rootshell vs Cmux Remote
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
Cmux Remote
Control your cmux terminal sessions remotely from your mobile device. Interact with running processes, manage workspaces, and send commands securely over your private network. Ideal for developers who need to monitor or control their development machines while away from their desk.
- Live cmux surface mirroring
- Keyboard accessory controls
- Mouse passthrough support
- Local notifications
- Workspace and surface switching
- Pinch-to-zoom font sizing
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Cmux Remote is a private remote-control client for the cmux terminal multiplexer running on your own computer. Connect over your Tailscale network — your traffic never touches a third-party relay. WHAT IT IS Cmux (https://cmux.com) is a modern terminal multiplexer with native splits, workspaces, and rich integrations for AI agents like Claude Code, Codex, omx, and Cursor. Cmux Remote mirrors the cmux surface you choose, lets you type into it, send keys, manage workspaces, upload photos and documents, preview images, and receive notifications — all from this mobile app. WHO IT IS FOR - Developers who run long-lived agents such as Claude Code, Codex, and omx and want to check or control them away from their desk - People who access their own development machine remotely and want a focused terminal experience - Anyone already using Tailscale and looking for a private way to reach their terminal HOW IT WORKS 1. Install the open-source cmux-relay binary on the computer that runs cmux. 2. Make sure that computer is connected to Tailscale. 3. Open this app, enter the computer’s Tailscale hostname, and tap Connect. 4. Your cmux workspaces appear. Select a surface and start working. The relay communicates directly with cmux through its local Unix socket. This app communicates with the relay over a WireGuard-encrypted Tailscale tunnel. Nothing leaves your private network. FEATURES - Performance-tuned live mirroring of cmux terminal surfaces with Korean/CJK width support, an opaque-black viewport, and ANSI truecolor - Long-press drag selection with adjustable handles and one-tap copy - Keyboard accessory controls for Esc, Enter, Tab, arrows, Ctrl-C, other Ctrl combinations, /new, and Space - Keyboard-safe command layout with automatic dismissal after sending and an inline scroll-to-bottom control - Paste text and securely upload photos or documents to Downloads/cmux-remote - Browse recent uploads and terminal-visible files with image thumbnails and a full-screen zoom viewer - Local notifications and a native Inbox for cmux events and AI-agent needs-input prompts - Create, rename, and close workspaces and switch between multiple surfaces - Connected computer battery status when provided by the relay - Pinch-to-zoom terminal font sizing - Demo Mode with populated sample data so you can try the app before setting up a relay PRIVACY No analytics. No advertising. No third-party tracking SDKs. The bearer token issued by your relay is stored only in secure credential storage on your device. Source code and privacy details: https://github.com/NewTurn2017/cmux-remote REQUIREMENTS - A personal computer running cmux 0.64 or later and cmux-relay - Both devices signed in to the same Tailscale tailnet - iOS 17 or later Cmux Remote is open source under the MIT license. Issues and pull requests are welcome.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: rootshell at 4.8 against Cmux Remote's 4.5. rootshell also leads on ratings volume (45 vs 2) and chart position (#178 vs unranked). Cmux Remote's advantage is review sentiment (100% vs 90%). 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.
rootshell holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: rootshell has 45 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 90% of rootshell's written reviews are positive against 100% of Cmux Remote's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
rootshell ships an update fortnightly, Cmux Remote every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | rootshell | Cmux Remote |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.8 (45 ratings) — better | 4.5 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 45 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #178 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 364 MB | 5 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rootshell LLC | jaehyun jang |
Customer experience
rootshell
Cmux Remote
In-app purchases
rootshell
No in-app purchases
Cmux Remote
No in-app purchases









