a vs OBDII Terminal
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.
OBDII Terminal
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• Supports all vehicles compatible with the OBDII standard. • View supported PIDs at a glance. • Easily share extracted logs for analysis.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: OBDII Terminal at every 6 days against a's monthly. a's advantage is chart position (#37 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 16). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
a ships an update monthly, OBDII Terminal every 6 days. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.
| Parameter | a | OBDII Terminal |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (122 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 78.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 122 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 6 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | — |
| Best chart rank | #37 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 16 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 383 MB | 9 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Holzschuch | Jinwoo Lee |
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
OBDII Terminal
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
a
No in-app purchases
OBDII Terminal
No in-app purchases
