Shelly vs Terminal & SSH
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Shelly
A powerful and user-friendly SSH client for mobile devices. It offers robust terminal emulation, gesture controls, and customizable keyboard shortcuts for efficient remote server management. Supports key-based authentication and iCloud sync.
- Hardware accelerated text rendering
- Robust terminal emulation
- Gesture control for navigation
- Customizable keyboard toolbar
- Key file authentication
- iCloud sync support
- Terminal color themes
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SSH client designed for usability and performance. RELIABLE AND FAST • Hardware accelerated text rendering. • Robust terminal emulation based on the PuTTY engine. • Works great with programs such as 'screen' and 'irssi'. CONTROL WITH GESTURES • Default gestures optimized for irssi. Just swipe to switch channels or to scroll up and down. • Fully customizable. Any keypress or action can be attached to any gesture. EASY CONNECTING • Save user credentials and configure a remote command such as ‘screen -rd’ to connect with one tap. • 3D touch support. Connect directly from the iOS home screen. CUSTOMIZABLE KEYBOARD • Easily bind custom actions to buttons on the keyboard toolbar. • Works with custom iOS keyboards such as SwiftKey. OPEN LINKS AND SELECT TEXT • Familiar iOS text selection experience. Long-press on text to show the selection controls. • Copy and paste text. • Select a URL to easily open it in the web browser. OTHER FEATURES • iCloud sync support. • Terminal color themes. Choose your favorite from the several themes included or make your own. • Key file authentication support. Import an existing private key, or create a new key and export the public key. • Host key verification and management. • Agent forwarding (OpenSSH servers only). • Keep connections alive while the app is in the background. • Connection history with optional realtime location data. • Plenty of other configuration options. Please note that some features require a paid upgrade. You can try all features for free for a limited time.
Terminal & SSH
Access and manage Linux or IoT devices securely from your mobile device. Offers SSH, SFTP, and a suite of network tools for command-line administration and file transfer. Includes a code editor and snippet manager for efficient workflow.
- SSH connection with key authentication
- SFTP file transfer
- Network tools (ping, ifconfig, etc.)
- Local text editor with syntax highlighting
- Command snippets
- Code editor
- Terminal theme customization
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Terminal & SSH is a complete command line and server administration solution that provides secure access to Linux or IoT devices and helps you quickly resolve issues from a mobile device. SSH Features: • SSH connection with password or key authentication: DSA, RSA, ECDSA, Ed25519 (OpenSSH format). • Emulation: XTERM-COLOR256 / XTERM / VT100 • Connection settings are securely stored in the Keychain. • Unlimited server list. • Local text editor with syntax highlighting for more than 30 programming languages. • Snippets (saving commands for quick access). • Special keys Esc, Tab, Ctrl, /,:, -,!, |, $, *, F1-F12 SFTP features: • Upload files from your device to your server. • Download files from your server to your device. • Create / rename / delete files and directories. • Edit text files. Network tools: • ifconfig, ping, whois, host, nc (netcat), nslookup, telnet, dig, curl And: • Authentication to the application via Touch ID / Face ID. • Work with Git. • Code editor for: Swift, Kotlin, Java, Python, HTML and more. • Run code on Python • Customize the terminal theme. • Adjust the font size. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: Shelly at none against Terminal & SSH's shown. Shelly also leads on chart position (#197 vs unranked). Terminal & SSH's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (85% vs 76%). On price, rating, ratings volume and in-app purchases 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
Both are free to download. Shelly sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Terminal & SSH sells 5 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Shelly against 4.3 for Terminal & SSH. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 273 and 105 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Shelly's written reviews are positive against 85% of Terminal & SSH's.
Shelly ships an update every 2 months, Terminal & SSH every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 27, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Shelly | Terminal & SSH |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (273 ratings) — better | 4.3 (105 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 76.2% of reviews | 84.8% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 273 — better | 105 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Best chart rank | #197 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 12.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 11 MB | 74 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Touch Foo | Pavlo Kravchenko |
Customer experience
Shelly
Terminal & SSH
User reviews
Shelly
From 273 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Lightweight and fast
- 👍 Customizable keyboard and gestures
- 🔒 Supports SSH key authentication
- 💡 Useful shortcuts and toolbar
- 👍 Reliable background connections
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional connection drops when switching apps
- 🐛 Toolbar issues with hardware keyboard
- 🐛 Garbled display with some terminal programs
- 🐛 Lack of support for newer SSH key formats
- 🐛 Inconsistent behavior with password managers
Terminal & SSH
From 105 App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 👍 Easy to use
- 🚀 Fast and efficient
- 🆓 Free of charge
- 🚫 No ads
- 💻 Great for remote server management
Room to improve
- 🐛 Frequent crashes
- ⚠️ Not working on older iOS versions
- 🖱️ UI needs improvement
- ⌨️ Bluetooth keyboard arrow keys not working
- 🔄 App crashes on loading
Bugs and requests
Shelly
Reported bugs
4 issues- Saved profiles get overwritten unexpectedly
- Toolbar persists even with auto-hide enabled
- Cursor movement issues with hardware keyboard
- Inability to copy/paste with Magic Keyboard
Requested features
5 requests- Add support for port forwarding
- Implement Mosh protocol support
- Allow customization of default font
- Provide option for multiple app instances
- Add ability to remap hardware keyboard keys
Terminal & SSH
Reported bugs
14 issues- App crashes after showing logo on iOS 12.2
- Crashes on iPad Air with iOS 12.3.1
- Crashes frequently (Chinese review)
- Crashes on loading
- App crashes on loading starting today
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- Crashes immediately under iOS 15.3
- Crashes when selecting default theme
- Cannot keep app in background, requires reconnection
- Bluetooth keyboard arrow keys not transmitting
- App crashes on startup
- App stopped working on iPad after a few days
- Crashes on iPad Pro 1st Gen (13.4.1)
- Arrow key presses on MFi keyboard don't transmit
- App does not start
Requested features
8 requests- Keepalive features for long builds
- Physical arrow keys for Bluetooth keyboards
- Support for Chinese input in terminal
- UI improvements for common keys on toolbar
- Ability to touch and drag back through commands
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- Swipe up through history
- Dark mode
- More clear explanation of connection purchases
In-app purchases
Shelly
- Upgrade To Pro$3.99
Terminal & SSH
- Remove ads$4.991 Month
- Remove ads$9.993 Months
- Five connections$1.99
- Twenty connections$4.99
- Infinity connections$9.99








