Comparison

MLC Chat vs VecML

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

MLC Chat

Engage in conversations with open language models directly on your iPad or iPhone. Once a model is downloaded, all interactions occur locally, ensuring privacy and offline functionality without internet access. This app is designed for non-commercial use, allowing you to run various open-source language models on your device.

Highlights
  • Local AI model chat
  • Offline functionality
  • No internet required
  • Privacy-focused
  • Open-source project integration
  • Downloadable language models
Features
Read full description

MLC Chat lets users chat with open language models locally on ipads and iphones. After a model is downloaded to the app, everything runs locally without server support, and it works without internet connections do not record any information. Because the models run locally, it only works for the devices with sufficient VRAM depending on the models being used. MLC Chat is part of open source project MLC LLM, with allows any language model to be deployed natively on a diverse set of hardware backends and native applications. MLC Chat is a runtime that runs different open model architectures on your phone. The app is intended for non-commercial purposes. It allows you to run open-language models downloaded from the internet. Each model can be subject to its respective licenses.

About

VecML

This app provides on-device tools for intelligent photo search and large language models. It processes local documents and images to create embedding vectors for enhanced RAG capabilities, enabling more accurate AI responses based on your files.

Highlights
  • On-device LLM integration
  • Intelligent photo search
  • Document processing (PDF, DOC, images)
  • Local embedding vector storage
  • RAG capabilities for enhanced accuracy
  • Conversations with local documents
Read full description

VecML APP offers tools for intelligent photo search and large language models (LLMs) fully on device. Users can select from a range of small LLMs and engage in conversations with documents stored locally. The app can process files (PDFs, DOC documents, images, etc.) to generate embedding vectors, which are stored locally on the device. These embedding vectors are crucial for RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) capabilities, enhancing the LLM's ability to provide more accurate and relevant responses when queries are related to the local files.

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
VecML4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: VecML at 5.0 against MLC Chat's 4.2. VecML also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs every 2 months). MLC Chat's advantage is ratings volume (78 vs 2). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

VecML holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MLC Chat has 78 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, VecML every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MLC Chat versus VecML: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatVecML
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (78 ratings)5.0 (2 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings78 — better2
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB618 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperTianqi ChenVecML Inc.

Customer experience

MLC Chat

All ratings78 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral3.8%
Negative12.8%
Written reviews63 reviews
Positive68.3%
Neutral12.7%
Negative19.0%

VecML

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Bugs and requests

MLC Chat

Reported bugs

17 issues
  • Phi model crashes on iOS 26.0.1 17 Pro Max
  • App crashes on iPad Pro 4th Gen, iPadOs 17.7
  • RedPajama model crashes app on initialization
  • Update is extremely slow
  • Download model button disabled in new version
Show 12 more
  • RedPajama model crashes, custom model download removed
  • App closes when hitting send on iPhone 13
  • Conversation resets when app is backgrounded
  • Vicuna and Mistral 7B models cause crashes
  • Some 7b q4f16/q4f32 models crash on iPhone 15 Pro
  • App crashes on iPhone 13 mini
  • Cannot load other models from URL
  • Crash on iPhone 12
  • Severe heating and frequency reduction on A15
  • Low VRAM failed initialization on 3GB LP DDR4X phone
  • Cannot run 4bit model on iPhone 15 with 8GB RAM
  • Loading models from HF MLC official Repo causes crashes

Requested features

14 requests
  • Ability to import custom models (from URL/Hugging Face)
  • Support for more specific models (DeepSeek, Phi-2, Gemma 2B/7B, MoE Mixtral 8x7B, LLaVA)
  • History of conversations
  • iOS shortcuts support
  • Ability to export entire responses
Show 9 more
  • Information on VRAM requirements per phone/model
  • Ability to change system message/create custom profiles
  • Ability to edit responses and system prompt
  • Add coffee support
  • Delete downloaded models
  • Change settings per model (repetition penalties, temperature)
  • How-to guide for importing/recompiling LLMs
  • Estimate model compatibility before download
  • Support for CN and ZH languages

VecML

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

None

VecML

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is VecML free?
VecML is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or VecML?
VecML is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 78 ratings, while VecML averages 5.0 from 2 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or VecML have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor VecML shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or VecML?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and VecML every 3 days. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 2, 2026 and VecML on September 18, 2026.

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