Comparison

MLC Chat vs Nested

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

Nested

Organize your habits within larger goals, allowing for flexible tracking of different methods or all required steps. Capture reflections with journal entries and maintain streaks with forgiving mechanisms for missed days or planned pauses. Your data remains private and stored locally.

Highlights
  • Nested habit grouping
  • Journal entries for habits
  • Forgiving streaks
  • Habit pausing
  • Local data storage
  • Weekly/monthly/yearly summaries
  • Home screen widgets
Features
Read full description

— Meet the nested habit — Nested habits are grouped within a goal, so your tracking can reflect the way you actually live. Say your goal is to work out three times a week. Sometimes you run and sometimes you go to yoga. Nest Run and Yoga under Workout, and doing either one counts as completing a workout. Or set a goal that requires every nested habit. Your Nighttime Routine includes Take Vitamins, Wash Face, and Read. The routine then only checks off once you've completed them all. Nested habits give you the flexibility to track different ways to reach a goal or every step required to complete it. — Keep a journal — Add a journal entry to any habit to capture your thoughts, reflections, or progress. Every entry collects in the Journal tab, a searchable archive of everything you've written. Try Daily Gratitude, Goals for the Week, or Book Review. — Streaks that forgive — Miss once and your streak holds: a daily habit forgives a day, a weekly habit forgives a week. Going on vacation, or home sick? Pause the habit and your streak survives on purpose. — Nested does not collect your data — We collect nothing. There are no accounts, servers, analytics, ads, or third-party trackers. Everything you create in Nested lives locally on your device and personal backups. — Also inside — - Weekly, monthly, and yearly summaries - A calendar to track progress - Home screen widgets - Eight themes in light and dark mode - A daily reminder when you want one - Compatibility with iPhone accessibility features

Screenshots

MLC Chat2 screens
Nested4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Nested at 5.0 against MLC Chat's 4.2. Nested also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 68%) and update cadence (every 8 days vs every 2 months). MLC Chat's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 3) and ratings volume (84 vs 3). On price, ads 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

Both are free to download. Nested sells 3 one-off in-app purchases. MLC Chat asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Nested holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: MLC Chat has 84 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 68% of MLC Chat's written reviews are positive against 100% of Nested's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, Nested every 8 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
MLC Chat versus Nested: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLC ChatNested
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (84 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews68.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings84 — better3
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 8 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.5
Further details — not scored
Size1.7 GB2 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperTianqi ChenJulia Robinson Rosendorff

Customer experience

MLC Chat

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

Nested

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
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

Nested

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

MLC Chat

No in-app purchases

3 purchases

Nested

One-time3
  • Coffee$2.99
  • Treat$4.99
  • Bouquet$9.99

Questions

Is MLC Chat free?
MLC Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Nested free?
Nested is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, MLC Chat or Nested?
Nested is rated higher. MLC Chat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 84 ratings, while Nested averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do MLC Chat or Nested have ads?
Neither MLC Chat nor Nested shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLC Chat or Nested?
MLC Chat ships an update every 2 months, and Nested every 8 days. Most recently, MLC Chat was updated on October 24, 2026 and Nested on October 24, 2026.

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