Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Blink Shell VS iSH

Compare Blink Shell VS iSH and see what are their differences

Blink Shell logo Blink Shell

Super-fast and highly configurable, professional-grade terminal for iOS.

iSH logo iSH

The Linux shell on iOS.
  • Blink Shell Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-13
  • iSH Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-05

Blink Shell features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Compatibility
    Blink Shell is available on multiple platforms, including iOS and macOS, making it accessible for users across different devices.
  • Mosh Support
    Blink Shell supports Mosh (mobile shell), providing a more robust SSH experience with better performance over wireless and unstable connections.
  • Customization
    Users can customize Blink Shell extensively, including themes, fonts, and layouts, allowing for a personalized experience.
  • User-Friendly Interface
    The app offers an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, making it approachable for both novice and experienced users.
  • Local Terminal Access
    Besides SSH access, Blink Shell also offers a local terminal, allowing users to perform tasks directly on their device.

Possible disadvantages of Blink Shell

  • Paid Application
    Blink Shell is a paid app, which might not be suitable for users looking for a free alternative.
  • Limited to Apple Ecosystem
    While it is cross-platform within Apple's ecosystem, it lacks availability on other platforms like Android or Windows.
  • Learning Curve
    Despite its user-friendly design, users unfamiliar with terminal applications may still face a learning curve.
  • Dependence on iOS/macOS Features
    Some functionalities might be tied to the specific features of iOS and macOS, potentially limiting customization or performance based on the device.
  • Security Concerns
    As with any application that interfaces with remote servers, users must ensure their security protocols are robust to avoid compromising sensitive data.

iSH features and specs

  • Compatibility
    iSH allows users to run a Linux shell environment on iOS devices, offering compatibility across platforms and enabling the execution of a variety of Linux-based applications.
  • User-friendly
    The app provides an intuitive interface that makes it easy for both beginners and experienced users to navigate and use Linux tools on their iOS devices.
  • Offline Access
    iSH can be used without an internet connection, allowing users to run scripts and perform tasks without needing to be online.
  • Portability
    By allowing Linux to run on an iOS device, iSH adds significant portability for developers and sysadmins who need shell access on-the-go.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source application, iSH encourages community collaboration and transparency, allowing users to contribute or modify the code.

Possible disadvantages of iSH

  • Performance Limitations
    Due to running within a virtualization layer, performance may not match a native Linux environment. Resource-intensive tasks may not performant smoothly.
  • Limited System Calls
    Some system calls are not supported or behave differently in iSH, which could pose a limitation for certain applications or scripts requiring those features.
  • App Store Limitations
    Being subject to Apple's App Store policies could potentially restrict the features or updates available through iSH compared to a regular Linux environment.
  • No Full Desktop Environment
    iSH provides a shell-only environment, meaning users looking for a full desktop experience will not find it in this application.
  • Battery Usage
    Running a Linux shell with iSH can be resource-intensive on mobile devices, leading to increased battery drain compared to regular app usage.

Blink Shell videos

Blink Shell: Mosh and SSH Review

More videos:

  • Review - iPadOS Terminal App Overview: Termius vs Blink Shell - Generating SSH keys
  • Tutorial - HOW TO USE BLINK SHELL ON IOS TO ACCESS GOOGLE CLOUD PLATFORM TO PROGRAM ON AN IPAD

iSH videos

In-depth-ish review of the RS3M 2020 (NEW MAIN!?!?)

More videos:

  • Review - Mistborn - A Spoiler Free -ish Review! The Final Empire
  • Review - Black-ish AF: Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Blink Shell and iSH)
Terminal Tools
52 52%
48% 48
SSH
50 50%
50% 50
Server Management
56 56%
44% 44
Cloud Computing
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Blink Shell and iSH

Blink Shell Reviews

10 Termux Alternatives
Blink Shell is a platform that creates and builds blink to support the Linux shell environment and UNIX terminal with the best SSH and mosh services included. Developers of this software didn’t add unnecessary features and had all the desired programs and commands to navigate their files quickly and comfortably. This is the best platform to access and perform your work from...

iSH Reviews

10 Termux Alternatives
ISH is an app that provides a Linux environment on your IOS device with a keyboard addition that helps you take complete control over your navigation system. It is an explorable project that can control it from remote devices by using some of its simple settings of API endpoints. You can quickly move your files around and edit them according to your specific needs and can...

Social recommendations and mentions

iSH might be a bit more popular than Blink Shell. We know about 48 links to it since March 2021 and only 40 links to Blink Shell. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Blink Shell mentions (40)

  • Maker of RStudio launches new R and Python IDE
    Hosted vs code server is what I used to use: https://github.com/coder/code-server. - Source: Hacker News / 11 months ago
  • Run VSCode and terminal on any iOS device
    $20 a year https://blink.sh/#choose-package. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says
    You can work on it https://blink.sh/ see also https://docs.blink.sh/advanced/code. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Apple debuts iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus
    You can already do that with an iPad (sans fat OS). If you're using Blink Shell (https://blink.sh) the external display is independent of what's on the iPad too, which works really neatly. This is the exact setup I used as my main dev machine in a previous role. Would be very nice to see if this works on the new iPhones. A thin client with decent security in your pocket with keyboard/mouse/display at both home and... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Apple iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
    I use blink[0] with a 40% keyboard to develop linux program on a vps. If you want to do programming without wireless interenet, another option is to connect a raspberry pi zero 2w (with usb gadget mode enabled) to the usb c port using a single usb cable. Then the rpi zero will share a ethernet network with iOS device. Then you can use blink (again) to mosh to raspberrypi.local to do the development on the pi. The... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

iSH mentions (48)

  • Show HN: Lume – OS Lightweight CLI/API for macOS/Linux VMs on Apple Silicon
    You can, with ish (https://ish.app). It is a bit slow though and doesn't support the newest releases. (Well and by default it runs Alpine instead of Debian). - Source: Hacker News / 4 months ago
  • Poll: When will we see full Linux distros as official iPhone apps?
    I'm a happy daily iSH [1] user, it's an amazing technical project, but I really pine for the day when `apt get blah` will be a reality, using an app available from the official App Store. Be it a paid or free app. CLI only, or with graphics. For concreteness, let's say a Debian-based distro in your iPhone upon tapping Get on Apple's App Store, independently of your location. It is pretty sad that, if... - Source: Hacker News / 9 months ago
  • Apple downgrades new M2 iPad Air, 9-core GPU instead of 10-core
    > in software side of Ipad IOS, that is the biggest innovation in years That would be iSH, slow but functional Alpine Linux emulation for iOS. https://ish.app. - Source: Hacker News / 12 months ago
  • Apple must open iPadOS to sideloading within 6 months, EU says
    > Just imagine how much more versatile the iPad Pro would be if only you could run Linux VMs on it After installing https://ish.app for Alpine Linux emulation on iPad, one immediately comes up with use cases, even though it's excruciatingly slow. Hopefully Apple opens up the imminent M3 iPad Pros to run macOS and Linux VMs. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • How to copy a file between devices?
    Android: install termux, `pkg install openssh`, and preferably run `termux-setup-storage` to give it access to storage folders. iOS: I think https://ish.app/ ? - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Blink Shell and iSH, you can also consider the following products

Termux - Terminal emulator and Linux environment for Android

Android Terminal Emulator - Android-Terminal-Emulator - A VT-100 terminal emulator for the Android OS

UserLAnd - Easiest way to run GNU/Linux Distros on Android - no root required

MSYS2 - A Cygwin-derived software distro for Windows using Arch Linux's Pacman

MinGW - MinGW ("Minimalistic GNU for Windows") is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and...

Linux Deploy - This application is open source software for quick and easy installation of the operating system...