Comparison

Apperture vs Bolt SSH

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

Head to head
About

Apperture

Features
Read full description

Apperture lets you see and control one Mac app right from your iPhone — not your whole desktop. Apperture mirrors just the app that matters, full-screen on your phone, so it feels like the app is running in your hand. Traditional screen sharing puts a 27-inch desktop on a 6-inch screen and makes you pan, zoom, and hunt for windows. Apperture takes the opposite approach: pick a single running Mac app and it fills your iPhone with a sharp, low-latency live view sized for the screen you're actually holding. BUILT FOR DEVELOPERS • Mirror the iOS Simulator and it feels native: touches map directly, and rotating your phone rotates the simulated app. • Keep working while your Mac builds and runs. Perfect for agent-assisted coding — let Claude Code or your favorite agent build and launch the app on your Mac, then review and interact with the result from anywhere in the house. • Stream any Xcode-launched Mac app with its real window chrome intact. FULL CONTROL, NOT JUST A VIEW • Tap, drag, long-press for right-click, two-finger scroll — touch input translated naturally to the Mac. • Type with the iPhone keyboard, including full Unicode text entry. • Browse and run the Mac app's real menu bar commands from a searchable, touch-friendly palette. • Send clipboard text securely between devices. • Fit-width, fit-height, and readable-zoom layout modes in portrait and landscape. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No accounts. No cloud relay. Your screen never touches our servers. • Pairing starts with a short-lived QR code on your Mac, and the Mac owner must explicitly approve every phone. • Connections work only over private networks — your Wi-Fi or your own VPN such as Tailscale. Public endpoints are rejected by design. • Every session is encrypted. Pairing trust is stored in the device Keychain and never synced to the cloud. • Review or revoke paired devices anytime. The Mac keeps a local 30-day session history — device, time, and app names only, never keystrokes or screen contents. GOOD TO KNOW • Apperture requires the free companion Mac app from runapperture.com. It's notarized by Apple and distributed directly because it uses Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions the Mac App Store doesn't allow. • Away from home, you'll need a VPN to reach your Mac — Tailscale takes about five minutes to set up, works beautifully, and is free for personal use. • Your Mac does all the work, so it needs to be on, awake, and logged in. Apperture is a viewer and controller for your own Mac, not a way to run Mac apps on iPhone. • Apperture streams one selected window at a time — that focus is the point. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Bolt SSH

Features
Read full description

Bolt SSH — the SSH terminal made for your phone Everything you need to manage servers from your phone, without the friction. Bolt SSH keeps your hosts and keys organized, locks tight behind biometrics, and gets you reconnected fast when mobile networks drop. Works with Linux/Unix servers and Windows PowerShell (sshd) out of the box. Reconnect without the hassle • Automatic reconnect, plus one-tap manual reconnect from the status bar • Returns you to your remote working directory after reconnecting — no re-cd-ing • Real terminal rendering (xterm.js) with an aux key bar (Esc / Tab / arrows / Ctrl) Security first • App Lock with Face ID / fingerprint — locks the instant you background the app • Trust-on-first-use + known_hosts verification; instant alert on host key change to help stop man-in-the-middle attacks • Private keys and passwords stored in the device secure enclave (Keychain / Keystore), never in plaintext Effortless management • Multi-host manager with color labels, recent-first ordering, and duplicate / edit / delete • Multiple keys — import or paste private keys (OpenSSH / RSA PEM) with passphrase support • English & Chinese Free to download — core features work out of the box. Everything runs locally; nothing routes through our servers.

Screenshots

Apperture4 screens
Bolt SSH4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Bolt SSH at none against Apperture's 1. Bolt SSH also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads and device support there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Apperture sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Bolt SSH asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences Ā· 4 level
Apperture versus Bolt SSH: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAppertureBolt SSH
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLAND MK 1ę–‡åš 邱

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Apperture

One-time1
  • Early Adopter$24.99
None

Bolt SSH

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Apperture free?
Apperture is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Bolt SSH free?
Bolt SSH is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Apperture or Bolt SSH have ads?
Neither Apperture nor Bolt SSH shows ads.

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