Comparison

SuperDuper Terminal vs Astra Shell

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

Head to head
About

SuperDuper Terminal

Features
Read full description

SuperDuper Terminal is a small, fast SSH client for iPhone, built for the way people actually work with a remote box from a phone: check on a long-running job, restart a service, answer a prompt from an agent that is still running. WHAT IT DOES • Full SSH terminal with a real PTY — colours, cursor keys, everything a shell expects • tmux sessions by default, so closing the app or losing signal does not kill your work; reconnect and you are exactly where you left off • Multiple servers and multiple live sessions, switchable from a tab strip • A keyboard row built for the command line: Esc, Ctrl, Tab, arrows, pipe and slash — the keys iOS hides from you • Ed25519, ECDSA and RSA keys generated on device and stored in the Keychain, protected by Face ID • Port forwarding for the times you need a remote port on your phone KEYS STAY ON THE DEVICE Private keys are generated on the iPhone and kept in the Keychain, guarded by Face ID or your passcode. They are never uploaded, never synced to us, and there is no account to create. The app talks to your servers and to nobody else — there is no analytics SDK and no backend of ours in the path. BUILT FOR WORKING WITH CODING AGENTS If you run Claude Code or a similar agent on a VPS, the terminal keeps the session alive under tmux and gives you a one-tap way to answer it from your phone. The accessory row includes shortcuts for the keys those tools ask for most. Open source: github.com/fortunto2/swift-terminal

About

Astra Shell

Features
Read full description

Astra Shell is a native terminal client designed for persistent remote work. Traditional remote terminals are tied to the current device and network. When a client restarts, the network disconnects, or you switch devices, you often need to reconnect and find your place again. Astra Shell keeps shells running on a remote host you control, so your Mac, iPhone, and iPad can return to the same terminal and continue from the existing context. Key features: • Persistent remote shells Remote shells and their tasks continue running after the client disconnects. Reconnect to return to an existing terminal. • Continue across devices Open the same shell from Mac, iPhone, or iPad to keep viewing and entering commands. • Native terminal experience Supports common terminal modes, colors, wide characters, alternate screens, mouse input, paged history, and copy and paste. • Remote files Browse remote directories, upload and download files, preview text, view transfer progress, and inspect Git status. • Astra and SSH hosts Connect to a self-hosted Astra service over QUIC/TLS, or use standalone SSH/SFTP mode with a standard server. • Private-key security SSH private keys are stored in Keychain. Host configurations and credentials can synchronize through iCloud Keychain when enabled. Astra mode requires the open-source astrad service on a host you own or manage, with an authorized public key configured. Standard SSH hosts do not require astrad. Installation instructions are available on the support website. Astra Shell contains no advertising or behavioral analytics. It does not send terminal commands, remote files, or SSH private keys to the developer.

Screenshots

SuperDuper Terminal2 screens
Astra Shell4 screens

Verdict

The call

SuperDuper Terminal and Astra Shell are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
SuperDuper Terminal versus Astra Shell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSuperDuper TerminalAstra Shell
PriceFreeFree
Update frequency—Every 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size8 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRustam SALAVATOVēŽ„ ē†Š

In-app purchases

None

SuperDuper Terminal

No in-app purchases

None

Astra Shell

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SuperDuper Terminal free?
SuperDuper Terminal is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Astra Shell free?
Astra Shell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do SuperDuper Terminal or Astra Shell have ads?
Neither SuperDuper Terminal nor Astra Shell shows ads.

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