Helmrig Shell vs MuxPad

The terminal from your desk, now on iPhone and iPad. Helmrig Shell is a native terminal — btop, tmux, vim, true color, ligatures, full escape-sequence support, rendered natively. Not a web view, not a cut-down mobile shell. A real desktop terminal that feels like the one you already use. Your sessions run on your own Mac or server. The iPad or iPhone is just the window — so they never drop. Lock the screen, lose signal, switch to another app, come back hours later: every tab, every running process, your full scrollback, exactly where you left it. No reconnect dance, no lost output. Drop a file onto the terminal and it uploads to your machine, with the full path dropped straight into your command line. Hand a screenshot to a CLI tool, attach a file to a running command — it just works, as if the file were already there. Built on libghostty for the rendering you'd expect from a desktop terminal. Hardware keyboard shortcuts, split panes, tabs that name themselves after what's running. Designed for iPad first, not ported from somewhere else. Works anywhere over an end-to-end encrypted connection — at your desk, on the couch, or across the world. Not limited to your local network. Helmrig Shell requires a subscription to use. A free trial is available, after which continued access requires Helmrig Shell Pro at $8.99/month. Payment is charged to your Apple Account. The subscription renews automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. WHAT IT IS A window into your own machine. Your shell, your tools, your environment — running where they always have, now reachable from your iPad. WHAT IT NEEDS A Mac or Linux machine you control, running the Helmrig server. Setup takes one command. PRIVACY No third-party SDKs. No analytics. No crash reporting. Helmrig Shell servers never see terminal output. Full policy at helmrig.app/shell-privacy.html CONTACT hi@helmrig.app Support Link: https://helmrig.app/support Privacy Policy: https://helmrig.app/shell-privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://helmrig.app/shell-terms.html

MuxPad is a native tmux terminal built from the ground up for iPad. Unlike ordinary SSH apps that draw a single terminal screen, MuxPad runs tmux control mode (tmux -CC) over SSH and maps tmux sessions, windows, and panes directly onto a native iPad interface. NATIVE TMUX PANES & WINDOWS Windows become tabs and splits become real split views. Every pane has native scrollback, selection, and copy, with flow control that stays smooth under heavy output. FULL HARDWARE KEYBOARD CONTROL Drive tmux from an external keyboard exactly like the desktop. Control characters, Option as Meta, arrow and function keys, Home/End/Page Up/Down, the tmux prefix (Ctrl-b), and vi/emacs copy-mode keys are all sent as the correct bytes. Fine-tune with Option as Meta and Caps Lock as Ctrl/Esc. On the software keyboard, a horizontally scrolling accessory bar gives you Esc, Ctrl, arrows, the prefix, and a dismiss key. DUAL-PANE SFTP FILE MANAGER Put a local folder or any remote host in each of the two panes and move files by drag and drop. Transfer local-to-remote and remote-to-remote (relayed through your device). Long-press to multi-select and copy or move files in bulk. A transfer queue handles progress, resume, and conflicts. TMUX-NATIVE SCROLLING Two-finger and trackpad scrolling is forwarded to tmux as mouse-wheel input, so scrolling drives tmux copy-mode just like on the desktop (requires tmux mouse mode). SESSION PERSISTENCE & CROSS-DEVICE RECONNECT tmux sessions live on the server. Quit the app completely or switch devices and your session is still there. Reconnect manually or automatically with no loss, and pick up an iPad session on your iPhone. iCLOUD SYNC Hosts, reusable users, mux sessions, and groups all sync through your private iCloud (SwiftData + CloudKit) — on change and on launch. Credentials never touch CloudKit: passwords and keys stay in the Keychain (and iCloud Keychain, end-to-end encrypted), and only a reference is synced. Protect access with Face ID / Touch ID. LIVE ACTIVITY See your connected sessions on the Lock Screen and in the Dynamic Island. Tap a session to deep-link straight back into the app. One unified activity that ends automatically when you close the app. ENGLISH & KOREAN The interface is in English and switches to Korean automatically on Korean devices. ALSO INCLUDED - Host chaining (ProxyJump) through a jump host into private networks - ed25519 / RSA key and password authentication, known_hosts fingerprint verification (MITM warning) - Preset and custom themes, monospaced and Nerd Font support - Sidebar host management: inline rename, drag to reorder, groups IMPORTANT — YOUR SERVER NEEDS TMUX MuxPad is built on tmux control mode. The remote server you connect to must have tmux installed (detected automatically on connect); if it is not, the connection is blocked and installation guidance is shown. There is no local shell emulation. MuxPad does not collect your data. It has no ads and no analytics or tracking SDKs. Your server credentials and activity are never sent to the developer.