Comparison

a vs Issues

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

Head to head
About

a

This app provides a local Unix terminal emulator for iOS devices, enabling users to run various Unix commands, edit files, and process data. It includes support for multiple programming languages and network utilities, with integration for iOS Shortcuts and multi-window functionality.

Highlights
  • Local Unix terminal emulator
  • Run Unix commands
  • File transfer (scp, curl)
  • Text editing (vim, ed)
  • Programming languages (Python, Lua, C)
  • Network utilities (ping, nslookup)
  • iOS Shortcuts integration
Features
Read 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.

About

Issues

Features
Read full description

Issues is a fast, native app for GitHub Issues and GitHub Projects, on the Mac, iPhone and iPad. It is built like Mail and Notes, quick to drive from the keyboard, and everything stays in GitHub: teammates who don't use the app see the same issues and boards on github.com. PLAN AHEAD • Milestones: a board's next ones in the sidebar, each with its issues, how much is done and the day it's due • Epics: issues whose sub-issues are their work. On the board an epic's issues stand together under its name; drag the name to move them all • A roadmap: your epics as bars over the milestones, by month or quarter. Drag a bar to move an epic and its issues to another milestone • Your project's views from GitHub, such as "This week" or open bugs, as a board or a list, with filters you change in a click • Grouped by milestone or parent, a view shows how far each group is; a view of the current iteration shows its days left; a roadmap view is a timeline THE INBOX • What changed for you, from GitHub's notifications: who assigned you, mentioned you, commented, asked for your review or closed an issue you follow • Open one and the issue is right there, with what's new on top • Read, archive and snooze with a key or a swipe; github.com and all your devices agree ON THE MAC • Every project as a board or a list, My Issues with everything assigned to you, and every issue of your repositories, also those on no board • Drag issues to a new place, and shape the columns: add, rename, recolour and reorder them • Keyboard first: J and K move between issues, S, P, A and L change status, priority, assignee and labels, D sets the due date, and ⌘K opens a command palette for everything else • Select several issues and change them at once, or peek at one with Space • Sub-issues and blockers: put any issue under another, and mark what blocks what • Descriptions drawn as on GitHub, with tables, checklists that tick and Mermaid diagrams ON IPHONE AND IPAD • On iPhone, the Inbox, My Issues, your projects and search as tabs; on iPad, a sidebar and the board with drag and drop • Swipe right to mark an issue done, swipe left to assign it to yourself or delete it • Touch and hold an issue to change its status, priority, assignee, labels, milestone, parent or blockers, or drag it to a new place • Milestones and the roadmap, which is a timeline on iPad • On iPad with a keyboard, the Mac's keyboard shortcuts DUE DATES THAT REMIND YOU • Give an issue the day it is due: tomorrow, Friday, a day in the calendar, or typed as "in 3 days" • On the day, your Mac, iPhone and iPad remind you, with buttons to start the issue, mark it done or move it to tomorrow • The date is the project's Due date field on GitHub, so your team sees it too FAST AND RELIABLE • Every change shows at once and goes to GitHub in the background • Works offline: changes wait and are sent when you're back online • Careful with other people's work: when someone else changed the same text, nothing is overwritten PRIVATE • No account, no server, no tracking. Your login stays in your keychain and is only ever sent to GitHub. • Signed in on one of your devices? The others sign in by themselves through iCloud Keychain. In English, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Japanese, Korean and Chinese, following your device's language. Try it without an account: "Explore with Sample Data" opens two sample projects. Issues is open source: github.com/lukaskaibel/issues-for-github Issues is not affiliated with or endorsed by GitHub.

Screenshots

a4 screens
Issues4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Issues at weekly against a's monthly. a's advantage is chart position (#25 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 27.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

a ships an update monthly, Issues weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 11, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
a versus Issues: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteraIssues
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (575 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews78.4% of reviews—
Number of ratings575 — better—
Update frequencyMonthlyWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#25 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.0 — better27.0
Further details — not scored
Size2.1 GB33 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperNicolas HolzschuchLukas Kaibel

Bugs and 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

Issues

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

a

No in-app purchases

None

Issues

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is a free?
a is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Issues free?
Issues is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do a or Issues have ads?
Neither a nor Issues shows ads.
Which is updated more often, a or Issues?
a ships an update monthly, and Issues weekly. Most recently, a was updated on November 11, 2026 and Issues on October 31, 2026.

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