SSH & SFTP for iPhone

SSH that fits in one hand

Your phone has no arrow keys, no Ctrl, no Escape, and no way to move the cursor. Swipe Shell puts them back — as gestures built for thumbs, not a laptop keyboard shrunk to fit.

Try it free for 7 days Or buy it once — $29.99

iPhone and iPad. Android coming.

No account to create
Keys stay in the keychain
Reattaches to tmux

Swipe Shell running nvim over SSH, with the cursor pad floating over the terminal and the shortcut bar above the keyboard.

Every key a phone leaves out, one thumb away. No more hunting through a long-press menu to quit vim.

// try it here

Move the cursor with your thumb

Pull a pad out from the right edge and steer it. A nudge walks one character at a time. Push further and it runs to the end of the line.

This uses the app's own thresholds and its three speeds. Drag it.

Drag the pad to move the cursor.

drag

// what's inside

Built for working from a phone

Every screen assumes you have one hand free, a flaky connection and no desk.

A shortcut bar you build yourself

Esc, Ctrl, Alt, Tab and the control codes you actually use stay above the keyboard. Sticky modifiers turn on with one tap, so Ctrl+C takes two taps and no finger gymnastics.

Group tabs for tmux, nvim, symbols and the clipboard
Add, rename, reorder or delete any key
Save layouts, duplicate them, undo a slip
Hold a key to repeat it at a rate you set

The hotkey bar editor, listing the tmux group's keys with their payloads.

Say the command

Hold the mic and speak. What you said lands in a staging bar you can fix before anything reaches the server. There's an optional model that runs recognition entirely on the device.

Send a file without leaving the session

Upload photos and files over SFTP, or take a photo and send it straight up. The remote path is typed into the command you're writing, so you can use what you just sent.

Several files at once — as they are, in a new folder, or zipped
Browse the remote tree to choose where they land

The upload sheet open over a terminal, offering photo, file and camera sources.

Sessions that survive a phone

Connections drop in a tunnel, a lift or when the screen locks. Swipe Shell notices and reconnects. If you use tmux it reattaches, so your screen comes back as you left it.

Open sessions are remembered after the app closes, waiting in the dock.

// trusted with a server

It has your keys. It treats them that way.

An SSH client holds the keys to your machines. Swipe Shell stores them where your phone keeps its own secrets and refuses to connect when something doesn't add up.

It never edits your .tmux.conf, your .vimrc, or anything else on the host, and it never probes to guess what you're running. You tell it what to attach to. It does that, and nothing else.

Credentials never leave this phoneKept in the keychain. Never in a file, a log, the terminal buffer, or a cloud backup.
Host keys are checked every timeIf one changes, the app stops and your credentials are not sent.
Face ID or Touch ID lockPut the whole app behind biometrics.
Server copies clear themselvesAnything a server puts on your clipboard is wiped on a timer you set.

// pricing

Pay yearly, or buy it once

Both plans unlock every feature. The yearly plan starts with a free week. The lifetime unlock is yours to keep, with no renewals.

Yearly

7 days free

$9.99/ year

Less than a dollar a month. Try everything for a week before you're charged.

Start free trial

Cancel any time in your App Store settings.

Lifetime

$29.99once

One payment, no subscription. Every update included.

Buy lifetime

One purchase, restorable on your devices.

Both plans include

Cursor pad and gesture scrolling
Customisable shortcut bar and layouts
Dictation with on-device recognition
SFTP upload from photos, files and camera
Auto-reconnect and tmux reattach
Keychain storage and biometric lock

Prices in US dollars. The App Store shows the price in your local currency.

// questions

Before you try it

What can I connect to?: Any macOS or Linux machine that runs an SSH server — a laptop, a VPS, a Raspberry Pi, a homelab box.
Do I need an account?: No. Your hosts and credentials stay on your phone, in its keychain. There's no Swipe Shell account to create or lose.
What happens when the trial ends?: If you keep the yearly plan, the App Store charges $9.99 for the year. Cancel before the week is up and you pay nothing.
I'm subscribed. Can I switch to lifetime?: Yes. Buy the lifetime unlock, then cancel the subscription in your App Store settings. Lifetime takes over straight away.
Will it change anything on my server?: No. It never writes to your dotfiles or probes what you have installed. It runs what you tell it to, and nothing else.
Is there an Android version?: It's on the way, with the same features. Support has the latest news.

Leave the laptop at home

Try every feature for a week. Keep it for $9.99 a year, or $29.99 once.

Try it free for 7 days