SSH Files – Secure ShellFish Reviews

If you are looking for an SSH app on iOS/iPadOS/MacOS, look no further. It does everything you could possibly want and more. The Finder/Files integration is awesome and extremely useful. Everything syncs perfectly, so you can get the same experience on all of your devices. The developer is constantly adding new features and functionality to make SSHFiles even more useful and fun. While some SSH apps charge insane subscription fees (looking at you Termius), this one has a very reasonable one time purchase option. I've been using it for a few weeks now on my iPad/iPhone and just started on my Mac since that version was just released (included in price!). I've tried many SSH apps over the years and this one is by far my favorite. One of the best features is the shell integration that lets you open up files directly to another app and edit/save them without having to transfer back and forth. Highly recommended.

UPDATE: Turning off “Recognise Files” solved my issue and all is well now - thank you!!

Just started using SSHFiles. When it works, it’s great and it has nice features. Unfortunately it seems to break more than it works however. The UI constantly locks, whether when I’m about to type a new command in the terminal, trying to run a command within vi, or simply pressing the return key in any circumstance - the UI for SSHFiles completely locks up (on-screen keyboard included) for 5-10 seconds. At that point, it will either start working again, or SSHFiles will crash and I’m back at my iPad Home Screen.

I’d love to see these kinks worked out! Just starting to look for a shell for SSHing into my home server from my iPad and SSHFiles seems to have much more potential over the competition in terms of features and usability (I’ve purchased the Pro unlock too).

I’m a pro who uses Emacs in an iPad SSH client to do my job. I’ve tried ‘em all. Few have the advanced features, stability and predictability I need.

A while back I used Secure Shellfish as an SFTP solution. I revisited it recently and realized the terminal feature has matured to the point of being more consistent, functional and better designed than any competitors in the store. SSHFiles opens up so many ways of working that it immediately took the top spot as my primary professional tool.

While other pro SSH tools are a bit more configurable (such as with the ability to arbitrarily map any key), Secure Shellfish has amazing out-of-the-box defaults. It also has the best app icon! I’m blown away.

This is such a great app. Before Shellfish I’d find myself reaching for my Mac if I wanted to shell into a server. Now I just grab my iPad because this makes it so easy.

The developer is very responsive to feedback and bug reports and the updates keep coming. Sometimes in a niche app like this I’m afraid to get excited for it because so many other apps like it have been abandoned. That doesn’t seem to be the case here, the developer keeps cranking out these great little quality improvements that make SSHFiles better and better.

For example: if you exited a shell with “logout”, the window would dim but stay there. I always wondered why but it wasn’t a big deal to hit cmd+w to close it. Now the latest update automatically closes the window on exit. Is that amazing? No it’s not, but it’s just another little touch that makes SSHFiles better today than it was yesterday.

I haven’t even touched on the integration with Files app which is super handy too.

If you need to shell into servers and/or copy files to them, you have to check out SSHFiles.

SSHFiles is the best I’ve found by far for accessing files via sftp. It allows you to view these remote folders easily from the iOS file browser, as well as have specific remote subdirectories sync with your device locally so a constant network connection is not even needed.

Also I had a problem using the offline folder access initially since it caused SSHFiles to crash, but I contacted the developer and they quickly redirected me to the TestFlight version of SSHFiles which fixed the bug. So very great support from the developer!

This is by far the best purchase I made. It just works. Slick ui, easy navigation, no lag. What more could you want. I am able to ssh into a dev machine. Vim my life away and commit my changes. In the car, no problem as long as I am not driving. By the pool no problem. In an airport no issues. For the record I use this with an iPad and magic keyboard. If I had to complain, it’s because the magic keyboard does not have an escape button, but boom the onscreen controls fix that! SSHFiles is awesome and I recommend it.

I purchased SSHFiles on day one because of the amazing Working Copy. What started out as a simple SFTP transfer app as grown to become an easy to use, full featured terminal program as well. The developer works hard to make them “iOS apps”, fix bugs, and add new, useful features with regular updates.

Definitely worth downloading and worth buying if you have a need for transfers and terminals from your iOS devices. I’ve never once regretted my purchases.

The current icon designs available are not modern enough. They are overcomplicated and overuse gradient color. They're just not pleasing to my eyes.

The icon is only reason why I kept using several other shell apps for years and overlooked this one—I thought SSHFiles would be as crappy as the icon (which is completely wrong) and didn't even bother trying it.

It would be great if you make a new default icon, and allow user uploaded custom icons.

There is no better terminal app out there than this. Easily connect via SSH to your home servers, use an SSH tunnel to run a static site generator and preview the results on your phone, use the Files app integration to share documents to your self-hosted install of paperless-ng and build your own document scanning workflow…the list of possibilities goes on and on and on. And the developer is simply a gem. Try it today, but the subscription tomorrow, and use it forever.

By far and away the best of all the SSH apps out there… I’ve tried them all, from Prompt to Blink and everything In between. ShellFish does everything, and has so many cool features (like being able to show your terminal as a PIP window). The shell integration is super-slick, and the recent addition of a dedicated “paste” button makes this the ultimate tool for anybody who does stuff with remote servers and files.

Like the traffic cop in the center of an intersection directing traffic, SSHFiles elegantly solves problems moving files between my wired ethernet macOS platform and WiFi connected iOS devices. SSHFiles is worth every penny for just the time and effort this eliminates when trying to mimic AirPlay's functionality moving files between devices. SSH Cloud server connectivity on iOS is just a plus. The user interface also does quite well taming SSH's many features. Well done!

This is hands down the best Terminal App i've come across and easily top 3 apps I've ever purchased. I tried the free trial and knew within 5 minutes that I could uninstall all the all the others I'd collected. Just buy it, don't even bother with the free trial it's just delaying the inevitable. The developer is awesome as well and listens to the users. I've had personal requests become features. Thank you for SSHFiles.

I’ve tried many SFTP apps on SSHFiles store, but they just never had that one thing I needed. Full integration support with the native files app. Right when I opened SSHFiles , it was easy to use and getting my server setup. After that the magic happened when I saw it was available for use with the native files app. Such an awesome app. Props to the developer!

Very nice! After login credentials are loaded into SSHFiles (I only needed to do it once) my files on my web host’s remote server are readily available 24/7 in the files app on my iPhone. Simple, convenient and powerful - and it worked right “out of the box” just as SSHFiles Store description says it does.

If you’re looking for an SFTP client that runs on IOS, you have to check this out. I love it.

Both this and its brother Working Copy are wonderful, highly capable tools, enabling very real development from an iPad on Linux, including a complex Netlify-Vue-Fauna services app from here. And the stream of improvements from Anders is entirely impressive, always thoughtful, and always adding the extras one could wish. Thank you, in full appreciation!

I’ve tried several SSH apps over the years. In my opinion, this one beats out the others with its feature set and stability. In particular, it’s seamless integration with the Files app for SFTP transfers is spectacular. Good work! Glad to give this developer my money for a lifetime subscription (which is set at a very reasonable price compared to the competition).

Anders has set the bar for implementation of remote file access using iOS with his two Apps: "Shellfish" and "Working Copy". Both provide excellent online/offline access to files - each purpose built for a specific protocol (SSH and Git respectively).

These two Apps are now my go-to for full function file access at home and on the move.

Brilliant!

Love SSHFiles , it’s features, and most of all, the price! I don’t use SSHFiles much, but it’s nice to know I’m not paying monthly for something I only use once in awhile. I bought it RIGHT AWAY because the price is right!

My only wish is that it had Telnet support. But that can be worked around for now.

SSHFiles spies on you and uploads your usage activity to the developer without your consent.

EDIT: The developer has responded, saying it doesn’t upload personal information. That is a false statement, as it transmits the source IP address, which equates to an approximate location and uniquely identifies many users. SSHFiles lacks the functionality to report its nonconsensual spying results anonymously. The developer response is incorrect. The statement I made above is factually accurate. SSHFiles spies on you. SSHFiles uploads that spying data without your consent. SSHFiles includes PII (your IP and IP-based location) when doing that upload.

Excellent product - nothing new to add that hasn't already been said there.

What I can relate is the superb support; I had an issue that turned out to be my NAS config and nothing to do with shellfish; Anders (the dev) still ran down the issue for me amazingly quickly. Huge thanks!

As developer Anders Borum originated professional-grade git integration on iOS with Working Copy, which remains unmatched, Secure Shellfish remains the reference standard for remote filesystem access across the board on this platform, despite how many competitors have arisen since its introduction.

I must admit: I overlooked Secure Shellfish for years and I'm not entirely sure why. I'm glad that ended last year, though, as I've actually since acquired a fair amount of remote file management in my day-to-day working life. Shellfish's magic isn't necessarily obvious, but I promise you it is worth finding out, and what may at first glance look like a somewhat disjointed series of functions actually comes together to form an absolutely irreplaceable application.

SSHFiles is indespensable, period. Even if your not interested in an SSH client, the files app integration is the most stable I have seen yet.

As far as the SSH side of things goes the only real improvment I'd like to see is with "Snippits". I'd really like to have the ability to "Favorite" certain ones and have them directly in the right click menu.

The files integration is second to none! Literally more reliable than iCloud Drive lol. I'm really hoping the developer might spend some time putting in some "quality of life" improvments into the files aspect. I'd love to see things such as:

-Showing/generating thumbnails for all image/video formats even if they dont already have one in exif.

-Show thumbnail/preview for any file types that support it. (Docx, PSD, PDF, etc...)

-Set a default app for certain file types on iOS/iPadOS.

Other than that I just wish there was a community page, something like a user forum, or a Subreddit. Somewhere users can share tips and get advice with some of the more advanced features.

I’ve been using Secure ShellFish for a couple of months, and really enjoy having SSH access to the various systems I support using SSHFiles.

Not only does SSHFiles work well, when I ran into a slight issue in interacting with one of my systems, and contacted the author, I received an informative, and most importantly, helpful response. In my view, this means a lot, and is a clear indication of a development team that cares about SSHFiles they provide.

To be fair, there are other SSH clients out there, and I tried a couple. They worked, but I’m not a fan of dumping a fair amount on an subscription for something like this. I happily paid the one time premium for Secure ShellFish early on, even though the ads were somewhat amusing.

Absolutely zero regrets on my decision to use, and support Secure ShellFish. SSHFiles lets me do what I need to get done, by providing secure access to my systems.

...I wanted to take a few minutes to say thanks for, from my perspective, endlessly improving SSHFiles. It's replaced Transmit as my SFTP client of choice, which says a lot (for me, anyway). Being able to take my connections on the go from my tablet & phone is a huge advantage—I can't imagine going back from this.

A lot of us users, well, use the heck out of apps like these—and from all of us to you, we appreciate you!

Thank you and take care :)

This is SSHFiles I want to use. There are two things that keep me away: 1) arrows as buttons with no options for gestures. I would love if I could decide what swiping up/down/left/right on the terminal screen does. I would make it map to arrow keys. I use tmux so swiping to scroll up has no use. 2) ability to pick which keys are on the extra row. I use the backtick as a prefix key in tmux. Not being able to have it on screen breaks that flow.

Handily the most innovative and useful application for reaching remote folders in your Files app, including in automation, or just some good old-fashioned terminal access. Paired with the Working Copy app from the same developer (Hi Anders!) it’s a powerhouse of tools.

Updated 2023: This is still the best app, I’ve started using it with Shortcuts and automations. MultipathTCP is great I often use it with Tailscale.

This is arguably my favorite iOS app. If I were famous enough to do a "Best of" list, it would be at the top, and I would persuade the world that *this* is the way to manage your data and servers from an iPhone or iPad. If you know and love ssh and sftp, try it, and compare it to other turnkey file management and cli solutions. Shellfish makes the mobile future I dreamed about a reality.

Secure ShellFish is truly amazing. I use it for hours per day. The ssh experience is second to none, with outstanding tmux support and a super well thought out user interface and user experience. To make things even better, Secure ShellFish also allows remote server access as folders in the Files app. This has a knock on effect of making other development tools like Working Copy and Textastic even more useful than they already were. The developer is *extremely* responsive to feedback and goes way out of his way to track down bugs and incorporate features based on user input. I’m sure he’s heard enough from me to last him a lifetime, but he’s always super friendly and very accommodating. Top notch customer support, to say the least. I love you, Secure ShellFish. Never leave me, because I’m never leaving you.

ShellFish is well designed for efficient ssh from iOS and even macOS. I especially like
- the well thought through keyboard enhancements
- the ability to call ssh with a command
- the ability to connect via ssh/sftp to a file system
I also appreciate the ability to do a lifetime pro unlock. I just hate these recurring payments and that is a reason for me not to buy other apps.

I love it when software (or most anything) works. Spend a few minutes with Shellfish and you’ll find just that. It’s easy to tell that the developer cares and wants you to be able to transition without requiring you to jump through a hoop or do the mystery dance. Give yourself a moment, and check it out!

I was already a big fan of SSHFiles from using it on my iPad, but when it came to MacOS, that brought it to a new level. I have honestly started using this as my daily driver for terminal needs much of the time as the cloud sync and tmux integration make it really easy to know I can just pick up where I left off on whatever device I happen to have handy. The remote file support and Finder integration is just the icing on top.

I originall needed a way to access files on my Mac server, from my iPhone, that is. The iPhone integration with the Files app makes this very straightforward. I am even able to stream films from my server to my iPhone, so no more lugging of a hard disk copy of my server files.

The purchase of the iOS version also entitled me to the Mac version. I did not see a need for it because I use Cyberduck for my SSH file transfers. That is, until I discovered that, on the Mac, too, I can now mount the SSH target in the FInder, which makes SSH tranfers much easier.

shellfish is a fantastic SSH client that's simple and easy to use. I keep finding new crazy features with it. It seems like there's no end to all the fancy features to find like files app integration, widgets, tmux integration, and even launching ipad shortcuts from bash. tbh the files app integration on it's own makes SSHFiles worth even if you don't use SSH at all, it just makes it so easy to move files across machines.