a-Shell mini Downloads & Revenuea-Shell mini · App Store
a-Shell mini is #32 in Developer Tools Free in United States and charting in 15 of 30 countries we track.
Updated 9 Nov 2026 · rankings refresh through the day
DeveloperNicolas Holzschuch
CategoryDeveloper Tools
PriceFree
Released
Rating★ 4.6 (124)
Version2.3.2
Age rating17+
First seen by us
24 Sep 2026
24 Sep 2026Installs (est.)50k+ worldwide
📦Updated to version 2.3.2📦Updated to version 2.3.1✏️Added hidden keywords: python📈Entered the top 10📈Entered the top 100🆕First spotted by AppInsider🆕Released on the App Store
Full timeline · 11 events
- 📦a-Shell mini updated to version 2.3.2- Fixes an issue that causes a crash on iOS 15, 16 and 17.
- new command: "relay", to connect from an external computer - ✏️a-Shell mini: needs a newer iOSiOS 14.0 → iOS 15.0
- 📦a-Shell mini updated to version 2.3.1- iPhone Duo support
- fixes an issue with iCloud support
- new command: "photos", for access to camera roll
- multiple smaller bug fixes - 📦a-Shell mini updated to version 2.3.0- updated certificate files for the main app and for Python to fix for the eMudhra CA Key Compromise issue.
- support for user fonts
- support for color themes
- bug fixes: the terminal remains above the keyboard, the terminal gets the focus back on its own after you dismiss a "view" or a "play" window, matching the toolbar color with the terminal color, fixed several places where the app would crash...… more - ✏️a-Shell mini added hidden keywords: pythonwords in the App Store's hidden keyword field (found by probing search)
- 📈a-Shell mini entered the top 10Top Free · Developer Tools · IT
- 📈a-Shell mini entered the top 100Top Free · Developer Tools · AE
- 📈a-Shell mini charting in a new countryUnited Arab Emirates
- 🆕a-Shell mini first spotted by AppInsider#63 in Top Free · Developer Tools · Germany
- 📦a-Shell mini version 2.2.2No release notes
- 🆕a-Shell mini released on the App Store
Collected from the stores by AppInsider since we first spotted the app. Dates are when we saw each change.
Rating
4.6 ★
124 ratings
Measured
Best rank now
#32
Developer Tools FreeMeasured
New ratings a week
2.8
▲ +60% vs the 2 weeks before
Measured
a-Shell mini on the App Store
App details
App ID
1543537943
Publisher
Nicolas Holzschuch
On the store since
Dec 2020
5 years on the store
Minimum OS
iOS 15.0+
iPhone 6s and later
Devices
iPhone · iPad
Universal purchase
Content rating
17+
1 content note below
Languages
7
EN FR DE JA KO ZH ES
Size
398 MB
Also listed in
Education
Content notesUnrestricted Web Access
a-Shell mini downloads
Worldwide, per day, and installs to date. The band is open; the exact number is free with an account.
How this is calculated
Apple publishes no download counts. App Store downloads come from chart positions and daily rating growth per country, calibrated on Google Play install counts; lifetime installs from ratings worldwide × installs per rating. Confidence is the chance the real number is within half to double ours.
Where a-Shell mini's downloads come from Modelled
Last 30 days: organic search, browsing the store, features and paid ads.
Active users
All platforms, worldwide. Free with an account.
Stickiness (DAU / MAU)
how many monthly users open it on a given day
Retention · share of new users still active
Day 1
Day 7
Day 30
Time spent · per daily user
Average time spent Pro
min a day
Sessions a day Pro
Time per session Pro
min
How this is calculated
Monthly users come from lifetime installs across every store, fitted on monthly active user figures companies publish; daily users = monthly × the typical daily/monthly ratio for the category. Confidence is the chance the real number is within half to double ours.
Where it ranks now
Every top chart it appears in across 30 countries.
| Country | Charts | Rank |
|---|---|---|
| United States | Developer ToolsFree | #32 |
 Japan | Developer ToolsFree | #26 |
 South Korea | Developer ToolsFree | #12 |
 China | Developer ToolsFree | #48 |
| Germany | Developer ToolsFree | #28 |
 Saudi Arabia | Developer ToolsFree | #14 |
 United Kingdom | Developer ToolsFree | #57 |
 Canada | Developer ToolsFree | #28 |
 India | Developer ToolsFree | #29 |
 France | Developer ToolsFree | #38 |
 Australia | Developer ToolsFree | #33 |
 Italy | Developer ToolsFree | #26 |
 United Arab Emirates | Developer ToolsFree | #14 |
 Brazil | Developer ToolsFree | #38 |
 Indonesia | Developer ToolsFree | #58 |
Apps near a-Shell mini on the chart
Developer Tools Free, around #32.
Ratings
App Store, worldwide.
Rating
4.6 ★
124 ratings
Measured
Ratings
124
Measured
Review momentum
ⓘ How we measure thisNew ratings a week
2.8
▲ +60% vs the 2 weeks before
Written reviews a week
under 1
US App Store
Lifetime rating
4.3★
recent stars not readable yet: new ratings are a tiny share of the total
Review momentum
82/100
faster than 89% of Developer Tools apps
Review momentum (0-100) blends how fast the app collects ratings compared with other apps in its category (60%), whether that pace is speeding up (25%) and what recent raters give it (15%; recent stars well below lifetime pull it down). Ratings counts are read daily. A jump usually means a launch, a feature, ads or a new review prompt.
What users say about a-Shell mini
From the 21 most recent App Store reviews in the US.
Users appreciate the app's lightweight nature and lack of paywalls compared to competitors like Blink Shell. However, recent updates have caused significant frustration due to crashes on launch and broken keyboard controls.
Mostly positive (76% of recent reviews give 4–5 stars). People like it for being easy to use, and its features and content.
What people like
- Ease of use: “lightweight and super easy to use”
- Features & content: “Otherwise, I find a very useful tool in my IT toolbox”
- Useful: “A useful shell for SSH, other IT functions”
About a-Shell mini
a-Shell mini is a complete local terminal emulator, allowing to run most Unix commands on you iOS device. You can transfer files using scp and curl, edit them with vim and ed, process them using grep, awk and sed. Work with git repositories using lg2.
Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with iOS underlying BSD Unix.
a-Shell mini includes Python, Lua, JavaScript and webAssembly for programming and scripting. It also includes native ffmpeg and convert for fast image and video conversion.
There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands.
a-Shell mini can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps...
a-Shell mini uses iPadOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python.
a-Shell mini is a minimalist terminal, designed to have a very small footprint (less than 250 MB). If you need more commands, please consider a-Shell, which has more Python packages, more JavaScript modules, Perl, make, a C and C++ compiler and TeX.
Most commands are compiled for iOS native Arm64 format, making them fast and well integrated with iOS underlying BSD Unix.
a-Shell mini includes Python, Lua, JavaScript and webAssembly for programming and scripting. It also includes native ffmpeg and convert for fast image and video conversion.
There are also multiple network utilities: nslookup, ping, whois, ifconfig... Type help for help, help -l to get the full list of commands.
a-Shell mini can be controlled from Shortcuts: run commands in order, process files in a-Shell, get the results as text or files, transfer files to other apps...
a-Shell mini uses iPadOS 13+ “multiple windows” ability, so you can run multiple shells at the same time, with different commands, in different directories. You can edit a file in one window with vim and process it in the other with python.
a-Shell mini is a minimalist terminal, designed to have a very small footprint (less than 250 MB). If you need more commands, please consider a-Shell, which has more Python packages, more JavaScript modules, Perl, make, a C and C++ compiler and TeX.
Latest updates
2.3.2
- Fixes an issue that causes a crash on iOS 15, 16 and 17.
- new command: "relay", to connect from an external computer
2.3.1
- iPhone Duo support
- fixes an issue with iCloud support
- new command: "photos", for access to camera roll
- multiple smaller bug fixes
2.3.0
- updated certificate files for the main app and for Python to fix for the eMudhra CA Key Compromise issue.
- support for user fonts
- support for color themes
- bug fixes: the terminal remains above the keyboard, the terminal gets the focus back on its own after you dismiss a "view" or a "play" window, matching the toolbar color with the terminal color, fixed several places where the app would crash...
Store changes
What a-Shell mini changed on its store page: name, icon, screenshots, price, size, languages, requirements.
Needs a newer iOS
iOS 14.0 → iOS 15.0
