PocketSSH vs ShellPhone
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PocketSSH
This app provides a secure and responsive terminal experience for connecting to remote hosts. It offers multi-host profile management, flexible authentication options, and a mobile shortcut bar for efficient input on touch devices.
- Multi-host profile management
- Password and private key authentication
- Real-time terminal interaction
- Mobile shortcut bar
- Light and dark mode personalization
- Local profile storage
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PocketSSH is a lightweight SSH client built for mobile productivity. It helps you securely connect to remote hosts from your iPhone and work in a responsive terminal experience. Key features: Multi-host profile management: Create, edit, and delete SSH profiles for quick server switching. Flexible authentication: Supports both password login and private key file authentication. Real-time terminal interaction: Run commands with live output in an interactive shell session. Mobile shortcut bar: Built-in ESC, TAB, arrow keys, Ctrl/Alt, common Ctrl combos, and F1–F12 keys for efficient input on touch devices. Personalization options: Light mode, dark mode, and follow-system theme support. Local profile storage: Keep your SSH connection profiles saved locally for daily development and operations tasks. Whether you are a developer, SRE, or IT professional, PocketSSH makes remote server access on mobile simple and efficient.
ShellPhone
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1-month free trial. Try every Pro feature at no cost. Your terminal, in your pocket. NEW: server monitoring with nothing to install — live CPU, RAM, disk and processes on any Linux, macOS or Windows server. ShellPhone is a full-featured SSH client for iPhone, iPad, Mac — one native app, every device. Free to download and use daily. No cloud. No tracking. A genuine xterm terminal and a Termux-style on-screen keyboard with every shell symbol you need. Optional annual subscriptions unlock the power-user features — or get the All-in-one bundle and forget about it. No account, ever. FREE — your daily SSH client • Quick Connect, no signup • Multi-tab terminal · true colour · UTF-8 · unlimited scrollback • SFTP browser with streaming downloads • Command history search • Natural-language snippet search (cht.sh) • SSH key import (encrypted in keychain) • Host-key trust (TOFU) • App lock (Face ID / Touch ID / fingerprint / PIN) • 5 themes · 9 languages · iTerm2 .itermcolors import • Persist theme, font & language • Hardware keyboard shortcuts • Multi-window on iPad · split panes • End-to-end encrypted Cloud Sync • Encrypted backup · transparent reconnection • Tools: chmod calculator · SSH key generator · bandwidth test • Live server monitor — CPU, RAM, disk, load, processes · no agent (Linux, macOS, Windows) • Jump to recent folders — the terminal learns your cd’s • Crontab builder & explainer — offline • Hashes & checksums (MD5/SHA-1/SHA-256/SHA-512) — offline • Base64 & URL encoders • Password & token generator • MAC vendor lookup — on-device OUI database • Connection groups — folders for saved connections • Built-in glossary — every tool, icon and flow (incl. Multiexec), in 9 languages POWER USER • Save SSH connections • Bulk-import ~/.ssh/config · strict key validation • Save tunnels — LOCAL (-L) + SOCKS5 (-D) • Snippets with {{variables}} • SFTP uploads · auto-sync SFTP • ProxyJump / bastion (ssh -J) · Telnet • Wi-Fi triggers (by SSID) · pubkey agent • Macros — command sequences • Code editor for remote files • Zip / unzip over SFTP • Multitail — follow several remote logs • Remote SQLite browser • SFTP file management (rename, mkdir, chmod) • Search the scrollback · extract URLs · session recording · live latency • Fleet — every server at a glance · 24h on-device history · threshold alerts • tmux auto-attach per connection — reconnect and re-attach after network changes • Paste an image: SFTP upload to /tmp, path lands in your prompt • Dev-server preview — local tunnel + browser • JWT decoder — header, claims, expiry • Checksum of remote files over SSH • Format converter — JSON, YAML, TOML and XML • Multiexec — a dedicated tab: type once, reach several SSH sessions • Per-connection VPN — import a WireGuard config and that connection tunnels through it; userspace, no system-wide VPN, no TUN NETWORK TOOLS • Wake on LAN • TCP Ping (latency, jitter, loss) • DNS lookup (A/AAAA/MX/TXT/NS/CNAME/SOA/PTR) · Reverse DNS · Whois • Subnet scanner · port scanner • TLS cert inspector (fingerprints + expiry alerts) • HTTP / curl tester • iperf3 client (TCP/UDP) • Multi-host send • SSH over HTTP CONNECT proxy · remote port forward (ssh -R) • Subnet calculator — CIDR, mask, wildcard, usable range • Timestamp converter — Unix, ISO-8601, time zones • UUID v4 and ULID generator REMOTE DESKTOP • VNC viewer (RFC 6143) — RealVNC, x11vnc, macOS Screen Sharing, Raspberry Pi • Pinch-zoom up to 10× · drag-pan • Raw + CopyRect encodings · VNC password auth ALL-IN-ONE • Power user + Network tools + Remote desktop together, at a discount Annual auto-renewable subscriptions, cancel anytime. No analytics SDKs, no third-party tracking; your keys stay in the OS keychain. Terms of Use (EULA): https://shellphone.sggyamg.com/terms/ Privacy Policy: https://shellphone.sggyamg.com/privacy/
Screenshots
Verdict
PocketSSH and ShellPhone are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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. PocketSSH sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and ShellPhone sells 4 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PocketSSH ships an update every 5 days, ShellPhone every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 16, 2026 and October 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PocketSSH | ShellPhone |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days — better | Every 9 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 18 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 利龙 张 | Antonio Martinez Gimeno |
In-app purchases
PocketSSH
- PocketSSH Pro$0.99
ShellPhone
- Power user$1.991 Year
- Network tools$1.991 Year
- Remote desktop$3.991 Year
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- All-in-one$5.991 Year









