Comparison

rootshell vs MT

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

rootshell

This app provides a powerful, desktop-class terminal emulator with GPU acceleration and native support for SSH, Mosh, and tssh. It offers features like system-wide VPN over SSH, native Git integration, and AI assistance for hands-free command execution and web searches.

Highlights
  • GPU-accelerated terminal
  • Native SSH and Mosh support
  • System-wide VPN over SSH
  • Native Git client
  • AI voice and text agents
  • Cloud and Kubernetes integration
  • Hardware security key support
Read full description

rootshell is a desktop-class terminal emulator built on libghostty — the GPU-accelerated engine behind the Ghostty desktop terminal. A local shell on every platform, Mac screen sharing, native SSH, mosh-compatible roaming, tssh, system-wide VPN, native git, and Metal rendering in a single app. NEW: SCREEN SHARING Reach your Mac's screen, not just its shell, from your iPhone or iPad. High Performance mode streams up to 4K at 60 FPS, fully encrypted. Match Client sizing spins up a virtual display sized exactly to your device: no panning, no letterboxing, with remote system audio. Standard VNC mode covers Linux and headless machines, and tunnels over SSH jump hosts. Nothing to install on the Mac — turn on Screen Sharing and connect. Touch, trackpad, hardware keyboard, and two-way clipboard all work, in tabs, splits, or full screen. METAL-ACCELERATED TERMINAL Built on libghostty's Zig core with direct Metal rendering. Smooth scrolling, zero-flicker synchronized output, and full mouse capture for tmux, vim, and zellij. Tabs, split panes, and persistent scrollback across app restarts. THREE REMOTE PROTOCOLS, ONE APP • SSH — Native Swift SSH client with Ed25519, ECDSA, RSA, and post-quantum ML-KEM + ML-DSA. Jump hosts, port and agent forwarding, and Keychain password storage. • Rootshell Roam — Mosh-compatible sessions survive network changes and app restarts. Multipath TCP bonds WiFi and cellular. Predictive local echo keeps typing responsive. STUN-based NAT traversal punches through firewalls. • tssh with QUIC (TLS 1.3) and KCP transport for lower latency, full native scrollback, and session resumption. NATIVE TMUX INTEGRATION Attach in control mode (tmux -CC) and tmux windows become native tabs, panes become real splits — copy, search, and scroll with native gestures. A dashboard shows live window previews, and tabs survive restarts over tssh. SSH VPN Turn any SSH or tssh session into a system-wide VPN. Route all device traffic through your remote server. No extra software on the server — if you can SSH to it, you can VPN through it. NATIVE GIT Clone, commit, diff, log, blame, rebase, cherry-pick, and worktree — in native Swift with SSH transport. Syntax-highlighted pager output and optional AI-generated commit messages. VOICE AI AGENT Talk to an always-on assistant over Gemini Live. It reads scrollback, runs SSH commands hands-free, searches the web, and asks permission before anything risky. OPTIONAL TEXT AI Chat with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or 400+ models via OpenRouter. Bring your own API key. HARDWARE SECURITY KEYS Private keys never leave hardware. FIDO2/WebAuthn authentication with touch-to-sign. SANDBOXED LOCAL SHELL A full local shell with vim 9.1, Helix, SFTP, SCP, curl, jq, mtr, and standard Unix utilities. The rf browser offers yazi-style miller columns with image previews and git indicators. croc peer-to-peer file transfer, flag-aware tab completion, and prompt themes. CLOUD & KUBERNETES Connect to AWS, Azure, DigitalOcean, Akamai (Linode), and Tailscale. Browse instances, access serial consoles, generate EKS kubeconfigs, and debug Kubernetes nodes with ephemeral pods. 450+ THEMES & VISUAL EFFECTS Over 450 color themes with location-based day/night switching. Animated backgrounds — solar, ocean waves, starfields, fireflies — plus Shadertoy-compatible shaders and custom fonts. CUSTOMIZABLE TOOLBAR Drag, reorder, and hide 45+ built-in keys. Create custom keys that send text, key combos, or sequences. Sticky modifiers with tap and double-tap lock. Separate iPhone and iPad layouts. CONNECTION MANAGEMENT Save profiles with folders, tags, and iCloud sync. Quick Connect autocompletes from history and cloud instances. Background SSH tunnels with auto-start. Siri Shortcuts integration. KEYBOARD POWER FEATURES QMK-style mod-tap keys, dictation and CJK input, customizable shortcuts, and Option key as Alt for international layouts.

About

MT

This app provides a mobile terminal experience for developers, integrating with AI coding agents to send push notifications for approvals. It offers robust SSH and Mosh connectivity, enhanced iPad functionality with keyboard support, and customizable themes for a personalized workflow.

Highlights
  • AI coding agent integration with push notifications
  • SSH and Mosh connectivity
  • External keyboard and trackpad support on iPad
  • Multi-pane tmux layouts
  • Customizable themes and fonts
  • Secure SSH key storage in iOS Keychain
Features
Read full description

Never miss a Claude Code prompt again. Ever stepped away from your Mac, checked your phone, and realized Claude Code had been waiting for you to approve a change for 20 minutes? That's the frustration MT fixes. MT - Mosh Terminal is the mobile companion for Claude Code, Codex, and AI coding agents. The moment your agent needs input, a push notification reaches your iPhone. Tap it — MT instantly resumes the exact tmux session over rock-solid Mosh. Not just SSH — a pro terminal for mobile developers. With an external keyboard, iPad becomes a Mac-level terminal experience. CLAUDE CODE INTEGRATION • System-level push notifications via Claude Code and Codex CLI hooks • Task completion and permission requests reach your iPhone and Apple Watch instantly • Tap a notification → MT auto-resumes the exact tmux session (host, user, and session name are matched automatically) • Paste two hook entries and you're done — no CLAUDE.md hacks • Self-hosted push relay supported — no vendor lock-in CONNECT ANYWHERE • SSH — Secure shell connections to any remote server • Mosh — Mobile-optimized sessions that survive network changes, Wi-Fi handoffs, and sleep/wake cycles. Your session stays alive, even on the subway • Automatic SSH fallback when Mosh UDP is blocked • Configurable connection timeout and quick-connect mode POWERFUL ON IPAD • Stage Manager multi-window support — resize and run multiple terminals side by side • External keyboard, mouse, and trackpad support • Multi-pane tmux layouts on the large screen KEYBOARD-FIRST DESIGN • Full keyboard-only operation with Magic Keyboard, split ergonomic boards, or custom ZMK builds • Software key bar auto-minimizes when an external keyboard is detected • Keyboard shortcuts: ⌘1-9 tab switch, ⌘N new connection, ⌘W close, ⌘D split pane • JIS keyboard auto-detection with ¥→\ conversion • Full CJK input: Japanese, Chinese, and Korean IME with inline pre-edit composition ONE-TAP TMUX • Split panes, switch windows, and manage sessions from the bottom action bar • No need to memorize prefix key combos — tmux power, mobile simplicity • Your server's tmux config (prefix key and key bindings) is automatically imported • 15+ built-in actions with customizable ordering and visibility FILE TRANSFER & COMMANDS • SFTP remote browser — walk directories and pick files, no hand-typed paths • SFTP upload and download using the connection profile you are already on • Command Library — save and search frequent commands, insert from the key bar • Custom key bar keys — assign any text or escape sequence you need BEAUTIFUL & CUSTOMIZABLE • Built-in themes: Dracula, Tokyo Night, Gruvbox, Catppuccin, Solarized, and more • Custom fonts: Built-in Menlo, JetBrains Mono. Import your own .ttf/.otf • Pinch-to-zoom font size adjustment SECURE BY DESIGN • SSH keys stored in iOS Keychain, protected by Secure Enclave • Face ID / Touch ID protection for SSH keys • Host key verification (TOFU) with fingerprint display • iCloud Sync with end-to-end encryption (optional, off by default) • No analytics, no tracking, no ads. All data stays on your device GPU-RENDERED • Metal-accelerated terminal rendering powered by Ghostty • Smooth scrolling at 60fps • Touch, trackpad, and mouse scroll support NETWORKING MT connects directly to your servers via SSH (TCP port 22) and Mosh (UDP ports 60000-61000). This app does NOT function as a VPN, proxy, or network tunnel. All connections are direct terminal sessions to servers you configure. Available in English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified & Traditional), and Korean. Requires iOS 18 or later. iPhone and iPad.

Screenshots

rootshell4 screens
MT4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: rootshell at none against MT's 1. rootshell also leads on ratings volume (40 vs 4) and chart position (#158 vs unranked). MT's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 weeks). On price, rating, review sentiment 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. MT sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. rootshell asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.8 for rootshell against 4.8 for MT. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: rootshell has 40 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 94% of rootshell's written reviews are positive against 90% of MT's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

rootshell ships an update every 2 weeks, MT every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
rootshell versus MT: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterrootshellMT
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (40 ratings)4.8 (4 ratings)
Positive reviews93.8% of reviews — better90.0% of reviews
Number of ratings40 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#158 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size344 MB42 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRootshell LLCJaga Studio

Customer experience

rootshell

All ratings40 ratings
Positive95.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews16 reviews
Positive93.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative6.3%

MT

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews10 reviews
Positive90.0%
Neutral10.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

rootshell

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

MT

One-time1
  • MT Pro$14.99

Questions

Is rootshell free?
rootshell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MT free?
MT is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, rootshell or MT?
rootshell and MT are both rated 4.8 out of 5 on the App Store, from 40 and 4 ratings respectively.
Do rootshell or MT have ads?
Neither rootshell nor MT shows ads.
Which is updated more often, rootshell or MT?
rootshell ships an update every 2 weeks, and MT every 3 days. Most recently, rootshell was updated on September 22, 2026 and MT on September 23, 2026.

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