I Tried Every iOS Terminal Emulator So You Don't Have To

(that support Mosh because otherwise what are we even doing)

I’m a simple girl. All I wanted was a terminal emulator on iOS that:
- supports mosh for persistence and to handle latency
- works well with tmux
- and most importantly, tap to scrollback with touch works

Several apps already lost on the first criteria. Those that passed the muster were:

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Update: after publishing this I've started running into scrollback garbling issues in rootshell. Some got fixed, I'm not sure all. Overall I still recommend it over all the other ones.

1. rootshell

You should just use rootshell . Tap the link, install it on your phone, be happy this problem has been solved now.

”But what about Blink?” you ask. We’ll get to that. If you’re still here that means you need convincing, so. rootshell is the only one I’ve found that uses libghostty which alone makes it better than literally anything else. And even after that, it has everything. Non-garbled tap to scrollback in tmux. mosh and tssh support. It’s entirely free somehow. It has 6 good built-in fonts and can use custom ones. It has one billion custom themes bundled. Custom keyboard toolbar though that’s table stakes these days. I could go on but seriously. Go use rootshell . I’m not getting paid for saying this. I should be. Again it is not even a contest how much it wipes the competition. Use rootshell .

You can stop reading now unless you care about 6 other terminal emulators I don’t recommend.

2. Blink

The classic power user choice. It’s fine, but $20/year. You can get the Community Edition for free in exchange for actively participating in testing and feedback. I’d use rootshell anyway because libghostty and nicer UX. Use rootshell .

3. Prompt 3

It’s $20 which would be fine, but rootshell exists. Also looks surprisingly janky for a Panic app. It warns you on connection that it’s “not an official mosh project”. Tap to scrollback doesn’t work at all in tmux. Use rootshell .

4. La Terminal

Tap to scrollback is a pain and gets garbled sometimes. Support seems non-existent. Use rootshell .

5. Moshi

This seems to not garble scrollback and even lets me switch between tmux tabs on tap, which rootshell can’t do. But it’s $5 a month or $30 a year. Use rootshell .

6. Termius

T ap to scrollback does not work at all. Use rootshell .

7. MTerm

This mysteriously stopped connecting to my server for some reason?? I never had this issue with the other six. Lifetime license $15 which is better than many, still. Use rootshell .

Conclusion

Why are you still here? Use rootshell .