# iSH

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/ish/

11 people recommended iSH in Hacker News comments, 5 had mixed feelings and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 12 months, in 12 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Free iOS app giving a full Alpine Linux shell with OpenSSH, usable without jailbreak. Critics note it is slow, lacks JIT, and is weaker for TUI apps than Termux.

Summary written by Claude from 24 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 22 of those comments still count.

## Why people recommend it

- SSH to other machines (4 comments in the sample): "Just use iSH and use the local terminal on the iPhone from which you can connect to the Mac terminal." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47143295)) "Just use ish and standard ssh" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47144400)) "pretty great for ssh via VPN" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48873521))
- Full Alpine Linux shell on iOS (3 comments in the sample): "There are apps like iSH on iOS or Termux on Android that give you a Linux shell." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46246660)) "Luckily I found ish which gives me alpine Linux on top of a virtual x86 machine" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47944063)) "it’s a full blown Alpine environment running through x86 emulation in the app" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49640401))
- Runs compiled tools and blogs (2 comments in the sample): "Compiled cobalt with liquid-rust on iSH is fast enough for static blog publishing" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46280701)) "which is quite functional for compiled apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45897852))

## What people warn about

- Slow, no JIT compilation (1 comment in the sample): "with predictably much lower performance than Termux (due to JIT being banned in iOS apps" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46855422))

## Other compatibility layers people recommend

- [Proton by Valve](https://hackerapproved.com/p/proton/): 328 recommend, 39 mixed, 34 criticize
- [Wine](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wine/): 257 recommend, 61 mixed, 74 criticize
- [Windows Subsystem for Linux (WSL)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/windows-subsystem-for-linux/): 116 recommend, 36 mixed, 83 criticize
- [WSL2 (Windows Subsystem for Linux)](https://hackerapproved.com/p/wsl2/): 84 recommend, 23 mixed, 51 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "iSH", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ish/ (11 recommend, 5 mixed, 5 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.