# iSH Shell — user reviews > 396 indexed App Store user reviews of iSH Shell by Theodore Dubois, rated 4.70/5 from 1,230 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ish-shell/id1436902243/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/ish-shell/id1436902243.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 1,062 · 4★ 80 · 3★ 32 · 2★ 10 · 1★ 46 ## What do users think of iSH Shell? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Excellent Linux environment - 👍 Great for SSH and network utilities - 💡 Allows running Linux apps on iOS - 🔒 Secure and sandboxed - 👍 Customizable and flexible **Cons** - 🐛 Crashes and freezes - 🔋 Battery intensive - ⚠️ Limited functionality compared to full Linux - ⚠️ Outdated packages and dependencies **Commonly reported bugs** - Cursor focus issues - Incompatibility with certain commands and packages - Mounting issues with iOS file system **Most requested features** - Add support for more Linux distributions - Improve performance and stability - Implement GUI support - Add shortcuts and automation features ## Newest reviews (18 of 396) ### 3/5 — It’s internal Python is too old *2026-08-23, version 1.3.2* It’s internal Python is too old ### 2/5 — Doesn’t fully work *2026-08-16, version 1.3.2* Things like “sudo” and “python” and a lot of others are not inputted Into app.. ### 3/5 — Serious Bugs *2026-07-23, version 1.3.2* I recently installed iSH and it says content unavailable in the files app and the console goes fuzzy. ### 4/5 — hoi lag *2026-07-04, version 1.3.2* edit big C file kinda laggy with Neovim ### 4/5 — Useful *2026-06-19, version 1.3.2* Sadly its not maintained anymore ### 3/5 — Soooo close *2026-06-05, version 1.3.2* On the one hand, this app is a technical marvel. On the other hand… it’s hard to interact with. For example, the app presents a single, four-way arrow key, which you are supposed to hold and drag. It is essentially impossible to input a single arrow key press, which is a ubiquitous part of terminal usage. When you select text to copy, the interface jitters all around. These problems seem trivial compared with the complexity of the technical challenges this app has overcome, but nonetheless they prevent the app from being very useful. ### 2/5 — Not useful *2026-05-18* Packages from default apk does not work. Tested on micro. Every restart rewrites resolv.conf… Persistance is bad. No network stack, only ping. Breaks af on every task I try. For what is it? Ssh client? Calling ls or cd on empty pr default directories? Installing from apk breaked during non persistent resolv.conf so nothing works ok. ### 5/5 — Amazing *2026-05-17, version 1.3.2* It is the best and the only Terminal app that really works. ### 5/5 — Very Impressive *2026-05-04, version 1.3.2* This VM is extremely impressive. It’s definitely not for people who haven’t used command-line Linux distros before. It’s a VERY barebones alpine Linux install; it doesn’t even have the sudo packages by default. It’s crazy how the developer was able to make a (mostly) functional Linux VM that works on iOS. Plus there are no ads or subscriptions :) ### 5/5 — Incredible! *2026-04-27, version 1.3.2* This app alone allows me to have as much freedom as I had on my Android phone. It’s phenomenal. ### 5/5 — Great app, barely any issues *2026-04-19, version 1.3.2* Amazing! I use it nearly every day. The controls they give on top of the keyboard gives you everything you need to navigate the terminal properly. Sometimes when you open the app it’s blurry but all you have to do is kill the app and reopen. ### 5/5 — Runs alpine utilities *2026-03-29, version 1.3.2* This lets you run all those fancy command line tools on github while lying in bed so you don’t have to open your computer. ### 3/5 — Really good but.. *2026-03-26, version 1.3.2* Its really nice linux but its x86 so you cant do too much ### 5/5 — Pour pratiquer à partir d’un réseau local captif! C’est faire avec une pierre 2 coups! *2026-03-24, version 1.3.2* Null to unknown , I love you! ### 5/5 — ガチですごい *2026-03-23* 開発者はもちろんパソコン好きなら入れて損は絶対ない いろんなアプリも入れることができてハッキングツールも入れることが可能(一部無理) ぜひ試してみてください ### 4/5 — Awsome app, one issue *2026-03-18, version 1.3.2* I deleted the everything ### 5/5 — Really useful app *2026-03-09, version 1.3.2* Really useful app for running a local shell on iOS — it works smoothly and gives a lot of control for developers. However, it’s quite inconvenient to manage something like Claude Code here: switching modes (for example, using Shift+Tab as on a keyboard) doesn’t work properly in the app. If this were fixed, it would be a perfect tool for remote coding and automation tasks. ### 5/5 — You can rm -rf root *2026-03-09, version 1.3.2* Pretty cool ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Useless on iOS 26 *2026-05-27* No network. :( localhost:~# ifconfig ifconfig: /proc/net/dev: No such file or directory ifconfig: ioctl 0x8912 failed: Not a tty ### 1/5 — Character limit? *2026-04-14, version 1.3.2* Why is there a character limit? I can’t even execute the command I want. ### 1/5 — Font issue *2025-11-28, version 1.3.2* The font is blurry like someone put butter on the monitor. ### 1/5 — ok *2025-10-11, version 1.3.2* totally fake and useless apps ### 1/5 — Al *2025-08-22, version 1.3.2* Hi, looks like you have some bug in the system, i reinstalled and the same problem- old session looks like running from previous one when open up its sees like foggy( not much visible) i solve proble “exec zsh” and its comes up clear view new session- fux it pls! ### 1/5 — Used to be great. Just a worthless decorator app now… *2025-07-13, version 1.3.2* This was such a useful utility for the entire time since it was released. Then at some point super recently, ssh just stopped working entirely. That is 90% of what I needed this for, and the 10% of other use cases are not actually valid, since they are dependencies of having a functional SSH session. This app is worthless to me, now. Guess it was nice while it lasted. Thanks. ### 1/5 — Fix the cursor focus issue *2025-06-17, version 1.3.2* Great app, but I’m having to restart too many times because I’m unable to focus back into the app leaving me unable to type. Seems to be an issue going on 5+ years now. Very frustrating. ### 1/5 — What's going on? *2025-05-27, version 1.3.2* I can't open my iSH folder. It shows "Content Unavailable" and "The folder contents could not be displayed because of an unknown error". I'm really worried now. My project is still under development and this just happened. ### 1/5 — Not native *2025-05-17, version 1.3.2* Not native to the cpu ### 1/5 — outdated, too many bugs, update please *2025-04-24, version 1.3.2* outdated, too many bugs, update please ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Very cool *2026-08-30, version 1.3.2* Very lightweight and functional even on older iOS versions. Works great on my iPhone SE first gen. I managed to install yt-dlp and some other fun things like neofetch on it. Very neat little Linux container to play with. My only dislike is that it is a bit slow, but that isn’t much of a problem. I have nothing bad to say about this app. 5 stars. ### 5/5 — He was 1 *2026-08-11, version 1.3.2* Yep. This thing has gotten me into coding n stuff. I like it a lot! My girlfriend hates it lol ### 5/5 — Great Linux app *2026-07-21, version 1.3.2* I used this to mod my 3DS because my computer broke recently and this app worked perfectly as if I was using my computer. Simple and easy to use (if you know what you’re doing) and my 3DS is fully modded and I’m playing tomodachi life rn❤️✌️😼 ### 5/5 — Real good *2026-07-09, version 1.3.2* Can run all alpine commands, you might as well make a server out of it! I tried running rm -rf /*, and I got error code 2! Realistic! ### 5/5 — Perfect! *2026-07-05, version 1.3.2* I’m using this with an iPad mini 6 and a Logitech Keys-To-Go. I have wanted linux on my iPad for the longest time. It’s great! For anyone who is reading this review and is not the developers, if your external keyboard isn’t working, just turn off full keyboard access. Anyway, that sums up my review! ### 5/5 — 最强 App *2026-06-23, version 1.3.2* 没有之一 ### 5/5 — Beautiful example of how to not be stupidly greedy *2026-06-17, version 1.3.2* The app works great. It’s a perfect replacement for the constant low-quality garbage in the App Store. ### 5/5 — the best iphone app for script kids, linux shell users *2026-06-03, version 1.3.2* If you learn the basics of busybox and alpine linux this app will balloon the capabilities of your iphone. I’m sure there are many limitations (for two, it opens blurry sometimes and i have to close it and reopen, and using custom fonts seems to not work great) but it feels like nearly everything I normally do in a TTY simply works. The ability to ssh into my main pc or link together commands and scripts to do advanced sorting and archiving on files or write code with TMUX and neovim while im out and about feels like a new horizon for nerds who feel stuck with IOS. ### 5/5 — Super Useful and Completely free! *2026-05-23, version 1.3.2* Allowed me to use important CLI tools on my phone when I had no access to my PC highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Best mobile linux terminal I’ve ever used *2026-05-21, version 1.3.2* This is the best software ive ever used and all of the commands are super easy and navigation is perfect. Ive tried many different mobile terminals and this one allow for easy ssh into remote servers and is absolutely perfect from customization to functionality. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-09.*