a vs Alto Daily Habit Tracker
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Alto Daily Habit Tracker
This app helps you track your daily habits by integrating with Apple Reminders. Simply create lists of recurring tasks, select your list within the app, and visualize your progress and streaks.
- Integrates with Apple Reminders
- Track recurring tasks
- Visualize habit streaks
- Simple list selection
- Supports Mac and iPhone
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Track habits using Apple Reminders. You can track your habits in a simple way: 1. Create a list in Apple Reminders. 2. Add recurrent tasks. Eg "run", "read", "gym". 3. Select the list in Alto Daily. Done. Now you can see your habit streaks.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: a at none against Alto Daily Habit Tracker's 6. a also leads on ratings volume (122 vs 4) and chart position (#41 vs unranked). Alto Daily Habit Tracker's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs monthly). On price, rating, review sentiment 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
Both are free to download. Alto Daily Habit Tracker sells 6 one-off in-app purchases. a asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for a against 4.8 for Alto Daily Habit Tracker. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: a has 122 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 78% of a's written reviews are positive against 80% of Alto Daily Habit Tracker's.
a ships an update monthly, Alto Daily Habit Tracker every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | a | Alto Daily Habit Tracker |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (122 ratings) | 4.8 (4 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 78.0% of reviews | 80.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 122 — better | 4 |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 5 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Best chart rank | #41 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 383 MB | 17 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Holzschuch | System Operator LLC |
Customer experience
a
Alto Daily Habit Tracker
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
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- 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
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- Make Ubuntu default
- Add expansion of keys (e.g., echo {a..z})
- Adjustable font size
Alto Daily Habit Tracker
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
a
No in-app purchases
Alto Daily Habit Tracker
- A coffee$1.99
- Donate 3.99$3.99
- A thank you$4.99
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- A big thank you$9.99
- Alto.Pro: one time 9.99USD$9.99
- A huge thank you$14.99
