Comparison

Termite vs Wake

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

Head to head
About

Termite

Features
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Termite is a native SSH terminal for iPhone, iPad, and Mac built for developers who live in the shell. Connect to any server over SSH, keep your work alive with tmux, and get a push notification the moment a long-running command finishes even after you've closed the app. FEATURES โ€ข Full SSH client : connect with password or key, with secure Keychain storage and host-key verification โ€ข tmux session persistence : detach, switch devices, and pick up exactly where you left off โ€ข Finish alerts : a push notification when a build, deploy, or long command completes โ€ข Split-pane terminals : run multiple sessions side by side on iPad and Mac โ€ข SFTP file transfer : browse, upload, and download files โ€ข Port forwarding : secure tunnels to your remote services โ€ข Snippets : save and run your common commands with one tap โ€ข AI command composer : describe what you want in plain English and get the shell command, with a safeguard that flags destructive commands before anything runs โ€ข Native on every device : SwiftUI, keyboard shortcuts, and a real terminal engine Sign in with Apple, Google, or an email code. Your SSH credentials stay on-device in the Keychain. Termite is free to download. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Wake

Features
Read full description

Your sessions live on your own machine, inside tmux. Close Wake, lose signal, reboot the phone โ€” they keep running, and Wake reattaches exactly where they were. Built for the way people work with coding agents: several long-running sessions on a Mac or Linux box, checked on from a phone. THE DASHBOARD One row per session, with the state you actually want to know: producing output, quiet and probably waiting for you, or idle โ€” plus the last line each one printed. Tap to attach. A REAL TERMINAL, NOT A CHAT Full xterm emulation with one-finger scroll and native selection. Search inside the session. A snippet bar above the keyboard with {{placeholders}} you fill in as you insert. Paste without the system prompt. Nerd Font glyphs, so prompts and TUIs look right. Light and dark themes. On iPad, two sessions side by side. HISTORY THAT DOES NOT EVAPORATE Every byte your sessions print is appended to a log on your own server, then synced to the phone and indexed. Search across sessions and across days, read it on the train with no connection, export a whole transcript to a file. Nothing is lost to a scrollback limit โ€” and the list of what you were doing, and where, outlives the machine that ran it. PROJECTS, NOT CONNECTIONS Every git repo under the folders you choose, with dirty and unpushed badges so you can see where the work is. Launch templates turn one tap into the right command in the right directory. Browse files over SFTP with Quick Look, upload, rename, make folders. Read git status, log and diff; commit and push. WAKE THE MACHINE Your Mac is allowed to sleep. Tap the server and Wake sends a magic packet through another machine on that network, waits for SSH to answer, and puts you back into your sessions. WHAT IT NEEDS ON THE SERVER sshd, tmux 3.3 or newer, and git. Nothing else. No agent to install, no daemon, no account, no cloud service in the middle. A guided preflight checks every requirement and shows you the exact command to paste for anything missing. KEYS AND ACCESS Import an existing private key in any container: OpenSSH (encrypted too), PKCS#8, PEM, PuTTY .ppk. Ed25519 and ECDSA P-256/384/521 โ€” RSA is not supported, generate an Ed25519 key instead. Keys live in the Keychain, host keys are pinned on first connection and a change blocks the connection. Face ID can lock the whole app. WAKE PRO Wake is free with one server and two live sessions, and every reading feature โ€” history, search, export โ€” is included. Wake Pro โ€” monthly, yearly, or a one-time lifetime purchase โ€” unlocks unlimited servers and sessions. Subscriptions renew automatically unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, and you can manage or cancel it in your App Store account settings. Nothing you created is ever taken away: if a subscription lapses, extra servers stay in the list and existing sessions remain attachable. PRIVACY No account, no telemetry, no tracking. Your logs stay on your server and on your phone, kept out of iCloud backup. Known secrets โ€” API tokens, private keys โ€” are masked in the search index. Retention is yours to set, on both sides. FROM ANYWHERE, NO OPEN PORTS Wake talks plain SSH, directly or through a Cloudflare Tunnel: pick "Cloudflare Tunnel", type your tunnel's hostname, and Wake opens the same connection cloudflared would โ€” nothing to install on the phone, no port open on your router, service tokens supported for hostnames behind Cloudflare Access. WireGuard and Tailscale work too. Nothing is relayed through us, because there is no us in the path. Wake is not affiliated with or endorsed by any coding agent or service; their names are used only to describe what runs inside your terminal sessions. LEGAL Privacy Policy: https://marcotini.com/privacy-policy Terms of Use (EULA): https://marcotini.com/eula

Screenshots

Termite4 screens
Wake4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Termite at none against Wake's 3. Termite also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 11 days). Wake's advantage is iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads 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. Wake sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. Termite asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Termite ships an update every 4 days, Wake every 11 days. The most recent releases landed on October 31, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences ยท 3 level
Termite versus Wake: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTermiteWake
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 4 days โ€” betterEvery 11 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo โ€” betterYes
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 โ€” better
Further details โ€” not scored
Size20 MB24 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSentryline Labs Private LimitedMarco Tini

In-app purchases

None

Termite

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Wake

Subscriptions2
  • Wake Pro Monthly$0.991 Month
  • Wake Pro Yearly$8.991 Year
One-time1
  • Wake Pro Lifetime$29.99

Questions

Is Termite free?
Termite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Wake free?
Wake is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Termite or Wake have ads?
Neither Termite nor Wake shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Termite or Wake?
Termite ships an update every 4 days, and Wake every 11 days. Most recently, Termite was updated on October 31, 2026 and Wake on October 29, 2026.

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