ShellFish is the iOS SSH client that mounts remote servers into the iOS Files app via the file-provider API. That is the headline feature. You browse, copy, and drag files between your iPhone and a remote box as if it were a local folder. It also has a terminal. ShellDrop is the opposite end of the same product space: SSH-only, no SFTP browsing, tuned for living inside tmux with a coding agent at the other end.
Both are good. They aim at different jobs. Here is a clean side-by-side.
| ShellDrop 5 | ShellFish | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free. No ads, no in-app purchases | Free tier; Pro $2.99/mo, $14.99/yr, or $29.99 lifetime |
| Terminal ads | None | Shown until you buy Pro |
| Platforms | Native on iPhone and iPad, Vision Pro with version 5, macOS coming soon | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, visionOS |
| Paste a screenshot into the terminal | Yes. Any image, multi-image; agent reads them on the server | Yes. Uploads and inserts the file path |
| Attach a file from Files or Photos | Yes. Files, photos or video; uploads over SSH, path lands at the prompt | Yes. The Files-app mount lets you drag any file across, path yours to grab |
| Agent-to-phone clipboard | Yes. The agent can drop text onto your phone's clipboard | Not a documented feature |
| Voice dictation | Built in. On-device Apple speech free, or your own Groq key. | Not a listed feature |
| Files app integration (SFTP-style) | No | Yes, first-class |
| SFTP / file transfer | No | Yes (Files-app mount, Finder on Mac) |
| Widgets (incl. Apple Watch) | No | Home, lock-screen, and Apple Watch widgets |
| Shortcuts automation | No | Yes |
| Account required | No | No |
| Telemetry | None | Minimal usage data, not linked to you |
| Password auth | Yes | Yes |
| Public-key auth (SSH keys) | Yes (Ed25519, ECDSA, Secure Enclave P-256) | Yes |
| Secure Enclave hardware keys | Yes | Yes |
| Tmux single-finger scroll | Yes | Standard scroll |
| iPad layout (incl. 13" iPad Pro M4) | Universal app, full-canvas landscape, centred toolbar | Universal app, iPad supported |
| Connection sync | iCloud CloudKit | iCloud |
| Custom command shortcut | One Tap toolbar button | Snippets |
| Background session keep-alive | Opt-in, location-services-based | Limited (iOS standard) |
Copy an image on the phone, paste it into the session, and your agent reads it on the server. Multi-image paste works too. Secure ShellFish is one of the few other iOS clients that does this, so here it is a genuine tie. The same toolbar has a paperclip button for files: pick one from Files, or a photo or video from the library, upload over SSH, and the path lands at the prompt. ShellFish's Files-app mount already lets you drag any file onto the server the same way, so that one ties too. Where the two apps diverge is everything around it: ShellFish is built around SFTP and the Files app, ShellDrop around a thumb-first tmux cockpit for driving agents.
The clipboard works the other way too. Ask the agent to write something, tell it to copy the result, and it lands on the phone's clipboard ready to paste into another app. It is opt-in and takes about ten seconds to set up. Terminal text selection is now a dedicated mode: toggle it on, long-press a word, drag the handles, copy. And Nerd Fonts (FiraCode and JetBrains Mono) ship bundled, so the glyphs nvim and LazyVim rely on render the way they should.
ShellDrop is a free download with no in-app purchases and no ads, and its privacy label collects nothing. ShellFish has a usable free tier too, but the terminal shows ads until you buy Pro, and Files-app upload plus unlimited servers sit behind that same Pro upgrade ($2.99 a month, $14.99 a year, or $29.99 lifetime). Connection metadata syncs through your own iCloud and passwords stay in the on-device Keychain. The One Tap toolbar button fires a configured command over the active session with a single press.
Single-finger swipe through tmux scrollback without entering copy mode. Esc, Ctrl-C, arrow keys, Shift-Tab, and a dedicated tmux detach button always visible on the toolbar. If most of your remote work is inside a tmux pane attached to a coding agent, that is the day-to-day difference.
ShellDrop generates P-256 keys inside the iPhone Secure Enclave, where the private key never leaves the hardware. Ed25519 generation and paste-import of unencrypted OpenSSH keys (Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521) are also supported. This is another spot where the two apps line up: ShellFish supports Secure Enclave keys as well, alongside hardware security keys and CA-signed short-lived certificates.
Universal app, full landscape, hardware-keyboard friendly. On the 13" iPad Pro M4 the terminal uses the full canvas, toolbar centres, font scales cleanly. ShellFish supports iPad too; ShellDrop's layout is built around the large-canvas case.
ShellDrop adds Voice Drop, a built-in mic on the keyboard toolbar. It transcribes on-device with Apple speech at no cost, or through your own Groq API key for whisper-large-v3-turbo, and drops the words at the cursor without sending Return. Dictating a long prompt to an agent is the kind of input a phone keyboard is worst at, and it is where ShellDrop puts the least friction.
Version 5 also added custom key bindings for the keyboard toolbar: create your own Tmux-aware keys in Settings, Ctrl plus a key with an optional follow-up, and arrange them like any stock key.
This is ShellFish's headline. Your SSH connection becomes a location in the iOS Files app and macOS Finder. Drag files in and out of the terminal, open remote files in other apps with offline caching, save back. ShellDrop has nothing for this. For SFTP-style work today, ShellFish is the obvious choice.
ShellFish runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, and visionOS. ShellDrop is native on iPhone and iPad, the Vision Pro app arrives with version 5, and a macOS app is coming soon. If you want the same SSH client on a Mac and on your wrist today, ShellFish reaches further.
ShellFish has home-screen, lock-screen, and Apple Watch widgets that can tail a log or show output at a glance. ShellDrop has no widgets. If you want to keep an eye on a server from the watch face, that is a real ShellFish advantage.
ShellFish exposes Shortcuts actions for automation, plus port forwarding, DigitalOcean droplet creation, and scanning of connection details from copied text. ShellDrop's surface is narrower by design. If you want to wire SSH tasks into iOS Shortcuts, ShellFish is built for it.
If you move files between phone and server regularly, photo uploads to a static site, log file downloads, config edits, ShellFish has been built around this since day one and the workflow is polished. ShellDrop is not trying to compete on that surface.
Running both is fine. ShellFish for the SFTP layer, ShellDrop for the tmux + agent loop.
Yes, both do. Copy an image on the phone, paste it into the session, and your agent reads it on the server. ShellFish supports the same image paste flow, so this one is a genuine tie. The real difference is elsewhere: ShellDrop is free with zero telemetry and built around a tmux-first cockpit for driving agents, while ShellFish is built around SFTP and the iOS Files app and keeps some of those features behind Pro.
ShellFish has a usable free tier for SSH and terminal work. Pro removes the terminal ads and unlocks Files-app upload and unlimited servers, at $2.99/month, $14.99/year, or $29.99 lifetime. ShellDrop is free with no ads and no in-app purchases.
No general Files-app integration. A toolbar button can attach a single file, photo, or video though: it uploads over SSH and drops the path at the prompt. For dragging files freely between iOS Files and a remote server, ShellFish is the established option.
It is built around tmux, single-finger scrollback, dedicated detach button, always-visible Esc / Ctrl-C / arrow keys. ShellFish runs tmux over SSH as any terminal would, without a dedicated mode.
Yes. Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521 paste-import, and Secure Enclave-backed P-256 keys.
Either covers the SSH layer. ShellDrop is built around this workflow, tmux scroll, dedicated Esc / Ctrl-C / arrow keys, background keep-alive, One Tap for firing commands at the agent.
ShellDrop is on the App Store. Universal iPhone and iPad, iOS 17+. Free, no subscription.
