Blink Shell, Build & Code vs Nerd Font Installer
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Blink Shell, Build & Code
Transform your iOS device into a powerful terminal for coding and development. Leverage Mosh and SSH for stable, fast connections. Integrate with VS Code and manage your entire development workflow from your pocket.
- Mosh and SSH connections
- VS Code integration (Blink Code)
- Remote runtime creation (Blink Build)
- Full SSH toolset
- Hardware keyboard support
- External display support
- SFTP transfers
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Do Blink! Transform your iOS device into a pro-grade terminal. Blink is the first professional, desktop-grade terminal for iOS that leverages the support of Mosh and SSH. Thus, we can guarantee stable connections, crazy-fast speeds, and full configurations. It can and should be your all-day-long tool. **Start your 14-day free trial now!** But, Blink is much more. Now with Blink Code and Blink Build**, your entire development workflow fits in your pocket. What the Blink community is saying: “In some ways, I prefer my iPad / Blink / Digital Ocean setup to coding on my Mac“ - TheVerge "I have tried a number of terminals on iOS and this is really The One." - Twit.tv “Connections still come up when I get back to a client project after a weekend off.“ - The Sweet Setup “The way to use VS Code on the iPad” - programminglife.io What our users love the most from Blink Shell: - Mosh connections that even survive a device reboot. - Most complete SSH implementation on iOS. - Code command for VS Code integration. - Blazingly fast terminal and SFTP transfers. - Includes Pragmata Pro with ligatures. Blink Shell has a fully loaded SSH toolset: - SSH with PKI support: DSA, RSA, ECDSA & ED25519 keys. - Support for Secure Enclave Keys and Certificates. - Port forwarding with local, remote & dynamic tunnel support. - SOCKS5 proxy for a private VPN. - Agent Forwarding. - Complete SSH Config file support. - ControlMaster and pooled connections. - Files.app integration for SFTP remote hosts. - SFTP with copy-on-change. Blink has been the leading developer tool in the AppStore for +5 years, so there is a lot more: - External Display support. - Legendary Hardware Keyboard support, even remap shortcuts and keyboard codes. - Local & iCloud Blink Shell folders for Files.app access across devices. - Host sync over iCloud. - Link-files from other applications and work with them in Blink. - Cool themes and fonts, and install your own! - Smart Keys on SW Keyboard to navigate with touch. - FaceCam command to create tutorials and streams. - Bell notifications. - Supports multiple windows and multiple tabs. - Network & UNIX CLI tools, check our docs for more information. Blink Code integrates with VS Code: - Code on local projects, or seamlessly on remote machines. - Fully-loaded code editor. - A coding experience fitted to your device, that connects to VS Code for web, GitHub Codespaces, GitPod or your own VS Code server. Blink Build (Requires a $7.99/month subscription) Creates remote runtimes that can be accessed on all your devices. You can use Build in your day-to-day workflows whether you need to do development, DevOps or just play around with new tooling. Participate in our community, and don’t forget to leave us your feedback and your feature(s) requests. Enjoy! http://blink.sh http://twitter.com/blinkshell http://GitHub.com/blinksh Terms of Use: https://blink.sh/blink-gpl Privacy Policy: https://blink.sh/pp * Blink Code is not affiliated nor endorsed by Microsoft. ** Blink Build requires a separate subscription to make use of our Virtual Machines.
Nerd Font Installer
Install custom coding fonts with extensive glyphs on your Apple devices. Browse a catalog of popular families, preview ligatures and icons, and install directly through the system. Enjoy a private experience with no accounts or analytics.
- Install custom coding fonts
- Browse extensive font catalog
- Preview glyphs, ligatures, and icons
- System-wide font installation
- No accounts or analytics
- One-time purchase for full access
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Nerd Font Installer puts your terminal and coding fonts on iPhone, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro. Browse the catalog, preview the real glyphs, and install through the system's own consent sheet. No account. No analytics. Your data never leaves your device. THE CATALOG JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Hack, Cascadia Code, Iosevka, Monaspace, Zed Mono, OpenDyslexic, and the rest of the canon. The app ships the complete catalog, and each family is patched with the full Nerd Fonts glyph set, so Powerline arrows, Font Awesome, Material Design, Devicons, Octicons, and Weather icons render instead of showing tofu. The grid reads like a periodic table: every family gets a tile with its own designation, drawn in the font itself. PREVIEWS THAT TELL THE TRUTH Previews are rendered live in the real font: programming ligatures, Powerline segments, and syntax-highlighted code samples, alongside every icon set. What you see is what your prompt gets. THE INSTALL Installation goes through the font support Apple builds into iOS. iOS draws its own consent sheet, you approve it, and the font is available system-wide: in your terminal, your editor, wherever fonts are picked. Nothing installs behind your back, and removing a font is just as direct. AFTER THE INSTALL A quickstart shows where your new font turns up in the terminal and editor apps you already run, including the ones that keep their own font lists, and it coaches the exact family name to pick. FREE FOR MOST PEOPLE One font is free, and one is what most setups need. Installing more is a single one-time purchase. No subscription. Buy it once, keep it for good, and share it with your family. PRIVACY Nerd Font Installer has no user accounts and ships no analytics, telemetry, or advertising SDKs. There is no tracking SDK in it because there is no tracking. The privacy policy is short enough to actually read. CREDITS The fonts belong to their designers and to the Nerd Fonts project. Every family ships under its own open-source license, readable in the app. I built the installer; they built the fonts. Built by Rimrock Systems in Payson, Arizona.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Nerd Font Installer at 5.0 against Blink Shell, Build & Code's 3.1. Blink Shell, Build & Code's advantage is ratings volume (425 vs 1) and chart position (#13 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. Blink Shell, Build & Code sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $7.99 per month and Nerd Font Installer sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
Nerd Font Installer holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Blink Shell, Build & Code has 425 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Blink Shell, Build & Code ships an update every 3 weeks, Nerd Font Installer every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Blink Shell, Build & Code | Nerd Font Installer |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 3.1 (425 ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 36.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 425 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #13 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.6 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 211 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Blink Shell, Inc | Joseph Jones |
In-app purchases
Blink Shell, Build & Code
- Build Basic - 50 credits/month1 Month trial$7.991 Month
- Blink+Build Basic7 Days trial$9.991 Month
- Blink Plus$19.991 Year
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- Blink+14 Days trial$19.991 Year
- Blink Shell ClassicFree
Nerd Font Installer
- Unlock All Fonts$3.99
Questions
Is Blink Shell, Build & Code free?
Is Nerd Font Installer free?
Which has better reviews, Blink Shell, Build & Code or Nerd Font Installer?
Do Blink Shell, Build & Code or Nerd Font Installer have ads?
Which is updated more often, Blink Shell, Build & Code or Nerd Font Installer?
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