HTML Viewer vs JS Shell
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
HTML Viewer
Write, preview, and debug HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly on your iPhone or iPad. Offers live updates, developer tools, and project organization. Learn coding with interactive courses and access over 80 templates.
- Live HTML, CSS, JavaScript preview
- Integrated developer tools
- Project organization with favorites and tags
- Learn HTML, CSS, JavaScript with quizzes
- Offline editing and preview
- Sync projects with iCloud
- Edit files on server via SSH/SFTP
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The HTML viewer and editor for iPhone and iPad. Write, preview and debug HTML, CSS and JavaScript, sync your projects with iCloud and edit files right on your server. No computer needed. Type and watch your page update live, test it on phone, tablet and desktop sizes, then fix problems with real DevTools and one-tap tools. FREE FOR EVERYONE • Code editor with syntax highlighting • Live preview, side by side with your code in Split view • 3 projects, plus any file you open from Files or share from another app • 80+ templates: full-screen games, daily-life mini apps and websites • Favorites and tags to keep your projects organised • Your Activity: your whole year of coding at a glance • Open URL: load any website, view its source and save it as a project • Learn: a free HTML, CSS and JavaScript course in every app language, with quizzes, challenges, a certificate and an optional daily reminder • Try autocomplete, code formatting and find & replace for free • 20+ everyday tools: colour picker, contrast checker, QR codes, regex tester and more • Light and dark editor themes and 10 fonts • Widgets, Siri, Shortcuts, Spotlight and Control Center • No ads GO PRO FOR THE FULL TOOLKIT • Unlimited projects and tabs, with the Files sidebar for every file in a project • Open a folder from Files and edit it in place • Sync projects between iPhone and iPad with iCloud • A built-in SSH terminal, plus SFTP and FTP to edit files on your server • Console, Network, Elements and Storage DevTools for your page or any website • Autocomplete for tags, classes, CSS properties and file paths, plus the full symbol row • Format code exactly the way you like it • Line numbers, page guide and other editor display options • Device frames: iPhone, iPad and desktop sizes • 50 tools: SEO, accessibility and performance audits with one-tap fixes, Colour Studio, Image Studio with background removal • Local Web Server: open your page on any device on your Wi-Fi with a QR code • Export as ZIP, PDF or a single file, and share your projects • Every theme and font, and new app icons to choose from MADE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD • iPad layout with a tab bar, project grid and keyboard shortcuts • Made for iPhone Duo, folded or open • Run your page full screen, with a Focus mode that hides everything else • Customise the editor, keyboard, preview and more in Settings • Preview Markdown and JSON as well as HTML • Archive keeps deleted files for 30 days • Editing and preview work offline • Available in 33 languages WHO IT'S FOR Students learning to code, hobbyists building small sites and games, and developers who need to fix a page or a server file away from their desk. PRO PLANS Choose an auto-renewing subscription or a one-time Lifetime purchase. A free trial may be available on subscriptions for new subscribers. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple ID settings. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. Lifetime is a single payment with no renewal. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://attractive-basket-ce6.notion.site/Privacy-Policy-Html-Editor-30d5cd442d3280b49b72e9a2436c853e
JS Shell
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JS Shell is a pocket-sized developer console that lets you write, run, and test web code (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) directly on iOS and macOS. No Xcode, no laptop, no remote server. Paste a page in, tap run, and it loads in a real WKWebView served from a local HTTP origin. A real secure-context origin on iOS, so modern web APIs — from WebRTC to Geolocation — behave the way they should. KEY FEATURES Local HTTP server. An in-process server bound to the loopback interface. Provides a real secure-context origin so modern Web APIs work out of the box. Not reachable from outside the device. JavaScript REPL. A full JavaScript runtime backed by JavaScriptCore. Type js to enter the REPL. console.log, fetch, setTimeout, setInterval, Promises, and async await are all available. Real Promises, real microtasks, real JSON parsing, real URL parsing. Geolocation support. Test navigator.geolocation on a real iOS device. Permissions are handled by the system, just like Safari. Useful for validating location-based web features without deploying to a server. Persistent file system. Files you paste live in your Documents directory and survive app restarts. Each downloaded package gets its own directory. iCloud backup picks them up like any other app data. SQLite key-value store. A real B-tree on disk via SQLite. Read and write from your pages with same-origin fetch. No CORS configuration required. curl. A subset of curl built on URLSession. The flags X, H, d, i, I, o, A, m, v are supported. Pretty-prints JSON responses and saves binary blobs to the virtual filesystem. Archive extraction. In-process tar, tar.gz, tgz, gz, and zip extraction. No shelling out. Download a release tarball with curl, extract it, and run it immediately. Voice commands. Tap the mic, speak a command. Apple Speech framework converts speech to text. Auto-submits on detected silence. Voice commands are saved to the scripts list for one-tap re-run. Saved scripts. Save any sequence of commands as a named script. One-tap to re-run later. Voice-recognized commands are auto-saved to the scripts list for instant replay. Mac Catalyst support. Runs natively on macOS as a Mac Catalyst app. Multi-window, resizable, fullscreen-capable. The same code that runs on your iPhone runs on your Mac. DESIGNED FOR DEVELOPERS JS Shell is a tool for people who want to test web code on a real iOS device without installing Xcode, syncing files, or setting up a tunnel. It is especially useful for: Testing geolocation, camera, and microphone permission flows on iOS. Validating fetch, CORS, and cookie behavior on a real iPhone. Building small offline web tools that need persistent state. Running JavaScript snippets without opening Safari Inspector. Debugging mobile rendering edge cases on the device itself. PRIVACY JS Shell does not collect any user data. There is no telemetry, no ads, no analytics, no third-party SDKs, no remote configuration. Everything you type, paste, or download stays on your device. The local HTTP server only listens on the loopback interface and is not reachable from any network. The app forwards camera, microphone, speech recognition, and location permissions to web pages you load, exactly like Safari does on macOS. The first time a page tries to use them, iOS shows the standard system permission prompt. The first time a page tries to use them, iOS shows the standard system permission prompt.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: JS Shell at none against HTML Viewer's 9. HTML Viewer's advantage is chart position (#50 vs unranked). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. HTML Viewer sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. JS Shell asks for nothing beyond the download.
| Parameter | HTML Viewer | JS Shell |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (106 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 82.9% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 106 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 4 weeks | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Best chart rank | #50 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 170 MB | 6 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Hardik Khanesa | Jowb Inc. |
In-app purchases
HTML Viewer
- Student Monthly Subscription3 Days trial$2.991 Month
- Monthly Subscription$2.991 Month
- Monthly Subscription$4.991 Month
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- Yearly Subscription3 Days trial$9.991 Year
- Yearly Subscription$19.991 Year
- Student Offer Lifetime$9.99
- Student Lifetime Offer$14.99
- Lifetime$19.99
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- Lifetime$29.99
JS Shell
No in-app purchases









