vSSH by Velestar is a PuTTY-based SSH and Telnet client that had a good run on iOS. Its last real release was version 1.11 in 2015, and it has since been removed from the App Store, so it is no longer downloadable. If you still have it installed, one thing is worth knowing up front: it supports ssh-rsa and ssh-dss key types only, formats that modern SSH servers increasingly refuse, so it can fail to connect to current hosts.
So this is less a feature fight and more a look at the modern alternative. ShellDrop is free, actively maintained, and built around tmux sessions attached to AI coding agents on a headless Mac Mini. Here is an honest side-by-side.
| ShellDrop 5 | vSSH | |
|---|---|---|
| Availability | On the App Store, actively updated | Removed from the App Store, last updated 2015 |
| Paste a screenshot into the terminal | Yes. Any image, multi-image; agent reads them on the server | No |
| Attach a file from Files or Photos | Yes. Files, photos or video; uploads over SSH, path lands at the prompt | No |
| Voice dictation | Built in. On-device Apple speech free, or your own Groq key. | Not a listed feature |
| Pricing model | Free. No account, no in-app purchases | Was a one-time paid app (free Lite existed); not currently downloadable |
| Platforms | Native on iPhone and iPad, Vision Pro with version 5, macOS coming soon | None current (was iPhone, iPad; no visionOS) |
| Account required | No | No (had optional iCloud / Dropbox sync) |
| Telemetry | None | Not applicable (predates App Store privacy labels) |
| Password auth | Yes | Yes |
| Public-key auth (SSH keys) | Ed25519 and Secure Enclave P-256 | ssh-rsa and ssh-dss only (may be rejected by modern servers); no Secure Enclave |
| SFTP | No | No |
| Port forwarding UI | No (manual via SSH config) | Yes |
| Tmux single-finger scroll | Yes | No Tmux mode; extended on-screen keyboard |
| iPad layout (incl. 13" iPad Pro M4) | Universal app, full-canvas landscape, centred toolbar | iPad supported |
| Custom command shortcut | One Tap toolbar button | Saved commands |
| Background session keep-alive | Opt-in, location-services-based | Limited (iOS standard) |
| Connection sync | iCloud CloudKit (device-only Keychain) | Optional iCloud / Dropbox |
Copy an image anywhere on the phone and paste it into the session. Your agent reads it on the server. Multi-image paste works too. 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. vSSH never offered anything like either, and it has not been updated since 2015. For anyone feeding screenshots to a coding agent all day, that is the gap between one paste and a five-step detour.
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.
No up-front cost.
Single-finger swipe through tmux scrollback without entering copy mode. The toolbar carries Esc, Ctrl-C, arrow keys, Shift-Tab, and a tmux detach button at all times. Built around the case of leaving a coding agent running in tmux and checking in from a phone.
ShellDrop generates P-256 keys inside the iPhone Secure Enclave. Private key cannot be exported, even by the app. Ed25519 and paste-import of unencrypted OpenSSH keys (Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521) also supported.
Full landscape, hardware-keyboard friendly, font scales cleanly. The toolbar centres on the large canvas.
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.
These were real features while vSSH was current. They are listed for completeness, with the caveat that the app is no longer maintained or downloadable.
vSSH shipped a port-forwarding interface, Telnet support alongside SSH, and session logging. ShellDrop handles port forwarding at the SSH config layer with manual -L / -R flags, and is SSH-only.
vSSH offered an extended on-screen keyboard for reaching keys a phone keyboard hides. It had no dedicated tmux mode, so scrollback and control keys were not tuned for tmux the way ShellDrop's always-visible toolbar is.
No. vSSH's last release was version 1.11 in 2015, and it has since been removed from the App Store, so it is not currently downloadable. ShellDrop is an actively maintained alternative with modern Ed25519 and Secure Enclave keys.
vSSH was historically a one-time paid app (around $4.99) with a free Lite version, based on PuTTY 0.65. It is no longer on the App Store, so pricing is not live-verifiable. ShellDrop is free with no account and no in-app purchases.
No. As a PuTTY 0.65-based client, vSSH supports ssh-rsa and ssh-dss key types only, with no Ed25519 or ECDSA and no Secure Enclave. Modern SSH servers increasingly reject ssh-rsa and ssh-dss, so an abandoned client like this can fail to connect to current hosts. ShellDrop generates Ed25519 keys and Secure Enclave-backed P-256 keys.
Yes. Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521 paste-import, plus Secure Enclave-backed P-256 keys.
ShellDrop. Single-finger tmux scrollback, dedicated detach button, always-visible Esc / Ctrl-C / arrow keys. vSSH has an extended on-screen keyboard but no tmux mode.
ShellDrop is on the App Store. Universal iPhone and iPad, iOS 17+. Free, no subscription.
