TypeTab vs Shell Keyboard
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
TypeTab
This developer-focused keyboard for iPhone offers an eight-row layout with persistent letters, numbers, and programming symbols. It streamlines coding by allowing cursor control via drag gestures and supports custom snippets for common code structures. It works across various apps that support third-party keyboards.
- Eight-row layout with persistent symbol rows
- Drag-to-cursor and drag-to-token navigation
- Auto-paired brackets and quotes
- Reusable built-in and custom code snippets
- Adjustable key height and haptic feedback
- Built-in Test Pad
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TypeTab is the developer-first iPhone keyboard that keeps letters, numbers, and common programming symbols visible in one eight-row layout. Write and edit code without bouncing between keyboard modes. Drag across the keyboard to place the cursor character by character, or drag from the spacebar to move by token. Type a short trigger to expand reusable Swift, JavaScript, and Python structures, then jump through each editable field. TYPE WITH THE KEYS YOUR CODE NEEDS • Eight-row layout with persistent number and coding-symbol rows • Auto-paired parentheses, brackets, braces, and quotes • Tabs, 2 spaces, or 4 spaces for indentation • Reusable built-in and custom snippets • Adjustable palettes, key height, and haptic feedback • Built-in Test Pad and keyboard reference WORKS WHERE YOU WRITE Use TypeTab in editors, browsers, messages, notes, and other apps that support third-party keyboards. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Full Access is not required. The keyboard does not send or collect the code or text you type. TypeTab includes a complete free keyboard with cursor controls, built-in snippets, and customization. TypeTab Pro unlocks the complete built-in snippet library, unlimited custom snippets, every palette, and all keyboard heights. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://typetab.dev/privacy
Shell Keyboard
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Shell Keyboard adds the keys a terminal actually needs — the ones iOS's default keyboard leaves out. Working over SSH or in a local shell needs Ctrl, Esc, Tab, arrow keys, and function keys, none of which exist on the standard iOS keyboard. Shell Keyboard is a custom keyboard built specifically for terminal apps like Blink, Termius, Prompt, a-Shell and iSH — it sends the exact ASCII control codes and ANSI/VT escape sequences your terminal expects, the same bytes a physical keyboard would send. NEW ON IPAD: A REAL KEYBOARD Choose a 60% or 75% layout, the compact keyboards terminal users already type on. The 75% layout puts Esc, F1–F12, a number row, Caps Lock, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down and inverted-T arrow keys on one screen, and Shift types the symbol printed on each key, just like a physical keyboard. The 60% layout keeps the function keys, navigation and arrows one fn press away. iPad opens in the 75% layout; the original ShellKey layout is one tap away in Settings. WHAT'S INCLUDED • A dedicated terminal layer: Ctrl, Alt, Esc, Tab, arrow keys, Home/End/PgUp/PgDn, and the punctuation a shell prompt uses constantly • Ctrl and Alt as proper modifiers — latch one for a single keypress, or double-tap to lock it on, like a hardware keyboard • A full function-key layer: tap fn and the top row becomes F1 through F12, while every other row stays exactly where it was • Arrow keys that match the app you're in — Normal for shells, Application for vim, tmux, less and htop, or Move the Cursor for ordinary text fields • Return or Enter: long-press the Return key to switch between a carriage return and a line feed • A plain QWERTY layer and a complete symbols layer, for ordinary text — hostnames, paths, commit messages — without leaving the keyboard • Seven themes — Shell, Ember, Glacier, Dusk, Moss, Void (pure black) and High Contrast — each in light and dark, and an Appearance option to keep the keyboard light or dark everywhere • On iPad, 60% and 75% layouts (75% by default), described above • A searchable reference inside the app, listing every key alongside the exact escape sequence and hex bytes it sends • Every key emits the exact byte sequence a real terminal expects SETTINGS LIVE IN THE KEYBOARD Touch and hold the key with the small gear (or tap the gear key on the iPad's 60% and 75% layouts) for Haptic feedback, Theme, Appearance and, on iPad, Layout. They live in the keyboard itself because, without Full Access, iOS keeps a keyboard and its app apart, and Shell Keyboard never asks for Full Access. BUILT FOR PRIVACY Shell Keyboard never asks for Full Access. It cannot reach the network. It never reads, stores, or transmits anything you type — every key it sends is decided from the key you tapped, and nothing else. No analytics, no crash reporting, no account. GOOD TO KNOW In a terminal or editor running inside a web browser — code-server, Jupyter and the like — the keys that send a multi-character escape sequence don't get through: the arrow keys, F1 through F12, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, Shift+Tab and Alt combinations. Everything that sends a single byte works there normally, including every Ctrl combination, Esc, Tab, Return and ordinary typing. Web pages listen for key press events and iOS only lets a keyboard extension insert text, so this is an iOS limitation that applies to every third-party keyboard, not something an app can work around. WHO IT'S FOR Anyone who SSHes from an iPhone or iPad — sysadmins, developers, and anyone tired of missing Ctrl+C.
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Verdict
The clearest difference is price: TypeTab at Free against Shell Keyboard's $0.99. TypeTab also leads on update cadence (weekly vs fortnightly). Shell Keyboard's advantage is chart position (#9 vs unranked). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement 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
TypeTab is free to download; Shell Keyboard costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
TypeTab ships an update weekly, Shell Keyboard fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | TypeTab | Shell Keyboard |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $0.99 |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | — |
| Best chart rank | — | #9 — better |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 16.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | +4 | 4+ |
| Developer | Andreu Pifarre | Nguyen Nguyen |
In-app purchases
TypeTab
No in-app purchases
Shell Keyboard
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is TypeTab free?
Is Shell Keyboard free?
Do TypeTab or Shell Keyboard have ads?
Which is updated more often, TypeTab or Shell Keyboard?
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