BastionChat vs LM Manager Pro
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BastionChat
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Private AI that runs entirely on your iPhone, iPad and Mac. Chat with your documents, get instant summaries and ask out loud, with no internet, no account and no data collected. ASK YOUR DOCUMENTS Import a contract, a manual, a report or a scanned PDF. Ask in your own words and get a clear answer, with the source one tap away, so you can check it instead of trusting it. Small documents are read in full; large libraries are searched. INSTANT SUMMARIES Turn a long file into the key points: parties, dates, amounts, conditions. JUST ASK OUT LOUD Voice mode with on-device speech recognition. Nothing is uploaded. UNDERSTANDS IMAGES Ask about photos and screenshots with vision models. WORKS OFFLINE On a plane, at sea, underground: the AI model lives on your device, so it keeps working. In airplane mode, web tools are simply not offered. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No tracking. Your documents and conversations never leave the device. Apple's privacy label: Data Not Collected. Lock the app with Face ID using iOS's built-in app protection. YOUR CHOICE OF MODEL A curated catalog of open models (Qwen, Gemma, Phi, LFM and more) sized for your device: fast ones on iPhone, larger ones on iPad and Mac. Or import any GGUF model from Hugging Face. FOR POWER USERS Adjustable thinking (Off, Short, Full), calculator, optional web search, MCP tools for agent workflows. ONE PURCHASE No subscription, no usage limits, Family Sharing. Download a model once, then everything runs locally. Requires iOS 18 or later. Larger models need more memory; the app recommends what fits your device.
LM Manager Pro
Manage local and cloud AI language models from one interface. Orchestrate inference nodes, create AI personas with custom prompts, and run group chats or benchmark scripts. Compare model performance and track results chronologically.
- Inference node management
- AI persona creation
- Team chat and group runs
- Structured benchmark episodes
- Cross-provider response streaming
- Side-by-side model comparison
- Chronological response timeline
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LM Manager Pro is a private AI creation workspace for iPhone and iPad. Describe what you want to make, choose a suggested route, and create with chat, images, comparisons, or reusable workflows—without sending your projects through a developer-operated AI service. **CREATE FIRST** Start with the outcome, not the infrastructure. Create recommends a ready route and explains the one repair that matters. You remain in control: use the suggestion, choose another route, or open the full route builder. **PRIVATE BY DESIGN** LM Manager Pro has no accounts and no developer-operated inference backend. App records stay on your device. Provider credentials stay in Keychain. Generated media is stored durably inside the app. Requests go only to the on-device runtime, computer, or provider you choose. **USE THE AI YOU CONTROL** Create with Apple on-device features, user-installed on-device models, LM Studio, Automatic1111-compatible or Forge servers, ComfyUI, and supported cloud providers. Connect your own computers over a local network or Tailscale when you want more power. **CHAT, IMAGES & REAL WORK** Stream conversations, attach images, compare models side by side, generate still images or supported video workflows, and coordinate reusable personas, teams, and Episodes. Exact prompts, participants, route settings, and generated artifacts stay connected to the work that created them. **PICK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF** Activity leads with work that is running now and the creations you used recently. Library puts saved conversations, image sessions, run history, projects, and reusable assets before route and machine infrastructure. **SIMPLE UNTIL YOU NEED EXPERT CONTROL** Use the suggested route when you want to get moving. If you know LM Studio, ComfyUI, model checkpoints, provider settings, or local engines, advanced runtime controls remain available under Library Models, Machines, Personas, and Diagnostics & Labs. Connections stays focused on provider credentials and authentication. Create privately with the AI routes you already trust—and keep the resulting work in one native app.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: LM Manager Pro at every 8 days against BastionChat's every 4 months. LM Manager Pro also leads on price ($1.99 vs $4.99). On ads, in-app purchases, device support 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
BastionChat costs $4.99 and LM Manager Pro $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
BastionChat ships an update every 4 months, LM Manager Pro every 8 days. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 16, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BastionChat | LM Manager Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $4.99 | $1.99 — better |
| Rating | — | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Number of ratings | — | 1 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 8 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | — | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 79 MB | 68 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Frederic Ayala Heinrich | MICHAEL DWAYNE WILLIAMS |
In-app purchases
BastionChat
No in-app purchases
LM Manager Pro
No in-app purchases









