rootshell vs Fin
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.
Fin
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Fin is a terminal agent you can talk to. It connects to your computers, reads what is on their screens, and gets work done — by voice or by text — from your iPhone or iPad. SSH TERMINALS, DIRECT OR THROUGH THE RELAY • A real terminal: tmux-friendly reconnects, a dedicated key row, custom themes, and an instant resume that has your session on screen when you reopen the app • Connect over SSH straight to your server, or through Fin's relay, which carries the same terminal over HTTPS for computers behind a firewall or on a network where you can't open a port. Nothing to forward, no VPN • SSH keys import from Files or iCloud and are held in the Keychain REMOTE DESKTOP AND REMOTE BROWSER • Watch and control a computer's screen from your phone or iPad: tap, scroll, type, and use modifier keys • Or open just the browser your agent is driving, so you can sign in or approve a two-factor prompt yourself and hand it back • Each session opens behind Face ID or your passcode, and each computer opts in on its own A PERSISTENT AGENT, BY VOICE OR TEXT • Ask by voice: "Ask Fin whether the overnight build finished" — through Siri, or by dictating in the app. Fin reads the terminal, answers in a sentence, and offers the next step • It keeps working after you put the phone down: it watches long tasks, replies when there is a result, and only interrupts you when a decision needs a human • Run it where you want: Apple's on-device intelligence, Fin's cloud, or any model server you host yourself that speaks the standard chat-completions API (LM Studio, Ollama, vLLM) • Manual mode holds every command for your approval, and a destructive-command guard is always on • It remembers what you teach it, and every run, tool call, and approval is in a trace you can read FILES AND CLIPBOARD • A clipboard manager built for terminal work, and Markdown runbooks that live beside your sessions FIN PRO Try everything free for 14 days. After the trial, Fin Pro is an annual subscription or a one-time lifetime purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the period, and you can manage or cancel it in your Apple Account settings. Remote Desktop and Remote Browser need Fin's small background service on the computer you want to reach (macOS, with Screen Recording and Accessibility permission for the desktop). Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://fin.africanintellect.ai/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is chart position: rootshell at #186 against Fin's unranked. Fin's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
rootshell ships an update fortnightly, Fin weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | rootshell | Fin |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (53 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 91.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 53 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #186 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 376 MB | 15 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rootshell LLC | Levi Schoen |
In-app purchases
rootshell
No in-app purchases
Fin
No in-app purchases









