Comparison

Shelly vs Prompt 3

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • Hardware accelerated text rendering
  • Robust terminal emulation
  • Gesture control for navigation
  • Customizable keyboard toolbar
  • Key file authentication
  • iCloud sync support
  • Terminal color themes
Features
Read full description

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.

About

Prompt 3

A fully-native terminal emulator for Apple devices, offering robust connectivity for SSH, Mosh, and more. It features fast emulation, customizable clips, secure authentication, and cross-device syncing for a seamless experience.

Highlights
  • Native terminal emulator
  • SSH, Mosh, Eternal Terminal, Telnet support
  • Panic Sync for cross-device server syncing
  • Superfast emulation with GPU acceleration
  • Customizable clips for commands
  • FaceID/TouchID authentication
  • Jump Hosts and Agent Forwarding
Features
Read full description

Prompt 3 is our #1 fully-native terminal emulator for Mac, iPhone, iPad, and now, Apple Vision Pro! Yes, with one purchase, you get four platforms.  Supporting SSH, Mosh, Eternal Terminal, Telnet, and Local Shells (on Mac), you can stay connected even on the most unstable networks. And with Panic Sync, your servers sync everywhere. For terminals, this is the only app you need. NOW EVEN BETTER: • SSH, Telnet, and Local (for Mac) Rock-solid and reliable connectivity to your hosts. • Mosh and Eternal Terminal Keep your terminal open even when you get disconnected. Mosh is optimized for high-latency, low-throughput networks. Eternal Terminal is great for when you need to keep your full terminal history on a flaky connection. • Lower Price Everything is so expensive right now. So we made Prompt cheaper. Take that, capitalism. • Superfast Emulation We retooled the text engine in Prompt 3 to be up to 10x faster, including GPU acceleration, and with improved terminal emulation, you can run nvim inside tmux without breaking a sweat. • Clips Put your most-used commands and text bits into clips and access them with a single tap via Prompt’s keyboard bar. Clips can be stored globally or per-server. • Secure Enclave Authenticate with FaceID and TouchID. The keys will stay secure on your device. • Panic Sync Sync your favorite servers, passwords, private keys, and clips, between Prompt on all of your devices. • Customizable Make Prompt perfect with new themes, fonts, and a very configurable iOS keyboard. • Jump Hosts and Agent Forwarding Access corporate servers, even at the beach. • Mouse Support Use your mouse to interact with TUI-based apps that run through the terminal. AND YES, A DARK ICON. What more can we say? TAKE CONTROL FROM ANYWHERE, INCLUDING YOUR MAC AND APPLE VISION PRO. WE HOPE YOU ENJOY PROMPT 3. © Panic EULA: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Shelly4 screens
Prompt 34 screens

Verdict

The call

Shelly and Prompt 3 both sit at 4.4 stars, but that hides the real split: 76% of Shelly's written reviews are positive against 22% of Prompt 3's. Shelly also leads on monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). Prompt 3's advantage is chart position (#26 vs #182). On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Shelly sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Prompt 3 sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $9.99 per year. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.4 for Shelly against 4.3 for Prompt 3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 273 and 349 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 76% of Shelly's written reviews are positive against 22% of Prompt 3's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Shelly ships an update every 2 months, Prompt 3 every 6 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
Shelly versus Prompt 3: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShellyPrompt 3
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (273 ratings) — better4.3 (349 ratings)
Positive reviews76.2% of reviews — better22.0% of reviews
Number of ratings273349 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 6 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases — betterPaid
Best chart rank#182#26 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Vision Pro — better
Requires iOS13.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB43 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTouch FooPanic, Inc.

Customer experience

Shelly

All ratings273 ratings
Positive83.5%
Neutral4.4%
Negative12.1%
Written reviews353 reviews
Positive76.2%
Neutral8.8%
Negative15.0%

Prompt 3

All ratings349 ratings
Positive81.9%
Neutral3.2%
Negative14.9%
Written reviews150 reviews
Positive22.0%
Neutral18.0%
Negative60.0%

User reviews

Shelly

From 273 App Store ratings

What 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

Prompt 3

From 349 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and powerful
  • 🔒 Secure with Secure Enclave support
  • 👍 Great admin tool
  • 👍 Continues to improve over time
  • 👍 Fantastic terminal emulator on iPad

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Crashes frequently
  • 🐛 Buggy and unreliable
  • 🚫 Subscription required for full functionality
  • 💰 Extremely expensive, especially for existing users
  • 🤔 Lacks features compared to competitors

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

Prompt 3

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Server list randomly disappears with Panic Sync
  • Crashes when connected to external monitor
  • Black screen issues with custom font configurations
  • Sync issues causing data loss
  • Vertical display sync issues

Requested features

8 requests
  • Shortcuts support on macOS
  • Ability to click and select within commands
  • Local shell option
  • Run clips on server connection
  • Export/backup clips
Show 3 more
  • Alt/Meta key support for Emacs
  • iCloud sync option
  • Sign in with Apple for Panic Sync

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Shelly

One-time1
  • Upgrade To Pro$3.99
2 purchases

Prompt 3

Subscriptions1
  • Prompt 3 iOS + Mac (Annual)7 Days trial$9.991 Year
One-time1
  • Prompt 3 One Time$49.99

Questions

Is Shelly free?
Shelly is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Prompt 3 free?
Prompt 3 is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Shelly or Prompt 3?
Shelly is rated higher. Shelly averages 4.4 out of 5 from 273 ratings, while Prompt 3 averages 4.3 from 349 ratings.
Do Shelly or Prompt 3 have ads?
Neither Shelly nor Prompt 3 shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Shelly or Prompt 3?
Shelly ships an update every 2 months, and Prompt 3 every 6 weeks. Most recently, Shelly was updated on September 24, 2026 and Prompt 3 on September 23, 2026.
Which is more popular, Shelly or Prompt 3?
Shelly currently peaks at #182 in the App Store charts, and Prompt 3 at #26. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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