diff --git a/Changelog.rst b/Changelog.rst
index d518cd5b..a73ab068 100644
--- a/Changelog.rst
+++ b/Changelog.rst
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ Changes
   write function.
 * ``SSHClient``, ``TunnelServer`` and ``LocalForwarder`` now use their own gevent pools for greenlets spawned so they
   are cleaned up correctly at shutdown.
+* ``SSHClient.execute`` is now deprecated in favour of ``SSHClient.run_command``.
 
 Fixes
 ------
diff --git a/ci/integration_tests/libssh2_clients/test_single_client.py b/ci/integration_tests/libssh2_clients/test_single_client.py
index 24b04489..9b3173a7 100644
--- a/ci/integration_tests/libssh2_clients/test_single_client.py
+++ b/ci/integration_tests/libssh2_clients/test_single_client.py
@@ -184,6 +184,10 @@ def test_execute(self):
         self.assertEqual(expected, output)
         self.assertEqual(expected_stderr, stderr)
 
+    def test_execute_depr(self):
+        chan = self.client.execute(self.cmd)
+        self.assertIsNotNone(chan)
+
     def test_alias(self):
         client = SSHClient(self.host, port=self.port,
                            pkey=self.user_key, num_retries=1,
diff --git a/pssh/clients/base/single.py b/pssh/clients/base/single.py
index cbb6e9ed..05140aec 100644
--- a/pssh/clients/base/single.py
+++ b/pssh/clients/base/single.py
@@ -486,6 +486,13 @@ def _make_output_readers(self, channel, stdout_buffer, stderr_buffer):
         raise NotImplementedError
 
     def execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
+        """
+        Deprecated - use ``run_command`` instead which returns a ``HostOutput`` object.
+        """
+        warn("Deprecated - use run_command instead.", DeprecationWarning)
+        return self._execute(cmd, use_pty=use_pty, channel=channel)
+
+    def _execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
         raise NotImplementedError
 
     def read_stderr(self, stderr_buffer, timeout=None):
@@ -620,7 +627,7 @@ def run_command(self, command, sudo=False, user=None,
             _command += "%s '%s'" % (_shell, command,)
         _command = _command.encode(encoding)
         with GTimeout(seconds=self.timeout):
-            channel = self.execute(_command, use_pty=use_pty)
+            channel = self._execute(_command, use_pty=use_pty)
         _timeout = read_timeout if read_timeout else timeout
         host_out = self._make_host_output(channel, encoding, _timeout)
         return host_out
diff --git a/pssh/clients/native/single.py b/pssh/clients/native/single.py
index 9dd0f4b6..15ae40f6 100644
--- a/pssh/clients/native/single.py
+++ b/pssh/clients/native/single.py
@@ -338,7 +338,7 @@ def _make_output_readers(self, channel, stdout_buffer, stderr_buffer):
             self._read_output_to_buffer, channel.read_stderr, stderr_buffer)
         return _stdout_reader, _stderr_reader
 
-    def execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
+    def _execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
         """
         Use ``run_command`` which returns a ``HostOutput`` object rather than this function directly.
 
diff --git a/pssh/clients/ssh/single.py b/pssh/clients/ssh/single.py
index f37ab6d2..bc4cc2da 100644
--- a/pssh/clients/ssh/single.py
+++ b/pssh/clients/ssh/single.py
@@ -16,7 +16,6 @@
 # Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301  USA
 
 import logging
-
 from gevent import sleep, spawn, Timeout as GTimeout, joinall
 from gevent.socket import SHUT_RDWR
 from ssh import options
@@ -236,7 +235,7 @@ def _make_output_readers(self, channel, stdout_buffer, stderr_buffer):
             self._read_output_to_buffer, channel, stderr_buffer, is_stderr=True)
         return _stdout_reader, _stderr_reader
 
-    def execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
+    def _execute(self, cmd, use_pty=False, channel=None):
         """Execute command on remote host.
 
         :param cmd: The command string to execute.