Comparison

Murmur BLE Shell vs Astra Shell

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

Head to head
About

Murmur BLE Shell

Features
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murmur turns your phone into a remote control for a Raspberry Pi โ€” no Wi-Fi, no network setup, no port forwarding. Just Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), directly between your phone and the Pi. HOW IT WORKS Install the open-source murmur daemon on any Raspberry Pi running Linux, pair your phone with it over Bluetooth, and you get: โ€ข Shell mode โ€” a real interactive terminal on the Pi, right from your phone. โ€ข Agent mode โ€” describe what you want in plain English ("what's eating my disk space?", "set up a static IP") and an AI agent plans and runs the shell commands for you, showing every command and its output as it goes. BRING YOUR OWN API KEY Agent mode is powered by your own Anthropic Claude, OpenAI, or Google Gemini API key โ€” entered once in Settings, stored only in your phone's secure keychain. murmur has no backend server and no account system. The only network calls it makes are the LLM requests you trigger yourself, using your own key. WORKS OFFLINE ON THE PI SIDE The Raspberry Pi never needs an internet connection. It just needs Bluetooth and the murmur daemon running. Good for headless boxes, home labs, and devices you'd rather not put on a network at all. PRIVACY BY DESIGN Everything murmur stores โ€” the Bluetooth pairing key, your API key, an optional per-device sudo password, and saved agent conversations โ€” stays on your phone in the OS-level secure store. One tap in Settings wipes it all. OPEN SOURCE Both the daemon and the app are open source: github.com/nekonihq/murmur

About

Astra Shell

Features
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Astra Shell is a native terminal client designed for persistent remote work. Traditional remote terminals are tied to the current device and network. When a client restarts, the network disconnects, or you switch devices, you often need to reconnect and find your place again. Astra Shell keeps shells running on a remote host you control, so your Mac, iPhone, and iPad can return to the same terminal and continue from the existing context. Key features: โ€ข Persistent remote shells Remote shells and their tasks continue running after the client disconnects. Reconnect to return to an existing terminal. โ€ข Continue across devices Open the same shell from Mac, iPhone, or iPad to keep viewing and entering commands. โ€ข Native terminal experience Supports common terminal modes, colors, wide characters, alternate screens, mouse input, paged history, and copy and paste. โ€ข Remote files Browse remote directories, upload and download files, preview text, view transfer progress, and inspect Git status. โ€ข Astra and SSH hosts Connect to a self-hosted Astra service over QUIC/TLS, or use standalone SSH/SFTP mode with a standard server. โ€ข Private-key security SSH private keys are stored in Keychain. Host configurations and credentials can synchronize through iCloud Keychain when enabled. Astra mode requires the open-source astrad service on a host you own or manage, with an authorized public key configured. Standard SSH hosts do not require astrad. Installation instructions are available on the support website. Astra Shell contains no advertising or behavioral analytics. It does not send terminal commands, remote files, or SSH private keys to the developer.

Screenshots

Murmur BLE Shell4 screens
Astra Shell4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Murmur BLE Shell at weekly against Astra Shell's every 4 weeks. Murmur BLE Shell also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Murmur BLE Shell ships an update weekly, Astra Shell every 4 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Murmur BLE Shell versus Astra Shell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMurmur BLE ShellAstra Shell
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyWeekly โ€” betterEvery 4 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 โ€” better17.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size34 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperDENYS MALYKHIN็Žฅ ็†Š

In-app purchases

None

Murmur BLE Shell

No in-app purchases

None

Astra Shell

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Murmur BLE Shell free?
Murmur BLE Shell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Astra Shell free?
Astra Shell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Murmur BLE Shell or Astra Shell have ads?
Neither Murmur BLE Shell nor Astra Shell shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Murmur BLE Shell or Astra Shell?
Murmur BLE Shell ships an update weekly, and Astra Shell every 4 weeks. Most recently, Murmur BLE Shell was updated on October 20, 2026 and Astra Shell on October 29, 2026.

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