Comparison

Ari Helper vs TealKit

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

Head to head
About

Ari Helper

This AI assistant operates entirely offline, prioritizing user privacy by not collecting personal data. It integrates with Siri for hands-free activation and offers text-to-speech capabilities. Users can manage conversations, download custom models, and even interact with self-hosted or cloud-based AI services.

Highlights
  • Offline AI operation
  • Siri and App Intents integration
  • Privacy-focused, no data collection
  • Text-to-Speech with voice options
  • Conversation history sync via iCloud
  • Downloadable custom AI models
  • Code syntax highlighting
Features
Read full description

Introducing Ari - Your Easy-to-Use AI Assistant! Meet Ari, your personal AI assistant, right on your device! Ari runs its models on the device itself, so it works entirely offline — no internet connection required. Your privacy is our priority – Ari doesn't collect any of your personal data. Start Ari anywhere with Siri and App Intents — just say "Ask Ari," speak your question, and hear the answer back. Power users get a full Shortcuts catalog: Ask Ari with any model (Apple Intelligence, local, or cloud), start chats, generate and edit images, analyze PDFs, speak replies, change settings, queue Code Session tasks on Mac, and dispatch prompts to other devices — all chainable in Shortcuts. Ari is on your wrist too: the Apple Watch app remote-controls Ari on iPhone. Dictate from the "Ask Ari" complication or Smart Stack, watch answers stream in, hear them spoken, and hand long replies to iPhone. Questions queue when the phone is away; private chats stay off the watch. Conversations show up in Spotlight — including by what's in their images. Ari reads text and objects in chat pictures on-device so you can search for "that screenshot with the receipt". Private media is never indexed. With Sensitive Content Warning on, flagged images blur behind "Show Anyway" (verified adults can opt out). More to love: Text-to-Speech (device voice or Ava); long-press to copy or retry across models; syntax highlighting with one-tap code copy; Previous Chats synced via iCloud. On Apple Intelligence (iOS 26 / macOS 26 and later), Ari uses the on-device foundation model by default — private, no API key, no network. Attach images: on iOS 27 and macOS 27 the model sees them directly; on OS 26 Ari describes them on-device with the Vision framework (text, tables, barcodes, subjects). Prefer full vision models? Pick one from the menu. Download on-device models with a tap — Google's Gemma 4 for chat, Stable Diffusion converted for Core ML for pictures — or import a model folder of your own. Self-host with Ollama or any OpenAI-compatible server (LM Studio, vLLM, llama.cpp, LiteLLM), or generate images with Draw Things over gRPC. New in Ari 7: Ari makes pictures and films, and repairs the ones you already have. Films is a studio — write a film as a list of shots, render them one at a time, keep the ones that work, and watch the cut come together in a player above the timeline. Pictures get a canvas editor: brush over a crease and heal it, paint a leash or a stranger out of the frame, or treat the whole photograph — repair, denoise, sharpen camera shake, colorize, upscale four times. Every restoration model runs on your device and downloads on first use rather than shipping in the app. Point the camera at something and ask about it. Look at Something sends the frame to whichever model you have selected — on-device, self-hosted or cloud — captions the answer under the picture and speaks it if you like. Talk to it and it listens, answers, then listens again. It sits beside the microphone, and goes on the Lock Screen, Control Center, the Action Button or Siri. Cloud providers with your own keys: OpenAI (GPT-6 and GPT-5 families plus GPT Image), xAI Grok (4.7 plus Grok Imagine), Anthropic Claude, Google Gemini (plus Nano Banana and Omni video), and AWS Bedrock. Image-capable models accept photos; import text and source files. Cloud use reminds you each provider's privacy policy applies. On Mac, open a Code Session on a project folder with Grok for agentic tools — read, edit, search, git, shell, browser, web, and MCP — so Ari's GUI agent matches a terminal coding agent. Note: For strongest privacy with iCloud sync, enable Advanced Data Protection. Without it, conversations stay limited to your iCloud account but are not fully end-to-end encrypted. Optionally powered by Gemma 4 (HuggingFace) for offline chat and image understanding. Download Ari and keep your AI assistant at your fingertips!

About

TealKit

This app transforms your device into a private AI assistant with autonomous agents and built-in tools. It offers provider independence, deep customization, and robust privacy features for everyday tasks and complex workflows.

Highlights
  • Autonomous AI agents
  • Provider-independent AI models
  • Email and calendar integration
  • Document indexing and semantic search
  • Content generation (TXT, PDF, Excel)
  • Web crawling and indexing
  • SSH remoting and script generation
Features
Read full description

The Zero-Config Alternative to OpenClaw TealKit turns your phone into a versatile AI powerhouse with autonomous agents and built-in tools. Provider-independent, fully customizable, and designed for privacy. AI Playground & Flexibility Use leading providers (Google Gemini, OpenAI GPT-5, Anthropic, Mistral) or local Ollama models. Provider-independent, customize model parameters fully, and keep token costs predictable. Try out ideas in the chat interface before creating new agents. Built-in AI Skills for Everyday Tasks - Email & Calendar: Google integration (Gmail, Drive, Calendar) alongside universal IMAP/SMTP support. Search and send emails, or create calendar entries. (Microsoft OneDrive coming next). - Document Intelligence: Index local documents on your phone (or any folder on Desktop) into local DuckDB. Perform semantic searches across all document types (Word, PDF, etc.). - Content Creation: Generate files (TXT, PDF, Excel), create diagrams from any data source, and visualize flows with Mermaid. - Web Search & Indexing: Crawl and index websites (scheduled auto-reindex coming soon) for quick semantic searches. Perform web searches via Serpdev, SerpApi, or DuckDuckGo. - Remote Management: SSH remoting and shell script generation to automate server monitoring and tasks. Generate PowerShell or Bash scripts on desktop, controlled by the app. Limitless Extensibility — Add Any Skill - Query and register cloud-based MCP servers (e.g., from Smithery). - One-click import to use prebuilt MCP servers from GitHub. - Add custom AI skills directly on your phone using sandboxed JavaScript. - Create Python MCP servers on desktop (Node.js coming later). Agentic Workflows & Automation - Run agents manually with any tool combination — local file output included. - Schedule cron-based recurring agents that run completely independently in the background. - Advanced output channels: Email, Slack, WhatsApp with zipped attachments, SFTP. - Validate agents interactively before scheduling them. - Chain agents together conditionally to build complex agentic workflows. Privacy First NO TealKit Cloud servers for your private data. Your files, settings, and credentials remain in your device's secure storage. You choose the third-party providers. (See privacy policy).

Screenshots

Ari Helper4 screens
TealKit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: TealKit at Free against Ari Helper's $24.99. TealKit also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs weekly) and iOS requirement (16.4 vs 26.0). Ari Helper's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.0). On review sentiment, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases 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

TealKit is free to download; Ari Helper costs $24.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Ari Helper holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Ari Helper ships an update weekly, TealKit every 3 days. Both last shipped on October 24, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Ari Helper versus TealKit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAri HelperTealKit
Price$24.99Free — better
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS26.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size92 MB155 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperBlaine MillerLaszlo Schaffer

Customer experience

Ari Helper

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

TealKit

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Ari Helper

No in-app purchases

None

TealKit

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Ari Helper free?
Ari Helper costs $24.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is TealKit free?
TealKit is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Ari Helper or TealKit?
Ari Helper is rated higher. Ari Helper averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while TealKit averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Ari Helper or TealKit have ads?
Neither Ari Helper nor TealKit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Ari Helper or TealKit?
Ari Helper ships an update weekly, and TealKit every 3 days. Most recently, Ari Helper was updated on October 24, 2026 and TealKit on October 24, 2026.

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