Hermit SSH vs farcrew
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Hermit SSH
A focused SSH client for developers interacting with AI coding assistants on remote machines. Connect to your dev server, manage tmux sessions, and use configurable soft keys and voice input for efficient command execution.
- SSH connections with ed25519 private key authentication
- Automatic tmux session attach
- Configurable soft key ribbon bar
- Voice input with iOS dictation
- xterm.js terminal rendering
- iCloud Drive sync
- Private keys stored securely in iOS Keychain
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Hermit is a focused SSH client built for developers who work with AI coding assistants on remote machines. Connect to your dev server, attach to tmux sessions, and interact using configurable soft keys and voice input. Unlike general-purpose terminal apps, Hermit is designed around a specific workflow: you have an AI CLI tool running in a tmux session on a remote machine, and you want to monitor and interact with it from your phone. Five soft keys — 1, 2, Enter, Escape, and a microphone — give you everything you need to approve tool calls, reject changes, send commands, and dictate instructions. KEY FEATURES * SSH connections with ed25519 private key authentication * Automatic tmux session attach on connect * Configurable soft key ribbon bar optimized for AI coding workflows * Voice input with iOS dictation — speak your instructions, proofread, and send * xterm.js terminal rendering with proper color and escape code support * Automatic iCloud Drive sync — your hosts and sessions available on all devices * Dark mode interface designed for terminal use * Private keys stored securely in the iOS Keychain BUILT FOR AI CODING WORKFLOWS The default soft keys map directly to common AI CLI approval patterns: 1 — Accept (approve tool calls and edits) 2 — Reject Enter — Confirm multi-line input Escape — Cancel or interrupt Mic — Open voice input for longer instructions OPEN SOURCE Hermit is open source so you can review exactly what runs on your device and how your SSH credentials are handled. No analytics, no tracking, no data collection.
farcrew
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Your agents run on your machine. You watch from your phone. farcrew keeps a terminal session alive on a computer you own - a Mac, a Linux box, a VPS - and puts it in your pocket. Start a long run at your desk, close the lid, and pick it up on the train. Nothing was running on the phone, so nothing stopped. THE LOOP IT WAS BUILT FOR An agent works for twenty minutes, then stops to ask you something. Until you answer, it does nothing. farcrew notices the moment a session starts waiting and tells your phone. You read the question, type the answer, and the run continues. WHAT YOU GET • Every run in one list - waiting first, then running, then finished, across every machine you have paired. • A real terminal, not a remote control. Type, scroll, search the scrollback, pinch to resize the type, send Esc, Tab, Ctrl-C and the arrows from a key bar built for a thumb. • Attach a photo or a file to a session straight from your phone. • Notifications when a run needs you, and only then - a session you are already looking at never pings you. • Port previews: publish a dev server from your machine on a secret URL and open it anywhere. • Workspaces that keep the same shape on the phone, the desktop app and the web console. WORKS WITH WHAT YOU ALREADY RUN Anything that lives in a terminal: coding agents, build scripts, test suites, log tails, a plain shell. farcrew does not wrap a particular tool - it carries the terminal. BUILT SO WE CANNOT READ IT What is on your terminal is encrypted on your device and decrypted on your machine, with a key the two of them negotiate directly (X25519, AES-256-GCM). Our relay forwards ciphertext it holds no key for. Each machine's identity is pinned the first time you connect, and the app tells you loudly if it ever changes. Sign-in is a password plus a passkey, with recovery codes for the day the passkey is gone. WHAT YOU NEED • A computer of your own, running macOS or Linux, that stays on while your work does. • The farcrew daemon installed on it - one command, then a pairing code. • A farcrew account. farcrew is not a shell that runs on your phone, and it is not a cloud that runs your code. It is the wire between the machine you already trust and the phone already in your hand. Questions: support@farcrew.app
Screenshots
Verdict
Hermit SSH and farcrew 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 · 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.
| Parameter | Hermit SSH | farcrew |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 2 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Monthly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 23 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Dave Stanton | poordevs |
In-app purchases
Hermit SSH
No in-app purchases
farcrew
No in-app purchases









