SwiftServer and Blink Shell, side by side
Blink Shell is a terminal for iPhone and iPad. SwiftServer brings a terminal, monitoring, and Docker to iPhone, iPad, and Mac.
Blink Shell is a keyboard-first terminal built around Mosh, and extends into remote development with Blink Code and Blink Build.
SwiftServer supports Mosh and jump hosts too, and adds a dashboard, a Docker panel, and a native Mac app.
| Feature | SwiftServer | Blink Shell |
|---|---|---|
| Platforms | SwiftServer:iPhone, iPad, and Mac. iOS 18 and macOS 15 or later. | Blink Shell:iPhone, iPad, Apple Vision. |
| Pricing | SwiftServer:Free. Premium is $1.99 a month, $9.99 a year, or $34.99 once. | Blink Shell:Free with in-app purchases. Blink+ is $19.99 a year with 2 weeks free. |
| Account required | SwiftServer:None. There is no SwiftServer account to create. | Blink Shell:— |
| Server monitoring without an agent | SwiftServer:Read-only commands over the SSH connection you already have. | Blink Shell:— |
| Docker management | SwiftServer:Containers, Compose, images, volumes, networks, and live events. | Blink Shell:— |
| Mosh | SwiftServer:Included in the free tier, with no session limit. | Blink Shell:Yes, a core feature. |
| Port forwarding | SwiftServer:Local, remote, and dynamic SOCKS. | Blink Shell:Local, remote, and dynamic. |
| Jump hosts | SwiftServer:A single hop or a chain of hops. Premium. | Blink Shell:Yes, ProxyJump and arbitrary ProxyCommand. |
| Connection proxy | SwiftServer:SOCKS5 and HTTP CONNECT profiles. Premium. | Blink Shell:SOCKS5 through dynamic forwarding on port 10800. |
| NVIDIA GPU metrics | SwiftServer:Read from nvidia-smi on Linux and Windows hosts. | Blink Shell:— |
| Sync between devices | SwiftServer:iCloud. A private CloudKit database, credentials in iCloud Keychain. | Blink Shell:iCloud host sync. |
| SSH engine named and open source | SwiftServer:Traversio, written by GitSwift, AGPL-3.0 and commercial. | Blink Shell:Built on libssh and libssh2. The app is GPL-3.0. |
| SFTP | SwiftServer:Browsing, transfers, and server-to-server copy between two sessions. | Blink Shell:Yes, with Files.app integration for SFTP hosts. |
Blink Shell information is taken from its website and App Store listing.
Where SwiftServer is different
See the server first
Know how a server is doing before you type a thing. Refresh every second or every minute, your call.
Docker with buttons
Containers, Compose, images, volumes, and networks, with a button for every action. Changes arrive in about a second.
One app on the Mac too
A native Mac app with multiple windows, a Dock menu, and menu bar commands. Hosts and rules sync across all three through iCloud.
Questions
Does SwiftServer support Mosh like Blink Shell?
Yes, and it is free. Pick Mosh as a machine’s terminal mode, SwiftServer bootstraps mosh-server over SSH, and the session then runs over UDP. It also works through a jump host or a proxy.
Is SwiftServer open source?
The app is not. Its SSH engine is. Traversio, the SSH2 stack SwiftServer connects with, is published at github.com/GitSwiftHQ/Traversio under AGPL-3.0 with a commercial option.
Does SwiftServer have a Mac app?
Yes, a native macOS 15 app in the same purchase. Buying on one platform covers the others through your Apple ID.
Can I run a local shell on the iPhone?
No. SwiftServer connects to remote machines over SSH and Mosh. On the Mac it can open a local shell through the SwiftServer Helper.
Try it against your own servers.
The download is free, there is no account, and the dashboard fills in within seconds of adding a host.