a vs NameTheory
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
Read full descriptionHide 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.
NameTheory
This app assists developers and creators in brainstorming unique names and checking their availability across web domains and social media handles. It leverages AI to generate variations and offers domain alerts, all while prioritizing user privacy with on-device processing.
- AI-powered name generation
- Web domain availability search
- Social media handle availability search
- Domain alerts
- On-device AI processing
- Private data storage
Read full descriptionHide full description
NameTheory is a name generation and search tool for developers and creators. NameTheory uses AI to help you brainstorm name ideas and instantly looks up available web domains for those names and variations of them. All you have to do is add a few starter words that you like and NameTheory will suggest more words matching your theme and look up variations of all your words for available web domains across dozens of top-level domains like .com, .app, .ai and many more. Features: - Automatically searches available domains across hundreds of top-level domains for your names - Set up domain alerts to be notified if a domain becomes available - Uses AI to generates variations of your names and searches for their availability - Tries common "domain hacks" to find available names (getname.com, nameapp.com, getna.me, etc.) - Displays pricing for available domains - Searches App Store for similar names - Searches Instagram, TikTok, BlueSky, X/Twitter, Reddit, and GitHub for available handles - No AI subscription required, everything runs on your device using Apple's on-device AI - All your data is private and stored locally on your device or synced via your iCloud account
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: NameTheory at free against a's paid. NameTheory also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.6). a's advantage is ratings volume (120 vs 1) and chart position (#47 vs unranked). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
NameTheory holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: a has 120 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | a | NameTheory |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (120 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 120 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks | Every 2 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #47 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 373 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Nicolas Holzschuch | Roshan Choxi |
Customer experience
a
NameTheory
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
NameTheory
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
a
No in-app purchases
NameTheory
No in-app purchases









