My Lisp vs a
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
My Lisp
A comprehensive Lisp programming environment for iOS and macOS devices. It offers a local interpreter, editor, and extensive libraries for learning and developing Lisp programs, including advanced mathematical functions and symbolic derivation.
- Local Lisp interpreter
- Integrated editor
- Core and mathematical operators
- Advanced mathematics functions
- Symbolic derivation module
- Library and example files
- User and reference manuals
Read full descriptionHide full description
My Lisp is a complete and universal Lisp environment running directly on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac. This interpreter is true to the original John McCarthy Lisp implementation with the fundamental 7 operators quote, atom, eq, car, cdr, cons, cond, along with lambda and label. My Lisp also contains core and mathematical operators borrowed from other Lisp dialects (Le Lisp, Lisp 1.5, MacLisp, Common Lisp and Scheme to name a few) to make it easy to learn, program, and most importantly, enjoy Lisp. It also features built-in functions for advanced mathematics, including complex numbers and numerical analysis (roots and zeros finder, integral approximation). The complete description of the fundamental, core, and built-in functions is available using a set of library functions completely written in My Lisp. My Lisp offers an interpreter and an editor, all working on the iPhone, iPad, and Mac, and most importantly, without requiring any server connection, that is, the interpreter is executing locally on the iPhone, iPad or Mac My Lisp is installed on. Library and example files contain the source code of classical functions and problems solved by My Lisp and may be used as reference to learn Lisp and develop other programs. They include classical puzzles (hanoi and n-queens), basic mathematical functions (gcd, lcm, factorial, fibonacci, prime?), and the historical apply, mapcar and maplist functions. The Lambda Calculus example file contains various functions related to Lambda Calculus and Combinators, with alpha-conversion, beta-reduction, de Bruijn notations, etc. As a special note, the example file Symbolic Derivation contains a complete yet extensible symbolic derivation module allowing to compute the formal derivation of virtually any symbolic function expressed as a Lisp expression. A user manual and a reference manual are available from within the application but also on My Lisp web site (https://lisp.lsrodier.net) and in Apple Books. The complete source code of the library and example files is part of My Lisp. Last but not least, this overview couldn’t end without a sample definition of the notorious REPL function: (define (REPL eval_me) (REPL (println (eval (read)))))
a
Run a full Unix-like terminal environment on your iOS device. Execute a wide range of commands, edit files, and even program using included interpreters and compilers. Supports multitasking and integration with Shortcuts.
- Local Unix terminal emulator
- SSH client
- File transfer (scp, curl)
- Text editing (vim, ed)
- Scripting languages (Python, Lua, Perl, JS)
- C/C++ compiler
- TeX distribution
Read full descriptionHide full description
a-Shell is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on your iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. You can work with git repositories using lg2. Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with the BSD Unix that powers iOS/iPadOS. a-Shell includes Python, Lua, Perl, JavaScript, C, C++ for programming and TeX (texlive 2025, with Tikz and LuaTeX) for text processing. There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands. a-Shell can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps... a-shell uses iOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python. Compile your C or C++ programs to webAssembly using clang or clang++, and execute the resulting binary. A complete webAssembly SDK is included (WASI-libc). a-Shell is the complete version. If you need a smaller app, and you don't need a C compiler, a TeX engine, or numpy and matplotlib, there is a-Shell mini.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: a at Free against My Lisp's $3.99. a also leads on rating (4.6 vs 4.1) and ratings volume (553 vs 17). On update cadence, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
a is free to download; My Lisp costs $3.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
a holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: a has 553 ratings behind it against 17, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 69% of My Lisp's written reviews are positive against 78% of a's.
My Lisp ships an update every 6 weeks, a monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | My Lisp | a |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $3.99 | Free — better |
| Rating | 4.1 (17 ratings) | 4.6 (553 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 68.8% of reviews | 78.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 17 | 553 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 6 weeks | Monthly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #18 — better | #19 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 14.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 19 MB | 1.9 GB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Laurent Rodier | Nicolas Holzschuch |
Customer experience
My Lisp
a
Bugs and requests
My Lisp
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
a
Reported bugs
3 issues- Toolbar buttons not accessible in portrait mode on some devices
- Pasting from clipboard can insert unexpected characters
- Sourcing certain script files causes crashes
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for package managers like Homebrew or APT
- Implement more advanced shell features like job control and better tab completion
- Integrate Git for version control
- Allow installing additional packages and libraries
- Improve clipboard and file management integration
In-app purchases
My Lisp
No in-app purchases
a
No in-app purchases









