Compare

What do you use now?

Pick it — here’s what you keep, what you gain, and what you give up.

If you use Termius

Keep the toolbox. Lose the login.

YOU KEEP Hosts and groups, SFTP, port forwarding, snippets, keys, historyJump hosts, one-time codes, ProxyCommand on the Mac

YOU GAIN No account, no seats — sync through your own iCloudShells that survive a dropped connectionAgents marked when they wait, and push for them

YOU GIVE UP Windows, Linux and Android apps

SSH Client →

If you use tmux

Shells that outlive the connection — without the prefix key.

YOU KEEP Shells that keep running when you leavetmux itself, if you like it — it runs inside SpectaShell

YOU GAIN Reattaches by itselfThe last 1 MiB of scrollback, scrolled nativelyOne tap to the same shell on iPad or iPhone

YOU GIVE UP tmux’s scripting and its panes on the server — SpectaShell’s panes are the app’s

Sessions →

If you use mosh

Stay connected — over plain SSH.

YOU KEEP Riding out network changes and your device sleeping

YOU GAIN Port 22 only — no UDP to open on the serverScrollback that comes backThe same shell on another device

YOU GIVE UP Predictive local echo, which is better on a slow link

Sessions →

If you use cmux

Agent-aware — on every host, from every device.

YOU KEEP Seeing which agent waits for youPanes and tabs per project

YOU GAIN Agents on any machine you can SSH intoShells there that survive a disconnectFull control from iPad and iPhoneMarks even with no window open

YOU GIVE UP Its Ghostty-based renderer and its vertical tabs

Agents →

If you use Moshi

Agent alerts on your phone — from anything, sealed.

YOU KEEP Agent alerts on your iPhoneA real terminal in your pocket

YOU GAIN Nothing to install in an agent’s settingsAny program’s own notifications, and commands that endSealed end to end; the relay never learns a host’s nameThe same shells on Mac and iPad

YOU GIVE UP Answering from the notification itselfAndroid, and actions on Apple WatchVoice dictationPredictive local echo, over Mosh

Notifications →

All of it, side by side

Feature	Mac terminals for agents	SSH clients	SpectaShell
Marks the agent that waits for you	● Yes	—	● Yes
Agents on your servers, not only this Mac	—	● Yes	● Yes
Shells keep running when you disconnect	This Mac only	—	● Yes
Pick the same shell up on iPad and iPhone	Beta, through your Mac	—	● Yes
Host book, SFTP, keys, port forwarding	—	● Yes	● Yes
Sync and teams without an account	—	Account required	● Yes

What most apps in each category do today.

Good to know

What can Calida Lab see?

Nothing of your terminal. SpectaShell speaks plain SSH from your device to your server, and what syncs lives in your own iCloud. The one server Calida Lab runs relays notifications from hosts, sealed on the host (HPKE) so that only your device can open them.

Do I install a daemon on my server?

Nothing is required — any machine you can SSH into works. The optional keeper is a small program in your home folder, one process per kept shell: no root, no system service, no open port. Servers without it still work over plain SSH.

Is the keeper open source, and how do I check it?

Its source, with the terminal engine it links, is published under Apache 2.0 when the public beta opens, with each release’s SHA-256 checksums. SpectaShell itself checks a keeper’s checksum and build on your server before it runs it.

Which agents does it work with?

Any program that runs in a terminal. Agents that report their state, such as Claude Code and Codex, are marked when they wait for you.

Can I use the iPad without a Mac?

Yes. The iPad and iPhone open shells on your servers, or on a Mac you reach over SSH, and need no Mac of their own. They have no local shell: every shell runs on a host.

What’s missing if I come from Termius?

Mosh, saved passwords, forwards from the host back to you (ssh -R) and SOCKS proxies (ssh -D). Keepers do what Mosh is used for over plain SSH, though Mosh’s predictive echo is better on a slow link. Passwords are asked when needed and never stored, and your password manager (Passwords, 1Password) can fill them; after one login, SpectaShell offers to add the device’s key instead.

Is there SFTP, and a browser pane?

Yes. SFTP shows two places side by side, this device and a host or two hosts, and copies between them. A page beside a shell opens a port of its host through your SSH connection, and an agent in that shell can drive it.

Do I still need tmux?

Not to keep shells alive — the keeper does that. You can still run tmux inside SpectaShell.

What about my MacBook?

Shells on a MacBook keep running while it is awake and pause when the lid closes. For unattended agents, use a server or a desktop Mac.

Is there a Windows or Android app?

No. SpectaShell is for Mac, iPad and iPhone. The keeper runs on Linux and macOS hosts.

When and how much?

Soon — the Mac app as a signed, notarized download, iPad and iPhone on the App Store. Pricing comes with the launch.

NextSecurity → Get notified at launch