Comparison

LibTerm vs La Terminal

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

LibTerm

This app provides a powerful command-line interface for iOS devices, enabling users to run various shell commands. It includes tools for coding in C, Python, and Lua, and allows for text file editing with syntax highlighting.

Highlights
  • Command line interface
  • Coding in C, Python, Lua
  • Text file editor
  • Syntax highlighting
  • Install third-party commands
  • Run C code
Features
Read full description

LibTerm is a command line interface for iPhone and iPad. Includes what you need for coding C programs! Commands: ls, lli, ifconfig, ping, readlink, id, chmod, clang, telnet, host, du, link, dig, egrep, bc, date, gzip, nslookup, python2, fgrep, mv, python3, md5, say, luac, ssh-keygen, xargs, diff, cd, tee, chksum, lua, touch, dc, tar, chflags, rm, sort, uniq, awk, printenv, chgrp, find, mkdir, tail, df, pwd, opt, chown, gunzip, compress, llvm-link, nc, uptime, sed, setenv, stat, uname, sum, head, wc, cat, echo, unsetenv, unlink, pbpaste, rmdir, uncompress, curl, ln, cp, whoami, rlogin, tr, env, whois, pbcopy, python, grep, nm, jsc, clear, sh, help, exit, open, package, edit Edit text files and code with a graphical editor and syntax highlighting with the 'edit' command. Not enough commands? You can code your own scripts with Python 2.7, Python 3.7, Lua 5.3, install third party commands or even compile and run C code with the 'clang' and 'lli' commands!

About

La Terminal

This app provides a mobile command center for AI coding agents and server management. It offers full SSH and Mosh support for resilient sessions, along with powerful resource monitoring and an AI-powered assistant for command generation.

Highlights
  • SSH and Mosh support
  • AI-powered command assistant
  • Command Search and workflow gallery
  • Resource monitoring and process explorer
  • Secure private key storage
  • iCloud sync for settings and keys
Features
Read full description

Welcome to La Terminal, your mobile command center for AI coding agents. Connect to OpenAI Codex, Claude Code, GitHub Copilot CLI, or OpenClaw from anywhere, with full SSH and Mosh support for resilient, always-on sessions. More than just a simple command-line shell, La Terminal provides a fully-native, first-class touch experience for command-line hackers on iPhone and iPad. Built on Open Source: From the original developer of Midnight Commander, the open source visual file manager for Linux, La Terminal provides a comprehensive Xterm/DEC VT terminal emulator experience based on the popular open source SwiftTerm library with powerful client amenities for serious command-line aficionados. Command Search: Use Command Search to quickly find the command you are looking for. Search your own command history and our comprehensive workflow gallery to find and execute commands. Create and edit your own workflows for a variety of tasks, including running frequently used commands, automating a series of commands, or just tracking down a complex command that might be difficult to recall. AI-powered assistant: Get help writing Linux, Mac, or Windows terminal commands using plain English, such as “extract the name property inside the article element from a json file” or “list the most CPU consuming Kubernetes pods”. Eye candy: La Terminal sports a fully themeable experience accented with beautifully captivating live-effect backgrounds powered by Metal Performance Shaders. Secure Enclave: Your private keys are stored in the secure enclave so your private key can never be found in plain text. Powerful status visualizations: La Terminal’s resource monitoring tools put powerful CPU and memory use visualizations, as well as a native process explorer, right at your fingertips. Resource monitoring visualizations are accessible from the top of any connected terminal, and process explorer tools provide multiple views into CPU, memory, and disk utilization. Thumbnail snapshots show previews of connected hosts along with system load over time in the active Terminals view. Network monitoring plots data traffic on a world map to help you understand the sources and targets of connections to and from your connected hosts. iCloud for everyone: La Terminal makes it easy to switch between your iPhone, iPad, and Mac by syncing your settings and keys over iCloud - like magic! Host platform aware: Whether you’re managing a dozen Linux VMs on AWS or Azure, logging into zsh on your Mac desktop, or configuring your latest IoT Raspberry Pi project via bash, La Terminal provides the most productive experience possible on a mobile device. La Terminal is even Windows-aware to ensure PowerShell power users can enjoy a delightful ssh experience, too. International support: La Terminal delivers extensive support for international terminals, including rendering internationalized output as well as support for internationalized input methods from native iOS dictation and international keyboards. La Terminal Pro features - Complete SFTP File Manager - Upload, download and navigate remote filesystems with our native SFTP client. - Files can be uploaded or downloaded to the local device via the iOS Files app, or copied between remote hosts. - Files app support - Access files on any configured La Terminal host using Apple’s Files app and other File Provider-enabled apps. - SSH Agent Forwarding - Use locally configured keys to authorize connections when SSHing between remote hosts. - All Live Backgrounds - Choose from our full library of GPU-accelerated Live Backgrounds to customize your terminal experience. Terms of Service: https://la-terminal.net/la-terminal/terms-of-service Privacy Policy: https://la-terminal.net/privacy-policy

Screenshots

LibTerm2 screens
La Terminal4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: LibTerm at none against La Terminal's 3. LibTerm also leads on update cadence (every 8 days vs every 3 weeks) and ratings volume (804 vs 103). La Terminal's advantage is rating (4.7 vs 4.5). On price, review sentiment, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. La Terminal sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. LibTerm asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

La Terminal holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LibTerm has 804 ratings behind it against 103, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 70% of LibTerm's written reviews are positive against 66% of La Terminal's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LibTerm ships an update every 8 days, La Terminal every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 13, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
LibTerm versus La Terminal: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLibTermLa Terminal
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (804 ratings)4.7 (103 ratings) — better
Positive reviews70.4% of reviews — better66.0% of reviews
Number of ratings804 — better103
Update frequencyEvery 8 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro
Requires iOS12.0 — better18.6
Further details — not scored
Size428 MB81 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperDevelobile S.p.A.Xibbon, Inc

Customer experience

LibTerm

All ratings804 ratings
Positive85.7%
Neutral5.5%
Negative8.8%
Written reviews186 reviews
Positive70.4%
Neutral11.8%
Negative17.7%

La Terminal

All ratings103 ratings
Positive93.2%
Neutral1.0%
Negative5.8%
Written reviews50 reviews
Positive66.0%
Neutral14.0%
Negative20.0%

User reviews

LibTerm

From 804 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Basic UNIX command line utilities
  • 🚀 Handy Command Utility
  • 👍 Excellent
  • 👍 Simply awesome
  • 👍 Brilliant!

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Not awesome
  • 🐛 400+ MB App size
  • 🐛 Странно.
  • 🐛 Potential but disappointing with the usability
  • 🐛 Limited feature set

La Terminal

From 103 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Best SSH client on iOS/iPadOS
  • 👍 Great UI and design
  • 💡 Innovative features like session keep alive
  • ✨ Nerd font support for icons
  • ✅ SFTP server works well

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Laggy performance for some users
  • 🐛 File transfer corrupts uploads
  • 🐛 Connection silently dies after app switch
  • 🐛 Keyboard doesn't hide on sessions page
  • 🐛 Blurry fonts on Vision Pro

Bugs and requests

LibTerm

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • SSH complains about keys when the remote machine does not require key auth
  • Can't even do simple ssh on iOS 16
  • Can't ssh, port option doesn't work, and if only it were possible to cd into private/mobile/Applications
  • When attempting to append a file (cat test.txt >> sort.txt) it reads the second > as the file name and creates a file called > instead of appending the second file in the command
  • Bus Error after ~10 DNS DIG queries

Requested features

10 requests
  • Странно. Можно добавить?
  • Add git clone
  • Please add nano
  • Please add pip
  • Please add bash
Show 5 more
  • Please add traceroute
  • Please add GCC/Clang support
  • Please add more commands like natmask, natstat
  • Please add dark theme
  • Please add ability to install PyPi modules and pip

La Terminal

Reported bugs

23 issues
  • Stuck in "keys" dialog on first use (Vision Pro)
  • Nerd symbols do not display well
  • Session keep alive technology stopped working well
  • File transfer corrupts uploads
  • Connection silently dies after app switch, folders appear empty
Show 18 more
  • Korean language is de-composed
  • No character support for 2-character-wide characters
  • App crashes reproducible on iOS 18.1 when loading SSH key from file
  • Keyboard will not hide on sessions page, tab bar unreachable
  • Lot of lag when typing, making app unusable
  • Blurry fonts compared to other SSH apps
  • Unable to open more than two SSH sessions
  • Clicking on terminal pastes clipboard content
  • Cannot get anything to connect using Vision Pro initially (PolicyDenied)
  • VisionOS local network access issues
  • App sometimes crashes when scrolling to appearance section of a connection
  • Can’t change default port number
  • Text is clipped entirely on the four rounded corners
  • Cannot figure out how to highlight text and paste
  • Need to put login/password for every individual host
  • Need to use ed25519 SSH key
  • Sneaky processes uploaded to server without permission/explanation
  • Monitoring bug: typing doesn't input after dismissing charts

Requested features

34 requests
  • Add English option
  • Ability to change text size easily
  • Support for ed25519 SSH keys
  • Option to turn off rendering bright colors as bold fonts
  • Ban the soft keyboard from ever appearing again
Show 29 more
  • Open a second session with a host
  • Customization for monitoring (exclude/hide mount points)
  • Ability to highlight text and paste easily
  • One spot for passwords (accounts/group menu)
  • Support for 2-character-wide characters
  • Ability to change font
  • Disable mouse reporting option
  • Fix file transfer corruption
  • Improve session keep alive technology
  • Fix connection dying after app switch
  • Fix keyboard not hiding on sessions page
  • Fix blurry fonts
  • Support more than two windows
  • Fix pasting on click
  • Remove black bars on Vision Pro windows
  • Add margin to terminal windows
  • Fix text clipping at rounded corners
  • Fix laggy performance
  • Make scrolling work with Neovim
  • Fix VisionOS local network access issues
  • Allow changing default port number
  • Fix native session persistence
  • Fix tmux option to attach to existing session
  • Improve handling of network glitches
  • Fix Korean language de-composition
  • Fix tutorials not working
  • Fix settings buttons
  • Add dark mode option
  • Advanced analytics dashboard

In-app purchases

None

LibTerm

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

La Terminal

Subscriptions2
  • La Terminal Pro Monthly$4.991 Month
  • La Terminal Pro Yearly$19.991 Year
One-time1
  • La Terminal Pro Lifetime$99.99

Questions

Is LibTerm free?
LibTerm is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is La Terminal free?
La Terminal is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, LibTerm or La Terminal?
La Terminal is rated higher. LibTerm averages 4.5 out of 5 from 804 ratings, while La Terminal averages 4.7 from 103 ratings.
Do LibTerm or La Terminal have ads?
Neither LibTerm nor La Terminal shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LibTerm or La Terminal?
LibTerm ships an update every 8 days, and La Terminal every 3 weeks. Most recently, LibTerm was updated on October 13, 2026 and La Terminal on October 14, 2026.

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