Core Shell vs Secure ShellFish

Core Shell is a terminal app for managing hosts and opening remote shells with built-in OpenSSH support. It supports remote sessions, certificates and proxy jump, and the maker says a remote host can be reached with one click. Tags help organize large host lists, while per-host advanced SSH options come with contextual help. The app integrates with macOS Keychain for passphrases and can try to restore connections after network failure or waking from sleep. It also supports USB, Bluetooth and built-in serial interfaces, with common UART, RS-232, RS-422 and RS-485 adapters. Its terminal supports Terminal.app, iTerm2 and xterm compatibility and ANSI 16-color, 256-color and 24-bit color modes. SFTP is supported, and sessions use tabs. The free Basic plan allows unlimited hosts. Premium costs $29.99 a year, billed as a 4-Year License, and adds unlimited SSH and serial connections, profile importing and exporting, profile and tag sync across Macs, Shortcuts automation and priority support. It is listed for Mac, iPhone and iPad; macOS 15.0 or later is specified.

Secure ShellFish is an SSH and SFTP client for iPhone, iPad, and Mac. It provides a native terminal with native rendering, file-aware drag-and-drop, OSC 52 clipboard synchronization, and inline link detection. Connections expose remote files through the iOS Files app and Mac Finder, where files can be browsed, edited in place, and have permissions changed. Authentication supports passwords, public keys, two-factor authentication, ED25519, ECDSA and RSA keys, YubiKeys, Secure Enclave keys, and short-lived SSH certificates. Server configurations synchronize through iCloud Keychain, and snippets synchronize through iCloud. Shortcuts can upload or download files, list directories, run commands, back up data, or open a terminal. It can launch and destroy Linux virtual machines on DigitalOcean or Hetzner Cloud. Pro features add offline folders, media streaming, tmux controls, widgets, and Live Activities. The Free plan costs nothing.