VNC & SSH clients for iPhone & iPad, compared
An iPhone in your pocket or an iPad on the desk makes a genuinely capable remote for your Mac, Linux box, Windows PC, or Raspberry Pi — but the apps differ a lot. Here's an honest look at the main iOS and iPadOS options for VNC and SSH, and where each one fits.
Maintained by the team behind Reachbeam. We've included our own app below and judged it by the same criteria as the rest. On Android instead? See our Android VNC & SSH comparison.
What to look for in an iOS remote-desktop client
Controlling a desktop from a touchscreen is a different problem from controlling it with a mouse. On iPhone and iPad the single biggest differentiator is how the app turns touch into precise control. Beyond that, the things that actually matter day to day:
- Touch handling — a real gesture model (trackpad vs. absolute touch, pinch-zoom, right-click, scroll) rather than a shrunk-down desktop cursor.
- iPad extras — hardware-keyboard and trackpad support, external-display output, and Apple Pencil hover (iPad only; iPhone has no stylus).
- Protocols — VNC/RFB for a full graphical desktop, SSH for a terminal, RDP for Windows, and macOS Screen Sharing (which is VNC with Apple's authentication).
- Security & accounts — whether credentials stay in the device Keychain, and whether you're forced to create a cloud account to connect at all.
- Price — free, one-time, or subscription.
At a glance
| App | VNC | SSH | Touch-first | Mac Screen Sharing | External display | No account | Pricing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reachbeam | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Free + Pro |
| RealVNC Viewer | Yes | No | No | No | No | Direct* | Free viewer |
| Jump Desktop | Yes | Tunnel | Yes | Partial | No | Direct* | Paid (one-time) |
| Screens 5 | Yes | Tunnel | Partial | Yes | No | Direct* | Free + IAP |
| Termius | No | Yes | No | No | No | Account | Freemium |
| Blink Shell | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes | Paid |
"Tunnel" = SSH is available only to secure/wrap a graphical session (SSH tunnelling), not as a standalone terminal you can type into. "Partial" Mac Screen Sharing = connects but not always with Apple's newer authentication out of the box. "Touch-first" here means a direct/absolute touch mode (tap where you touch) and a purpose-built gesture model, not just a virtual trackpad. *These apps connect to a direct IP or hostname with no account; their optional cloud-pairing services require one. Details change as apps update — check the current App Store listing before you decide.
Where Reachbeam stands out on iOS
Reading down the columns, three things are true only of the Reachbeam row:
- The only app that covers both sides. Graphical and terminal in one place — VNC and RDP plus a real SSH terminal (not just a tunnel), plus macOS Screen Sharing. Jump, Screens, and RealVNC only tunnel SSH or skip it; Termius and Blink skip graphical VNC. No juggling two apps.
- The only one that drives an external display. On iPad, connect a monitor and the desktop moves to it while your iPad becomes the trackpad and keyboard — and you can jump between the remote machine's monitors. Nobody else here does this (a Pro feature).
- A gesture engine built for touch, plus Apple Pencil. Three input modes, finger-anchored pinch-zoom, tap = click / long-press = right-click, an edge quick-actions menu, and on iPad, Apple Pencil hover for real remote mouse-over. Touch is the starting point, not a setting.
The apps, one by one
RealVNC Viewer
Polished and reliable, and free to use. You can point it straight at an IP on your LAN with no account — the sign-in is only for RealVNC's cloud connectivity, which pairs with their own server (now a paid service rather than the old free personal tier). It's VNC-only, so you'll add a separate app for a terminal.
Jump Desktop
A long-standing favorite on iPad. Strong RDP and VNC support, a genuinely good trackpad/touch model, and their own "Fluid" protocol for low-latency control of your own Macs and PCs. It can secure a VNC session with SSH tunnelling (password or public key), though it's built around graphical remoting rather than a standalone shell. A one-time purchase rather than a subscription. If you mostly drive Windows or your own Macs from an iPad, it's excellent.
Screens 5
A beautifully designed VNC and macOS Screen Sharing client, especially at home in the Apple ecosystem — connecting to your Macs is its sweet spot. Screens 5 is free with an in-app purchase to unlock the rest, available as either a lifetime license or a subscription. It has built-in SSH tunnelling to protect a session, but no standalone SSH terminal, so pair it with a terminal app if you live on the command line too.
Termius & Blink Shell
Both are excellent SSH terminals for iOS. Termius is slick with cross-device sync, at the cost of an account and a subscription for the best parts. Blink Shell is a power-user favorite — Mosh support for connections that survive network changes and device reboots, a superb hardware-keyboard experience, external-display output on iPad, and no account for the terminal itself. Neither does graphical VNC; they're terminals.
Reachbeam
As the makers of Reachbeam, we built it to fix the frustrations of remote desktops on a touchscreen. Most apps offer a basic touch mode; Reachbeam has a gesture engine designed for touch from the ground up — three input modes, finger-anchored zoom, tap/long-press click, and an edge quick-actions menu. It's the only app here that combines VNC, RDP, a real SSH terminal (not just a tunnel), and macOS Screen Sharing in a single, account-free app. On iPad it adds an external-display mode — plug into a monitor and your iPad becomes a dedicated trackpad and keyboard — plus Apple Pencil hover. It's freemium: the full gesture and keyboard experience is free; multi-session, multi-monitor, macros, external display, and Apple Pencil quick-actions are Pro.
So which should you pick?
- You live in the terminal: Blink Shell (with Mosh) or Termius (if you want sync).
- You mostly drive Windows or your own Macs from an iPad: Jump Desktop.
- You're all-Apple and want the nicest Mac screen sharing: Screens 5.
- You want one touch-first app for VNC + SSH + Mac, no account: give Reachbeam a try.
Reaching your machines from outside your network
These clients connect over your local network out of the box. To reach the same machines from anywhere without opening ports on your router, put them behind a private tunnel — see our guides for Tailscale (a WireGuard mesh, iPhone and iPad included) or a free Cloudflare Zero Trust tunnel. Reachbeam then just connects to whatever address the VPN makes reachable.
Try Reachbeam
Touch-first VNC, SSH, and Mac screen sharing for iPhone & iPad. Free to start — no account.
Get Reachbeam — iOS & AndroidFAQ
What's the best VNC client for iPhone or iPad?
It depends on what you value. Jump Desktop is superb for RDP and VNC on iPad, Screens 5 is smoothest for macOS Screen Sharing, RealVNC Viewer is a solid free viewer, and Reachbeam is the only one that pairs a purpose-built touch gesture engine with VNC, RDP, a real SSH terminal, and macOS Screen Sharing in a single account-free app.
Is there a free VNC app for iOS?
Yes — RealVNC Viewer is free for direct connections, and Reachbeam has a free tier that includes the full gesture and keyboard experience, with a Pro upgrade for multi-session, multi-monitor, macros, external display, and Apple Pencil quick-actions.
Can I use SSH from an iPhone or iPad?
Absolutely. Blink Shell and Termius are dedicated SSH terminals, and Reachbeam includes a full SSH terminal alongside VNC — with password or private-key login, host-key verification, port forwarding, and TOTP two-factor codes.
How do I control my Mac from my iPad?
On the Mac, turn on Screen Sharing (System Settings → General → Sharing) or Remote Login for SSH. Then add a connection in any of these apps using the Mac's name or IP — for the graphical desktop use VNC / macOS Screen Sharing on port 5900; for the command line use SSH on port 22.
Does any of these support Apple Pencil?
Reachbeam uses Apple Pencil hover on iPad for a real remote mouse-over — showing tooltips and menus without clicking — and switches to a stylus input mode as soon as you touch with a Pencil. This is an iPad feature; iPhone has no stylus.
Can I connect over the internet, not just my home network?
Today these clients connect over your local network (Wi-Fi/LAN), and you can reach a machine remotely by putting it behind a VPN or tunnel such as Tailscale or a Cloudflare tunnel. Reachbeam also supports routing a VNC session through an SSH host; broader over-the-internet access is on our roadmap.