Upper vs ActivitySmith
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side β with what reviewers say about each.
Upper
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Take Control of S3 Storage β Right from Shortcuts Whether you're a cloud expert or just exploring S3-compatible storage, Upper makes it effortless to: β’ Create, list, and delete buckets β’ Check if buckets/files exist β’ Upload, download, list, and delete files β’ Change ACL for buckets and files Why Youβll Love Upper β’ Compatible with AWS S3, Cloudflare R2, Scaleway, MinIO (with TLS), Hetzner, and other S3-compatible providers β’ Fully integrated with the Apple Shortcuts app β’ One-time purchase β no subscriptions, no in-app purchases β’ Privacy-friendly β only opt-out, anonymized telemetry to improve the app β’ Clean, minimal UI that stays out of your way Getting Started is Easy 1. Install Upper 2. Add and configure your S3 endpoints in Upper 3. Open the Shortcuts app β tap βAdd Actionβ β search for βUpperβ 4. Choose your desired S3 action, select an endpoint β done! Happy automating!
ActivitySmith
Stream real-time progress and outcomes of long-running tasks to your iOS device's Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Receive high-signal alerts for critical events via push notifications. Integrates with various backend services and development tools.
- Live Activities for Lock Screen and Dynamic Island
- Push Notifications for alerts
- Update via HTTP requests
- Track CI/CD, jobs, and events
- Pair devices and create API keys
- Widgets for lock screen metrics
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ActivitySmith lets you send Live Activities and Push Notifications to your iOS device(s) from any backend. Keep long-running work visible at a glance: stream progress, step-by-step status, and outcomes to your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Use Push Notifications for high-signal alerts (failures, incidents, signups, sales, crashes, etc). Anything that can make an HTTP request can update a Live Activity or send a Push Notification - CI/CD, servers, cron, agents, webhooks, or plain curl. Use cases: - CI/CD deployments and build pipelines - Long-running jobs (migrations, backups, ETL) and background agents - On-call alerts and incident workflows - Business events (sales, signups, trial conversions) - Home Automation How it works: - Install ActivitySmith and pair your device - Create API key - Send custom Push Notifications with a simple API call - Trigger Live Activities to track deployments or any other long-running processes in a real-time - Target one or more paired devices as needed - Use widgets to track key metrics from your lock screen SDKs: Node.js, PHP, Ruby, Python, Go, CLI Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Vercel, Railway, Netlify, Sentry, Linear, Zapier, n8n, and more...
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is price: ActivitySmith at Free against Upper's $2.99. ActivitySmith also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). On ads, in-app purchases, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price Β· Rating Β· Positive reviews Β· Number of ratings Β· Update frequency Β· Ads Β· In-app purchases Β· Monetization Β· Best chart rank Β· Devices Β· Requires iOS
ActivitySmith is free to download; Upper costs $2.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Upper ships an update every 2 months, ActivitySmith weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Upper | ActivitySmith |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $2.99 | Free β better |
| Positive reviews | β | 100.0% of reviews |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Weekly β better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | β | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 | 18.0 β better |
| Further details β not scored | ||
| Size | 17 MB | 11 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Paul Haedrich | Adam Bardon |
In-app purchases
Upper
No in-app purchases
ActivitySmith
No in-app purchases









