Comparison

Doufu vs JS Shell

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

Head to head
About

Doufu

Features
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Doufu is a local HTML project viewer and editor for iPhone. Create, organize, and preview HTML, CSS, and JavaScript projects directly on your device. Each project runs in a sandboxed local web server. You can browse files, edit code, and see changes instantly in the built-in preview โ€” all without an internet connection. PROJECT MANAGEMENT Create multiple projects, each with its own file structure. Doufu provides a file browser, syntax-highlighted editor, and live preview. Import and export projects as .doufu or .doufull archives. VERSION HISTORY Changes are automatically tracked with Git checkpoints. Browse your edit history and restore to any previous version at any time. LLM INTEGRATION (OPTIONAL) Connect your own LLM service to assist with code editing through a chat interface. You need to provide your own API key or log in with your account. Doufu does not include any built-in LLM service and is not affiliated with any provider. API usage fees are charged by the respective service providers. DEVICE CAPABILITIES Projects can request access to device features such as camera, microphone, location, clipboard, and photo library. Each capability is controlled independently per project โ€” you decide what each project can access. PRIVACY All project files, data, and conversations are stored locally on your device. Nothing is uploaded to any external server. ----------- EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

JS Shell

Features
Read full description

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 โ€” from WebRTC to Geolocation โ€” 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

Doufu4 screens
JS Shell3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: JS Shell at 17.0 against Doufu's 26.0. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

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

Scorecard1 real difference ยท 5 level
Doufu versus JS Shell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDoufuJS Shell
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysโ€”
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size32 MB6 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperZIZICICI LIMITEDJowb Inc.

In-app purchases

None

Doufu

No in-app purchases

None

JS Shell

No in-app purchases

Questions

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

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