rootshell vs Moshpit
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.
Moshpit
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Your coding agents don't stop when you stand up. Moshpit is the terminal that lets you answer them from anywhere — a lock-screen alert the moment an agent needs you that drops you into the pane that asked, a glance at Claude Code or Codex from the Dynamic Island, and a brand-new isolated task started from your phone. A REAL TERMINAL FIRST • SSH and Mosh — sessions that survive Wi-Fi/5G handoffs, sleep, and bad hotel networks • tmux control mode: native rendering, swipe between windows and panes, create/rename/kill — no tiny fake desktop squeezed onto a phone • herdr support: the multiplexer built for coding agents, rendered one full-width pane at a time • iPad: hosts on the left, the terminal on the right, tmux pickers as popovers • Hardware-keyboard friendly — ⌘K, ⌘1–⌘9, ⌘W on iPad — custom themes, seven terminal fonts, nine Liquid Glass icons BUILT FOR AGENT WORK • See every agent at a glance: who needs you, who's working, for how long • Needs-you pings on the lock screen, sealed end to end and delivered even with the app closed — tap one and you are in the pane that asked • Start an agent on a fresh git worktree from your phone: pick a repo, name a branch, optionally hand it the first prompt • Agent status needs ZERO host-side setup on herdr; a one-line hook install on tmux HONEST BY DESIGN • One-time purchase. No subscription, no accounts, no feature tiers. • Nothing is collected. No analytics, no tracking — your keys stay in the iOS Keychain on your device and your traffic goes only to your own servers. • Moshpit never installs anything on your host silently, never creates sessions behind your back, and tells you when it degrades instead of quietly switching transports. Works with any SSH server. Mosh, tmux and herdr are optional — install guides are built in.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: rootshell at Free against Moshpit's $2.99. Moshpit's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly). On ads, in-app purchases, chart position and device support 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
rootshell is free to download; Moshpit costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
rootshell ships an update fortnightly, Moshpit every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | rootshell | Moshpit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $2.99 |
| Rating | 4.8 (47 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 90.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 47 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 3 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #141 — better | #182 |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 379 MB | 65 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rootshell LLC | 文隆 胡 |
In-app purchases
rootshell
No in-app purchases
Moshpit
No in-app purchases









