Comparison

FlowDown vs beanviz

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

Head to head
About

FlowDown

This AI chat app offers a fast, focused, and controlled experience for working with large language models. It supports rich Markdown formatting, connects to various OpenAI-compatible APIs, and allows input via text, images, and audio. Enjoy smooth conversations and automatic chat titles for better organization.

Highlights
  • Fast and efficient AI chat
  • Rich Markdown rendering
  • Connects to OpenAI-compatible APIs
  • Supports text, image, and audio input
  • Automatic chat titles
  • Shortcut integrations
  • Privacy-focused design
Features
Read full description

FlowDown is a fast, minimal AI chat app that makes working with large language models feel smooth, focused, and under your control. For guides, tips, and advanced setup help, visit flowdown.ai. Why FlowDown Lightweight and efficient Focus on your conversation, not the app. FlowDown launches quickly, stays out of your way, and keeps long chats responsive, even on busy machines. Rich formatting with Markdown Get clear, readable answers. FlowDown renders Markdown beautifully, so code blocks, bullet lists, tables, and headings in AI responses are easy to scan and use. Works with the tools you already have Connect to any OpenAI-compatible API, from major cloud providers to services running in your own home lab. If it speaks the OpenAI API, FlowDown can talk to it. Talk with text, images, and audio Show, not just tell. Paste screenshots, drop in images, or record your voice to ask questions. Use it to: - Transcribe meetings or lectures - Summarize voice notes - Ask about the content inside a photo Smooth, instant-feeling conversations Blazing-fast text rendering makes responses stream in fluidly, so you can start reading and refining your prompt without waiting for the model to finish. Automatic chat titles Stop hunting for the right thread. FlowDown names your conversations automatically based on their content, so you can quickly find that "API bug fix" or "Trip planning" chat later. Shortcut integrations Use FlowDown inside your workflows. With Shortcuts support, you can: - Send selected text from another app to your model - Generate drafts, summaries, or replies with one tap - Build custom automations that call your favourite model Privacy by design Your data is yours. FlowDown does not collect your chats. For maximum confidentiality, you can run models locally on your own machine with no external server involved. Open source and transparent Every line of code is available on GitHub. Inspect it, audit it, or adapt it for your own setups. You can see exactly how your AI client works. Free trial and open code FlowDown is fully open source, and we provide a free trial so you can confirm it fits your workflow before buying. Source code and trial builds are available at: https://github.com/Lakr233/FlowDown To try it, open the Releases section and download the latest trial version. Local models For offline, private usage, FlowDown can run models locally on Apple Silicon devices with sufficient memory. Supported model families include: Cohere, Gemma, Gemma2, Gemma3, InternLM2, Llama / Mistral, OpenELM, Phi, Phi3, PhiMoE, Qwen2, Qwen3, Starcoder2, MiMo, and GLM4. This gives you: - Full control over your data - No dependency on external servers - The ability to experiment with different open models Remote models A complimentary remote model is included so you can start chatting immediately. This starter service is best-effort, with rate limits and no uptime guarantee. For consistent, reliable use, we recommend: - Bringing your own API, or - Hosting your own inference server on local or home-lab hardware FlowDown supports all OpenAI-compatible endpoints, making it ideal for connecting to tools like Ollama and LM Studio running on your own machine for maximum privacy. Some setups require technical knowledge. If you are new to self-hosted AI or custom endpoints, please read our documentation carefully; the app can be challenging without it. We strongly recommend using the free trial before purchasing, as refunds may not be available. For advanced or enterprise use, configuration examples and best practices are documented on our website. Important note AI-generated content can be inaccurate or misleading. Always verify critical information and use FlowDown responsibly; you are responsible for how you use the output. © 2025 FlowDown Team. All rights reserved.

About

beanviz

Features
Read full description

BeanViz turns your Beancount ledger into beautiful, instant insights — right on your iPhone or iPad. Built for people who already trust plain-text accounting (Beancount, double-entry bookkeeping), BeanViz adds the one thing that's been missing: a fast, native, gorgeous mobile visualizer. No web server. No syncing your finances to someone else's cloud. Just open the app and see your money. WHAT YOU GET • Dashboard — Net worth at a glance, with month-over-month change, asset/liability breakdown, cash flow trend, and top expenses for the year. • Assets — Sunburst chart showing your full asset allocation, plus a per-account bar chart that drills down to leaf accounts. • Expenses — Pie chart by category, monthly and daily trend bars, transactions grouped by day, and a "By Tag" view for project- or trip-based tracking. • Income — Income vs. expenses, savings rate, and a breakdown of income sources. • Multi-currency — Auto-converts using the price directives already in your ledger. Switch your base currency between USD, CNY, and SEK on the fly. PRIVACY-FIRST BY DESIGN BeanViz truly values your privacy. Your ledger never leaves your device. There is no account to create, no analytics SDK, no remote logging. The only network calls the app makes are the ones you explicitly trigger, to the data sources you choose: • Your own iCloud Drive folder • A private GitHub repository, using a Personal Access Token you control Everything else stays in the app's sandboxed storage. Your originals are never modified. GETTING STARTED New to BeanViz? Tap "Try Demo Ledger" on the welcome screen to load a sample ledger from GitHub. It shows exactly how a valid Beancount folder is structured — main.bean as the entry point, include directives for splitting files, and standard double-entry transactions. When you're ready, re-import your own ledger anytime from the Settings tab. LEDGER REQUIREMENTS • A main.bean file as your entry point. • Standard Beancount syntax is supported, including include directives, price directives, account hierarchies, transactions, and tags. WHO IT'S FOR If you already use Beancount, Ledger CLI, hledger, or any plain-text double-entry accounting tool, you know the trade-off: total control over your data, but no good way to glance at it on the go. BeanViz fixes that. Open it, see your numbers, close it. No friction. Made by a fellow Beancount user. Feedback and feature requests welcome — tap Contact in Settings.

Screenshots

FlowDown4 screens
beanviz4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: FlowDown at Free against beanviz's $1.99. FlowDown also leads on update cadence (every 4 days vs every 3 months) and device support (3 vs 1). On ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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

FlowDown is free to download; beanviz costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

FlowDown ships an update every 4 days, beanviz every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
FlowDown versus beanviz: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterFlowDownbeanviz
PriceFree — better$1.99
Rating4.3 (29 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings29 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size124 MB2 MB
Age rating17+4+
Developer子衎 王怀峰 张

In-app purchases

None

FlowDown

No in-app purchases

None

beanviz

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is FlowDown free?
FlowDown is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is beanviz free?
beanviz costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Do FlowDown or beanviz have ads?
Neither FlowDown nor beanviz shows ads.
Which is updated more often, FlowDown or beanviz?
FlowDown ships an update every 4 days, and beanviz every 3 months. Most recently, FlowDown was updated on October 19, 2026 and beanviz on October 1, 2026.

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