Comparison

Shell Drop vs Dead Link Researcher

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

Head to head
About

Shell Drop

A native terminal app for iOS devices that allows users to run AI agents via SSH. It supports image and file uploads, tmux integration, and voice input for commands. Secure SSH key authentication and iCloud sync are included.

Highlights
  • Run AI agents via SSH
  • Image and file uploads
  • Tmux session management
  • Voice input for commands
  • SSH key authentication
  • iCloud sync for connections
Features
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ShellDrop is a fast, native terminal for iPhone, iPad and iPhone Duo, built for running AI agents: Claude Code, Codex, Grok, Hermes, OpenClaw, opencode, anything that lives in tmux on a Mac mini, VPS or any box you can SSH into. WORK WITH YOUR AGENTS - Paste images straight into a session. Copy a screenshot from any app, paste it in the terminal, and your agent reads it. - Attach files too. Tap the paperclip in the toolbar to pick a file from Files, or a photo or video from your library, and it uploads to the server for your agent to read. - You choose the upload size limit. Settings goes from 100 MB to 1 GB, and if a file is over, ShellDrop offers to raise it on the spot. - Tmux aware. Vertical swipe scrolls history, horizontal swipe switches sessions. - Tab names sync with the real tmux session names automatically. - Sessions stay alive in the background while you switch apps. - Agent to clipboard. Ask your agent to write an email, say "copy that to my clipboard", and it lands on your phone ready to paste into your mail app. - Droplet Visualizer: the feature nobody asked for. See all your sessions from the perspective of an Egyptian god. BUILT LIKE A REAL TERMINAL - SSH key authentication. Generate Ed25519 keys or hardware-backed Secure Enclave keys in-app, where the private key never leaves the chip. - Paste-import your existing OpenSSH keys. - The keyboard toolbar is yours. Tap and hold to rearrange the keys you use most, and create your own custom Tmux key bindings. - Sticky ctrl for all of your perverted tmux activities. - Text selection with a dedicated selection mode, long-press word select, and one-tap links. - Nerd Fonts. FiraCode and JetBrains Mono render the glyphs nvim and LazyVim need. - Full screen mode for extra real estate. - Full iPad support including 13" iPad Pro, plus hardware keyboards. - iCloud sync keeps saved connections on every device, and you can switch it off in Settings any time. Private keys stay on your device by design. NO SUBSCRIPTION Every feature included. VOICE DROP Tap the mic on the keyboard toolbar and talk. Your words drop into the prompt at the cursor. Transcription runs on-device with Apple speech, or through your own Groq API key for whisper-large-v3-turbo. Nothing sends until you hit return. Prefer a dictation keyboard like Wispr Flow? Works great here too. PRIVACY Credentials live in the iOS keychain on your device. There is no account, and no telemetry or analytics are collected. Terminal traffic goes to your servers over SSH and nowhere else. Built by an indie developer who runs AI agents every day.

About

Dead Link Researcher

Features
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Crawl any website for broken links — fast, private, and brutally thorough. Dead Link Researcher hunts down every 404, redirect loop, DNS failure, and dead asset on your site, then monitors it on autopilot. Stop combing through Search Console for orphaned URLs. Stop waiting in line for slow cloud crawlers. Run a full link audit on any domain from your phone — and get pinged the moment a new link breaks. WHAT IT DOES - Crawl any site — feed it a domain, get a complete broken-link report - Detect every kind of dead link — 404s, 5xx errors, timeouts, DNS failures, redirect loops, blocked URLs - Sitemap.xml and robots.txt aware — crawl the way search engines do - Group broken URLs by error type — fix the biggest categories first - Check both internal pages and external outbound links - Runs 100% on-device — your domains, scans, and auth tokens never leave your phone PRO FEATURES - Scheduled scans — re-crawl daily or weekly, fully automatic - Push notifications — get alerted the second a new broken link appears - Deep crawl — up to 5,000 pages and 20,000 links per scan - Multi-site watchlist — track up to 50 client sites or domains - Diff view — see exactly what changed since your last scan - PDF and CSV exports — hand polished reports to clients or stakeholders - Custom ignore rules — skip tracking pixels, share URLs, and UTM noise - Auth profiles — add cookies or headers to scan staging sites, intranets, or pages behind logins WHO IT'S FOR - Web developers shipping a redesign, migration, or CMS swap - SEO professionals auditing site health and internal link equity - Agencies maintaining a portfolio of client sites - Bloggers and content creators with years of articles to keep alive - QA engineers catching link rot before customers do - Anyone who has discovered their old contact form is broken on a Tuesday WHY DEAD LINK RESEARCHER - No accounts, no signups — open the app and scan - No cloud crawler queue — runs on your device, results in your pocket - Free tier lets you scan up to 50 pages and 200 links without paying - Yearly Pro saves about 76% vs the weekly plan - Built by Pleme — a small indie team, not a SaaS giant Tap Scan, watch live progress (pages crawled, links checked, broken so far), then drill into every broken URL and the pages that link to it. Export, fix, monitor. Done. Download Dead Link Researcher and stop losing traffic to dead links. — SUBSCRIPTION TERMS: - Dead Link Researcher Pro (Weekly): $4.99/week after 3-day free trial - Dead Link Researcher Pro (Yearly): $59.99/year (~$1.15/week) - Payment is charged to your Apple ID account at confirmation of purchase - Subscription automatically renews unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period - Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period - You can manage and cancel subscriptions in your Apple ID account settings - Privacy Policy: https://pleme.app/dead-link-researcher-privacy - Terms of Use: https://pleme.app/dead-link-researcher-terms

Screenshots

Shell Drop4 screens
Dead Link Researcher4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Shell Drop at none against Dead Link Researcher's 2. Shell Drop also leads on chart position (#152 vs unranked) and update cadence (every 9 days vs every 3 weeks). Dead Link Researcher's advantage is iOS requirement (15.0 vs 17.0). On price, ads and device support 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Dead Link Researcher sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Shell Drop asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shell Drop ships an update every 9 days, Dead Link Researcher every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 7, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Shell Drop versus Dead Link Researcher: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShell DropDead Link Researcher
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (3 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings3 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 9 days — betterEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#152 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.015.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size16 MB159 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDaniel BilsboroughPleme PTY LTD.

In-app purchases

None

Shell Drop

No in-app purchases

2 purchases

Dead Link Researcher

Subscriptions2
  • Dead Link Researcher Pro (Weekly)3 Days trial$4.997 Days
  • Dead Link Researcher Pro (Yearly)$59.991 Year

Questions

Is Shell Drop free?
Shell Drop is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dead Link Researcher free?
Dead Link Researcher is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Shell Drop or Dead Link Researcher have ads?
Neither Shell Drop nor Dead Link Researcher shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shell Drop or Dead Link Researcher?
Shell Drop ships an update every 9 days, and Dead Link Researcher every 3 weeks. Most recently, Shell Drop was updated on November 7, 2026 and Dead Link Researcher on November 5, 2026.

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