# Blink Shell

39 Hacker News commenters recommended Blink Shell and 17 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 12 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** An iPhone and iPad terminal with built-in SSH and mosh and good tmux support, which people say works well for remote servers. The main caveat is that it costs money, as a subscription or an upfront price.

## Why people recommend it

- Solid built-in mosh and ssh client (4 comments): "a high quality iOS shell with a mosh and ssh client built right in" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46518572)) "I have mosh running from Blink on my iPhone to my server" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49109349)) "I think the ssh/mosh tooling is way more powerful, keyboard config, etc." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46556829))
- Works well as an iOS terminal (4 comments): "Blink is indeed superior in that it actually works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46665518)) "my best setup currently is Blink Shell on iOS" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48591502)) "Blink Shell seems a good fit for your usecase" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49027405))
- Session persistence and tmux support (3 comments): "the persistence of session is a joy" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49026562)) "scrolling tmux actually works" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46517826)) "My mobile experience is acceptable (Blink shell + tmux) but not ideal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829881))
- Worth the one-time cost (2 comments): "blink shell has been well worth the upfront cost to me" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46518722)) "I paid some set price a few years ago and have not had a subscription for blink, and just use it the same way I would use Ghostty" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46526069))

## What people warn about

- Blink engine controlled by Google (4 comments): "The only problem with Blink is that it's controlled almost entirely by Google." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45836015)) "Churn makes it impossible to keep up a fork, Google weaponizes its manpower, making the "open source" argument moot." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49741909)) "Google (an advertising company) can pretty much unilaterally dictate web standards" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48220781))
- Mobile use tolerable, not ideal (2 comments): "It is tolerable on an iPad with Blink with commands to maximise and minimise panes" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46496810)) "My mobile experience is acceptable (Blink shell + tmux) but not ideal" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48829881))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Ghostty](https://hackerapproved.com/p/ghostty.md): 401 recommend
- [Termux](https://hackerapproved.com/p/termux.md): 188 recommend
- [iTerm2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/iterm2.md): 95 recommend
- [Warp terminal](https://hackerapproved.com/p/warp-terminal.md): 84 recommend
- [Kitty terminal emulator](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kitty.md): 79 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://blink.new/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Blink Shell", https://hackerapproved.com/p/blink/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).