Comparison

rootshell vs Framehound

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

Framehound

Read full description

Framehound opens .pcap and .pcapng captures and analyses them on your device. You're in a wiring closet or on a customer site, something is broken, you have a capture, and your laptop is somewhere else. Framehound is for that moment: built for touch, and built on the assumption that you want an answer before a packet list. ANALYSIS, NOT JUST A PACKET LIST Open a capture and it has already been analysed. Nobody presses "analyse." • Overview — a health score with ranked, tappable issues, headline metrics, protocol mix and top talkers • Conversations — every exchange, named from what it actually is: TLS SNI, HTTP Host or Bonjour service. TCP flows carry handshake RTT, retransmissions, duplicate ACKs, zero-window events and how the connection closed • Hosts and VLANs — inventory with vendor resolution and drill-downs • Expert findings — severity-ranked results from the rule engine, each traceable to the packets behind it • Packets — the full list with a layer tree and hex dump TYPE THE FILTER YOU ALREADY KNOW Display filters work the way your muscle memory expects: ip.addr == 192.168.1.1 && tcp.flags.reset == 1. Every chart mark, table row, ladder arrow and finding carries the filter that produced it — tap it and that expression lands on an editable breadcrumb you can peel back one term at a time. MARK IT WHILE YOU'RE LOOKING AT IT Mark a packet, colour it, write on it. Note a conversation, a host or a finding. Annotations export back out as pcapng comments, so a capture annotated on an iPad opens in a desktop tool with the notes attached. FRAMEHOUND PRO An optional upgrade adding the specialist analysis: • Wireless analysis — frame-type mix, band and channel utilisation, retry rate, RSSI and SNR distribution, PHY generation mix • APs & Clients — beacon and AP inventory with information-element inspection, client capabilities inferred from probe requests, association sessions • Roaming analysis — 802.11r, k and v exchanges, roam events with their timing, and sticky-client verdicts • VoIP analysis — call setup and media quality end to end, MOS, jitter and loss per leg, and a timeline showing when audio broke • Protocol-aware ladders — SIP, TLS, DHCP, DNS, TCP and Wi-Fi association ladders with labelled messages, status codes and round-trip times • Guided investigations — pick a symptom and Framehound runs the checks in order, shows pass or fail with evidence, and names the next thing to look at • Apple Intelligence briefs — a plain-language read of the capture, what the findings mean together, and questions answered, entirely on device (requires an Apple Intelligence device) • Capture comparison — diff two captures to see what changed between a working state and a broken one • Report export — Markdown, PDF, annotated PCAPNG and filter lists, so what you found leaves as something a ticket can hold • Cloud import — pull captures straight from Cisco Meraki, Juniper Mist and Link-Live, with no laptop in the middle Pro is available monthly, annually with a 7-day free trial, or as a one-time purchase including all 1.x updates. PRIVACY Analysis is always on device. No account, no telemetry, no background sync. Networking exists in exactly two places, both off unless you turn them on and both user-initiated every time: pulling a specific capture from an integration you configured, and an opt-in local upload server that accepts one paired file push from another device. Apple Intelligence runs on-device and sees only a few hundred tokens of payload-free summary statistics. Packet payloads never reach the model. WHAT IT IS NOT It does not capture traffic — iOS cannot. It reads capture files you already have. It does not decrypt: pcapng Decryption Secrets Blocks are surfaced so you know they're there, and never used. GETTING CAPTURES IN Import from Files, use the share sheet from any app, drag and drop on iPad and Mac, or drop a file into On My iPhone → Framehound. Three sample captures are built in, so you can see it work first.

Screenshots

rootshell4 screens
Framehound4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: rootshell at none against Framehound's 3. rootshell also leads on chart position (#183 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (18.0 vs 26.0). Framehound's advantage is update cadence (every 5 days vs fortnightly) and device support (4 vs 2). On price 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. Framehound sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. rootshell asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

rootshell ships an update fortnightly, Framehound every 5 days. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
rootshell versus Framehound: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterrootshellFramehound
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (49 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews90.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings49 — better—
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#183 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS18.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size379 MB26 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRootshell LLCmobiadroit, llc

In-app purchases

None

rootshell

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Framehound

Subscriptions2
  • Framehound Pro Monthly$12.991 Month
  • Framehound Pro Annual7 Days trial$99.991 Year
One-time1
  • Framehound Pro — One-Time Purchase$249.99

Questions

Is rootshell free?
rootshell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Framehound free?
Framehound is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do rootshell or Framehound have ads?
Neither rootshell nor Framehound shows ads.
Which is updated more often, rootshell or Framehound?
rootshell ships an update fortnightly, and Framehound every 5 days. Most recently, rootshell was updated on October 25, 2026 and Framehound on October 25, 2026.

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