The WebSSH most people mean is the long-standing "WebSSH - Sysadmin Toolbox" by isontheline, running on the App Store since 2012 and still actively maintained across iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision. It is a broad sysadmin app: SSH plus SFTP, Telnet, Serial, local port forwarding, and built-in network tools like ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, and whois. ShellDrop sits in a narrower spot on the same shelf: free, SSH-only, tuned for tmux and AI coding agents.
Both are legitimate, privacy-clean apps. Here is an honest side-by-side.
| ShellDrop 5 | WebSSH | |
|---|---|---|
| Paste a screenshot into the terminal | Yes. Any image, multi-image; agent reads them on the server | Not a documented feature; file transfer runs through a separate SFTP browser |
| Attach a file from Files or Photos | Yes. Files, photos or video; uploads over SSH, path lands at the prompt | Not a documented feature; file transfer runs through a separate SFTP browser |
| 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 |
| Pricing | Free. No account, no in-app purchases | Free for one saved connection; $12.99 one-time unlock for unlimited |
| Platforms | Native on iPhone and iPad, Vision Pro with version 5, macOS coming soon | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Vision |
| Protocols | SSH | SSH, Telnet, Serial |
| SFTP | No | Yes, full in-app file browser |
| Network diagnostics (ping, traceroute, DNS, whois) | No | Yes, built in |
| Account required | No | No |
| Telemetry | None | None (privacy label: no data collected) |
| Password auth | Yes | Yes |
| Public-key auth (SSH keys) | Yes. Ed25519, ECDSA, Secure Enclave P-256 | Yes. RSA, DSA, ED25519, PuTTY-format |
| Secure Enclave hardware keys | Yes. P-256 private key never leaves the Secure Enclave | Not a documented feature |
| 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 (varies by version) |
| Custom command shortcut | One Tap toolbar button | Startup commands |
| Background session keep-alive | Opt-in, location-services-based | Limited (iOS standard) |
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. WebSSH does not document anything like either: its file transfer runs through a separate SFTP browser rather than a paste or attach into the terminal. 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.
ShellDrop is free with every feature in the base download. WebSSH is free for a single saved connection, with a one-time $12.99 unlock for unlimited connections. Neither runs a subscription, so the two are close here. If you keep more than one host, WebSSH's unlock is a fair one-time 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. WebSSH renders tmux fine but does not have a dedicated mode for it.
ShellDrop generates P-256 keys inside the iPhone Secure Enclave. The private key never leaves the hardware. Ed25519 and paste-import of unencrypted OpenSSH keys (Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521) are also supported.
Full landscape, hardware-keyboard friendly, font scales cleanly, toolbar centres. On the 13" iPad Pro M4 the terminal uses the whole 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.
WebSSH has a full SFTP client built in: browse, create, rename, upload, download, and edit text files on the remote host. ShellDrop is SSH-only with no general file browser, though a toolbar button can attach a single file, photo, or video, uploading it over SSH and dropping the path at the prompt. If you move arbitrary files between your phone and remote hosts, WebSSH covers that and ShellDrop does not.
WebSSH covers SSH, Telnet, and Serial in one app. If you connect to a mix of legacy gear (Telnet on switches, routers, serial consoles) and modern boxes, having one client that speaks all three is genuinely useful. ShellDrop is SSH-only.
WebSSH bundles ping, traceroute, DNS lookup, and whois, plus local port forwarding and a local shell. For sysadmin work where you want the terminal and the network tools in one place, that breadth is a real advantage. ShellDrop leaves those to separate tools.
WebSSH runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Vision, and it has been maintained on the App Store since 2012. The corner cases are well-worn, odd terminal types, legacy key formats, awkward servers, and the app handles them.
WebSSH is a free download limited to one saved connection. A one-time WebSSH PRO purchase of $12.99 unlocks unlimited connections. There is no subscription. ShellDrop is fully free with no in-app purchases.
Pasting an image into the terminal is not a documented WebSSH feature; its file transfer runs through a separate SFTP browser. ShellDrop lets you copy any image on the phone, paste it into the session for your agent to read.
Yes. WebSSH supports SSH, Telnet and Serial, plus SFTP and network tools like ping, traceroute, DNS lookup and whois. ShellDrop is SSH-only.
Yes. Ed25519, ECDSA P-256/P-384/P-521 paste-import, plus Secure Enclave-backed P-256 keys.
ShellDrop. Single-finger scrollback, dedicated detach button, always-visible Esc / Ctrl-C / arrow keys.
ShellDrop. The whole app is tuned for it, tmux scroll, dedicated 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.
