AppPage.net

Screenshots

  • a-Shell screenshot 1
  • a-Shell screenshot 2
  • a-Shell screenshot 3
  • a-Shell screenshot 4

About a-Shell

a-Shell is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on your iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. You can work with git repositories using lg2.  Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with the BSD Unix that powers iOS/iPadOS. a-Shell includes Python, Lua, Perl, JavaScript, C, C++ for programming and TeX (texlive 2025, with Tikz and LuaTeX) for text processing. There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands. a-Shell can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps... a-shell uses iOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python. Compile your C or C++ programs to webAssembly using clang or clang++, and execute the resulting binary. A complete webAssembly SDK is included (WASI-libc). a-Shell is the complete version. If you need a smaller app, and you don't need a C compiler, a TeX engine, or numpy and matplotlib, there is a-Shell mini.

Ratings & reviews

4.6

565 ratings

5 ★ 80% 4 ★ 8% 3 ★ 5% 2 ★ 2% 1 ★ 5%

What’s new

Version 2.3.0 · Updated October 24, 2026

- updated certificate files for the main app and for Python to fix for the eMudhra CA Key Compromise issue. - support for user fonts - support for color themes - new commands: node, npm, npx, helix, fzf, rg, fd, ruff, gix, ein, navi - bug fixes: the terminal remains above the keyboard, the terminal gets the focus back on its own after you dismiss a "view" or a "play" window, matching the toolbar color with the terminal color, fixed several places where the app would crash...

App privacy

The developer, Nicolas Holzschuch, reported these privacy practices to Apple.

Data Not Collected

The developer does not collect any data from this app.

Alternatives to a-Shell

Looking for apps like a-Shell? Here are 6 similar apps on the App Store. The highest rated is xTerminal - SSH Terminal Shell (4.7/5), and all 6 are free to download.

a-Shell vs. alternatives
App Rating Price Last updated Compare
a-Shell 4.6 / 5 (565 ratings) Free October 24, 2026
xTerminal - SSH Terminal Shell 4.7 / 5 (1,962) Free Mar 23, 2026 Compare
Pyto IDE 3.7 / 5 (1,001) Free Jun 9, 2024 Compare
Kodex 4.2 / 5 (208) Free Apr 1, 2024 Compare
Web Inspector 3.9 / 5 (160) Free Aug 29, 2026 Compare
Runestone Text Editor 4.7 / 5 (2,101) Free Sep 10, 2026 Compare
Terminal# 4.5 / 5 (162) Free Jun 28, 2024 Compare

Compare a-Shell with the top alternatives: ratings, updates, ASO score and keyword gaps →