a vs LocalDevVPN
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.
LocalDevVPN
Create and manage secure, isolated local network tunnels on iOS. Test and debug applications without sending traffic to external servers, offering precise control over your network environment.
- Local network tunneling
- Custom network configuration
- One-touch connection
- Auto-connect option
- Connection monitoring
- Comprehensive logging
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LocalDevVPN is a developer tool for creating and managing local network tunnels directly on iOS. It gives you a secure, isolated virtual interface for testing and debugging without sending traffic to external servers. Key Features: - Local network tunneling: spin up a dedicated virtual interface for development and testing - Custom network configuration: set device IP, tunnel IP, and subnet mask - One-touch connection: quick connect/disconnect with clear status - Auto-connect: optionally start the tunnel when the app launches - Connection monitoring: track connection time and live status - Comprehensive logging: review detailed connection logs for troubleshooting Ideal for developers, network engineers, and testers who need precise control over a local network environment. All traffic stays on-device with no data collection or external connections. Requires iOS 14.0 or later.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: LocalDevVPN at every 2 days against a's every 2 weeks. LocalDevVPN also leads on review sentiment (91% vs 78%) and chart position (#4 vs #57). On price, rating, ratings volume 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for a against 4.7 for LocalDevVPN. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 120 and 87 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 78% of a's written reviews are positive against 91% of LocalDevVPN's.
a ships an update every 2 weeks, LocalDevVPN every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on September 25, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | a | LocalDevVPN |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (120 ratings) | 4.7 (87 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.8% of reviews | 90.6% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 120 — better | 87 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Paid |
| Best chart rank | #57 | #4 — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — better |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 373 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Holzschuch | Coxson Engineering LLC |
Customer experience
a
LocalDevVPN
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 moreShow fewer
- 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 moreShow fewer
- Make Ubuntu default
- Add expansion of keys (e.g., echo {a..z})
- Adjustable font size
LocalDevVPN
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
a
No in-app purchases
LocalDevVPN
No in-app purchases
