Comparison

MLC Chat vs BackTime

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

BackTime

Features
Read full description

BackTime is a professional show timer for live productions, broadcasts, and events. FEATURES • Segment timing with customizable labels • Break management with countdown alerts • Countdown to showtime with auto-start • Multiple independent timers • Apple Watch companion app • Save and load show templates • Haptic feedback alerts Perfect for TV producers, podcast hosts, live streamers, event coordinators, and stage managers. BackTime - Because every second counts.

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
BackTime4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: MLC Chat at Free against BackTime's $14.99. MLC Chat also leads on iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.1). On ads, in-app purchases and device support 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

MLC Chat is free to download; BackTime costs $14.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
MLC Chat versus BackTime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatBackTime
PriceFree — better$14.99
Rating4.2 (78 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings78 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.1
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB2 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi ChenJose Medina

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

BackTime

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

None

BackTime

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is BackTime free?
BackTime costs $14.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do MLC Chat or BackTime have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor BackTime shows ads.

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