Comparison

Grainger vs AriCore

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

Head to head
About

Grainger

Features
Read full description

Book time with your property manager, report a repair, sign up to resident events within your property, stay up to date with news and local community events. This app will allow you to make the most out of living in your Grainger home. Please note: this app is only available to Grainger residents.

About

AriCore

Run large language models locally on your device for private, offline AI interactions. Connect your own API keys for advanced models or pair with a desktop application for enhanced functionality. Features include offline chat, custom skill creation, and a self-paced learning module.

Highlights
  • Local LLM execution
  • Offline chat capabilities
  • Desktop pairing with encryption
  • Custom skill creation
  • Self-paced learning module
  • On-device voice mode
Features
Read full description

AriCore runs large language models on your phone. You bring the model file, it runs locally. Nothing leaves the device. If you also use aricode/aridesk on your desktop, you can pair the two and chat from your phone while the desktop does the heavy lifting. The pairing is end-to-end encrypted — the relay server only ever sees ciphertext, and neither end stores messages on anyone else's computer. What you can do with it: Load a GGUF file and chat offline. Llama, Qwen, Mistral, Gemma, whatever you can fit in memory. Quantized 3B–7B models work well on recent iPhones. Bigger models work too if the device has the RAM for it. Connect your own API keys for OpenAI, Anthropic, or Google if you want frontier models without giving your data to a third-party chat app. Keys stay in the iOS Keychain. Pair with aricode desktop to use your existing sessions, approve tool calls, and keep going from the couch. Handy if you run long jobs on a workstation and want to glance at them from the kitchen. Build a self-paced course on anything. The Study tab spins a curriculum from a topic and a goal — lesson plus quiz, with optional cloze, written-answer, and code exercises per session, plus a midpoint and final exam. Tutor chats stay walled off from your personal context — no tool access, no memory writes, no calendar lookups. Finish a course and you get a certificate and a one-tap PDF export of the entire workbook, answers and grades included. Let the model reflect overnight. Dreams (optional) read recent conversations while the device is charging and surface proposals — memories worth keeping, custom skills you'd actually use, persona suggestions, watchers for things you care about. Every proposal is presented for review; nothing applies without your tap. Skills are local tools the model can call — plain markdown plus a small JSON config. Build them by hand or have the model draft one from a description. The skill creator runs in an isolated context so your personal data never leaks into the generated code. Voice mode runs entirely on-device. On-device speech recognition for input, Kokoro TTS for output, no cloud round-trip and no microphone audio ever leaving the phone. Why it exists: Most mobile AI apps are thin clients for somebody's backend. Your prompts sit on their servers, get mined for training, get tied to an account. This one doesn't do any of that. No account. No analytics. No crash reporting that phones home. The code path for "talk to a model" goes from your screen straight to the model — either on this device or over an encrypted tunnel to your own desktop. A few things worth knowing: You provide the models. There's no in-app store or downloader. Drop a .gguf into the Files app under AriCore and it shows up in the model picker. Running a 7B model takes 3–5 seconds to first token on an iPhone 15 Pro. Smaller models are faster. API keys live in the Keychain. The app never sees them after you paste them in unless you re-open the settings. They're not synced anywhere. The desktop pairing requires aricode running on the same network or reachable over Tailscale. Setup is one QR code scan.

Screenshots

Grainger4 screens
AriCore4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Grainger at none against AriCore's 10. Grainger also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). AriCore's advantage is update cadence (daily vs monthly). 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. AriCore sells 10 one-off in-app purchases. Grainger asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Grainger ships an update monthly, AriCore daily. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Grainger versus AriCore: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterGraingerAriCore
PriceFreeFree
Rating—2.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyMonthlyDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size78 MB144 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperGraingerAlex Sheridan

In-app purchases

None

Grainger

No in-app purchases

10 purchases

AriCore

One-time10
  • Slate Theme$1.99
  • Vellum Theme$1.99
  • Ink Theme$1.99
Show 7 more
  • Linotype Theme$1.99
  • Foxglove Theme$1.99
  • Verdigris Theme$1.99
  • Manuscript Theme$2.99
  • Crow Theme$2.99
  • Dream Theme$2.99
  • Solar Hours$4.99

Questions

Is Grainger free?
Grainger is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is AriCore free?
AriCore is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Grainger or AriCore have ads?
Neither Grainger nor AriCore shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Grainger or AriCore?
Grainger ships an update monthly, and AriCore daily. Most recently, Grainger was updated on October 3, 2026 and AriCore on September 26, 2026.

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