra options field per server.

Install the app

Download the signed DMG from GitHub Releases
Drag SSHFS GUI to Applications
Add a server → Mount → open in Finder

Source: github.com/tommasomeli/sshfsgui

How it's built

Solo side project, shipped with CI and notarized macOS builds.

Layer	Choice
Shell	Electron 41
Build	electron-vite + Vite
UI	React 19, TypeScript, Tailwind, shadcn/ui
State	Zustand
Secrets	keytar → macOS Keychain
i18n	i18next (EN / IT)
Tests	Vitest (path handling, import/export, sshfs args)
Release	GitHub Actions → signed + notarized DMG

Interesting bits for fellow Electron devs:

Import/export logic lives in src/shared/ so Vitest runs on Linux CI without loading keytar
Tray menu uses the same i18n keys as the app menu — easy to miss the { name: appInfo.name } interpolation on quit
prebuild icon script skips on non-macOS so CI can electron-vite build on Ubuntu