Comparison

a vs Fabula for SwiftUI

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

Head to head
About

a

Run Unix commands locally on your iOS device with a powerful terminal emulator. Supports file transfer, editing, scripting with Python and Lua, and network utilities. Integrates with Shortcuts and supports multiple windows for multitasking.

Highlights
  • Local Unix terminal emulator
  • SSH client
  • File transfer (scp, curl)
  • Text editing (vim, ed)
  • Scripting (Python, Lua, JavaScript)
  • Network utilities (nslookup, ping)
  • Shortcuts integration
  • Multi-window support
Features
Read full description

a-Shell mini is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on you iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. Work with git repositories using lg2. Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with iOS underlying BSD Unix. a-Shell mini includes Python, Lua, JavaScript and webAssembly for programming and scripting. It also includes native ffmpeg and convert for fast image and video conversion. 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 mini 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 mini uses iPadOS 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. a-Shell mini is a minimalist terminal, designed to have a very small footprint (less than 250 MB). If you need more commands, please consider a-Shell, which has more Python packages, more JavaScript modules, Perl, make, a C and C++ compiler and TeX.

About

Fabula for SwiftUI

Explore narrative construction and code organization using fabula and syuzhet concepts. This app serves as a personal project to learn SwiftUI, offering code collections and fostering developer community interaction. It aims to help users understand SwiftUI's declarative approach for cross-platform development.

Highlights
  • Narrative construction concepts (fabula & syuzhet)
  • SwiftUI code collections
  • Declarative UI development learning
  • Cross-platform development (iOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS)
  • Developer community sharing
  • Regular code updates
Features
Read full description

The formalism used the concepts of fabula and syuzhet as a way to develop narrative construction or classified materials and compositions into fabula and syuzhet, respectively. The totality of microscopic events listed in causality was called a fabula, and the narrative arrangement of these motifs in an artistic way was called a syuzhet. This app is a personal project to learn the technical ingredients of SwiftUI and derive creative results. SwiftUI is a user interface toolkit that can develop applications in a declarative manner. This is a modern development method that communicates to iOS how you want the user interface to behave and finds out how users perform when interacting with the interface. In addition, SwiftUI can develop macOS, watchOS, and tvOS with the same code as well as iOS development. The most appealing thing for me personally is that it is easy to learn and that the code is concise, making it easy for beginners to understand. I hope this project will help everyone, including myself, to understand SwiftUI. The code of this project will be updated regularly. You can share and communicate with developers around the world through the Fabula app. We always look forward to the participation of developers.

Screenshots

a4 screens
Fabula for SwiftUI4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Fabula for SwiftUI at free against a's paid. Fabula for SwiftUI also leads on review sentiment (98% vs 78%) and rating (4.8 vs 4.6). a's advantage is chart position (#58 vs unranked). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Fabula for SwiftUI holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 119 and 123 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 78% of a's written reviews are positive against 98% of Fabula for SwiftUI's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

a ships an update every 2 weeks, Fabula for SwiftUI fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
a versus Fabula for SwiftUI: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteraFabula for SwiftUI
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (119 ratings)4.8 (123 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.8% of reviews97.6% of reviews — better
Number of ratings119123 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
Best chart rank#58 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS14.0 — better15.0
Further details — not scored
Size373 MB22 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperNicolas HolzschuchGyeong Seop No

Customer experience

a

All ratings119 ratings
Positive89.9%
Neutral2.5%
Negative7.6%
Written reviews90 reviews
Positive77.8%
Neutral5.6%
Negative16.7%

Fabula for SwiftUI

All ratings123 ratings
Positive95.9%
Neutral1.6%
Negative2.4%
Written reviews41 reviews
Positive97.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative2.4%

Bugs and requests

a

Reported bugs

12 issues
  • Keyboard icons comically large
  • App deletes itself
  • Rotating iPhone/iPad scrambles display
  • Pasting text results in strange characters
  • App only uses half of the screen when editing files
Show 7 more
  • Command not found errors for all commands
  • App crashes on launch after update
  • Cannot get own absolute path
  • Cannot execute own programs
  • App messes up .txt file association
  • Trouble selecting characters to copy and paste
  • No module named requests in shortcuts

Requested features

8 requests
  • Option to use old keyboard buttons
  • Add openssl support
  • Add libx265 codec for ffmpeg
  • Support telnet command
  • Add possibility to compile from source
Show 3 more
  • Make Ubuntu default
  • Add expansion of keys (e.g., echo {a..z})
  • Adjustable font size

Fabula for SwiftUI

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

a

No in-app purchases

None

Fabula for SwiftUI

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is a free?
a is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Fabula for SwiftUI free?
Fabula for SwiftUI is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, a or Fabula for SwiftUI?
Fabula for SwiftUI is rated higher. a averages 4.6 out of 5 from 119 ratings, while Fabula for SwiftUI averages 4.8 from 123 ratings.
Do a or Fabula for SwiftUI have ads?
Neither a nor Fabula for SwiftUI shows ads.
Which is updated more often, a or Fabula for SwiftUI?
a ships an update every 2 weeks, and Fabula for SwiftUI fortnightly. Most recently, a was updated on September 21, 2026 and Fabula for SwiftUI on September 24, 2026.

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