Comparison

a vs TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro

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, transfer files, and edit them. It supports programming languages like Python and JavaScript, along with network utilities and image/video conversion tools.

Highlights
  • Local Unix terminal emulator
  • File transfer (scp, curl)
  • Text editing (vim, ed)
  • Programming languages (Python, Lua, JavaScript)
  • Network utilities (nslookup, ping)
  • Image and video conversion (ffmpeg)
  • Shortcuts integration
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

TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro

Control and observe any terminal on your Mac from your phone, anywhere. Dictate commands, attach files, and sync clipboards. Securely manage your development workflow remotely.

Highlights
  • Remote terminal control
  • Live agent monitoring
  • Push notifications for agent prompts
  • Voice command dictation
  • File and image attachment
  • Two-way clipboard sync
  • End-to-end encryption
Features
Read full description

Control and observe any terminal on your Mac from your phone — from anywhere. TermBridge attaches at the shell layer, so it works across every terminal you already use: iTerm2, Terminal.app, the integrated terminals in VS Code, Zed, and Cursor, plus tmux. There's no new terminal app to live in and nothing to reconfigure. The exact shell you're already typing in simply shows up on your phone, live. VIBE CODING, UNTETHERED Start a long Claude Code or Codex run on your Mac, then walk away. TermBridge keeps you in the loop from wherever you are. • Answer the agent from your phone: Allow, Always allow, Deny, or Deny with a note. Answer Claude's questions too, including ones with several picks. • Get a push the moment an agent needs you. Approve right from the notification, or tap to land on the request. • See every agent across all of your Macs in one place: needs you, running, finished. • Watch any agent run live, character by character, exactly as it appears on your Mac. DO REAL WORK FROM YOUR PHONE TermBridge is built to get things done, not just watch. • Dictate commands and prompts by voice, with a live waveform so you know it's listening. • Attach a file or image from your phone. It uploads to your Mac and the path drops into the terminal, ready to run or hand to your agent. • Browse your Mac's files, and preview what the agent touched — Markdown and READMEs rendered, and the local servers running on your Mac, open right on your phone. • Two-way clipboard sync: copy on your Mac, paste on your phone, and back. WHAT MAKES IT DIFFERENT Most remote-terminal apps only see sessions they created, on a server you SSH into. TermBridge is the opposite. • Attach to the terminals you're ALREADY in — not just sessions this app spawned. • See your editor's integrated terminals (VS Code, Zed, Cursor) on your phone. • Open a new shell or Claude Code session on your Mac from your phone, in one tap. • Pair multiple devices (iPhone + iPad) to one Mac, and switch between Macs instantly — each keeps its own live connection, so an offline Mac never drops the one you're using. MADE YOURS • Themes and fonts to match your setup. • A custom on-screen key row and macros for the keys you actually use. • A full-color terminal with deep scrollback on iPhone, and a 3-panel layout on iPad. • A touch keyboard bar with Tab, Esc, Ctrl-C, arrows, and the modifiers a terminal needs. SECURE BY DESIGN Your terminal is sensitive. TermBridge treats it that way. • End-to-end encrypted with X25519 + AES-256-GCM — the relay only ever sees ciphertext. • Forward secrecy: fresh keys every session, so a future compromise can't unlock past ones. • Zero-knowledge relay — your secrets never touch a server, and no inbound port is opened on your Mac. • QR-code pairing, approved right on your Mac, with a fingerprint you can verify. RELIABLE • Reconnects the instant your network changes or your phone comes back online. • Sessions keep running when you step away — pick up exactly where you left off. • Missed output replays on attach, so you never lose what happened while you were gone. PERMISSIONS — ONLY WHEN YOU USE THE FEATURE • Notifications — to alert you when an agent on your Mac is waiting; tap to jump into that terminal. • Camera — to scan the QR code that pairs your phone with your Mac. • Microphone & Speech Recognition — only when you dictate by voice; transcription runs on-device. • Photos — only if you choose to attach an image to send to your Mac. GETTING STARTED Install the free TermBridge menu-bar app on your Mac, scan the QR code once, approve on the Mac, and your terminals are with you everywhere. No SSH keys, no ports to forward, no servers to rent. Learn more at https://termbridge.clovinyx.io Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

a4 screens
TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: a at none against TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro's 3. a also leads on ratings volume (124 vs 1) and chart position (#34 vs unranked). TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.6) and review sentiment (100% vs 77%). On price, update cadence, ads 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. TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. a asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: a has 124 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 77% of a's written reviews are positive against 100% of TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

a ships an update every 2 weeks, TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 13, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
a versus TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteraTermBridge Remote Terminal Pro
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (124 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Positive reviews77.4% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings124 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#34 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size380 MB53 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperNicolas HolzschuchClovinyx

Customer experience

a

All ratings124 ratings
Positive89.5%
Neutral3.2%
Negative7.3%
Written reviews93 reviews
Positive77.4%
Neutral6.5%
Negative16.1%

TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

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

TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

a

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro

Subscriptions2
  • TermBridge Pro$3.991 Month
  • TermBridge Pro$29.991 Year
One-time1
  • TermBridge Pro Lifetime$79.99

Questions

Is a free?
a is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro free?
TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, a or TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro?
TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro is rated higher. a averages 4.6 out of 5 from 124 ratings, while TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro averages 5.0 from 1 ratings.
Do a or TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro have ads?
Neither a nor TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro shows ads.
Which is updated more often, a or TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro?
a ships an update every 2 weeks, and TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro every 10 days. Most recently, a was updated on November 13, 2026 and TermBridge Remote Terminal Pro on October 31, 2026.

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