Comparison

Happy vs Helmrig Agents

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

Head to head
About

Happy

This app provides a secure mobile interface for AI coding assistants, allowing you to continue sessions and monitor progress from anywhere. It features end-to-end encryption and a zero-knowledge architecture for ultimate privacy. Seamlessly switch between desktop and mobile for uninterrupted AI coding.

Highlights
  • Seamless desktop and mobile session continuation
  • Push notifications for AI tasks
  • Offline access to conversation history
  • End-to-end encryption for code privacy
  • Real-time streaming of AI responses
  • Zero-knowledge architecture
Features
Read full description

Your coding agent shouldn't wait for you to get back to your desk. A task can run for an hour and then stop five minutes in to ask for permission or a decision. Happy lets you answer from your phone, and the same agent carries on in the same repository with the same tools and context. Happy is the mobile app for Claude Code and Codex. The agents keep running on your own computer, and your phone is how you start them, steer them and review their work. WHAT YOU CAN DO FROM YOUR PHONE • Start a new session or pick up one you began at your desk • Get notified when an agent needs input or finishes • Approve or deny permission requests, or let a session run in Auto mode • Choose the model and reasoning effort from the providers set up on your computer • Review changes: a file list, colored diffs, and the full set of changes on a branch • Attach a screenshot or photo to your prompt • Browse sessions in one list or grouped by project, with each checkout's chats as tabs • Open a side chat next to a session without losing your place • Drafts follow you between your phone and your computer HOW IT WORKS Happy runs on your computer, and this app connects to it. 1. Install Happy Desktop from happy.engineering, or if you prefer the terminal, run: npm install -g happy 2. Create an account in the app. You don't need an email address or a password. 3. Scan the QR code your computer shows to link it to your phone. Then start a session from either device. What you see on your phone is the same live session that's running on your computer. YOU WILL NEED • A computer running Happy Desktop or the Happy CLI • Access to the coding agents you want to use, such as a Claude or ChatGPT/Codex plan or API key. Happy uses your existing accounts. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Sessions are end-to-end encrypted. Your code, agent and encryption keys stay on your devices. Happy's servers only relay and store encrypted session data and can't read your prompts, responses or code. OPEN SOURCE The app, the CLI and the server are MIT-licensed and on GitHub. Read the code, run your own build or host your own server. ALSO ON DESKTOP Happy Desktop adds a harness that works across providers and lets you switch models in the middle of a task. The sessions it starts show up on your phone too. Happy is an independent project. It is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic or OpenAI. Claude and Claude Code are trademarks of Anthropic. Codex and ChatGPT are trademarks of OpenAI. Privacy Policy: https://happy.engineering/privacy Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

Helmrig Agents

Features
Read full description

Helmrig is a remote development client for iPhone. It pairs with helmrig-server running on your own laptop and gives you the AI coding agents, terminal, and filesystem of that machine — over an end-to-end encrypted tunnel. FEATURES • AI coding agents — run Claude Code or Codex on your laptop. Tell the agent what to do in plain language; it reads files, runs commands, and edits code on your machine. The app shows the output, diffs of any proposed changes, and approval prompts before anything is applied. You bring your own subscription or API keys; Helmrig doesn't sell or proxy AI access. • Attach files — pull any file from your laptop into the agent conversation in one tap, so the agent has exactly the context it needs. • Terminal — full PTY shell on your laptop with ANSI colors and resize. Use whatever you've installed: bash, zsh, fish, tmux, vim, nano, htop. • Files — browse and view the laptop filesystem with syntax highlighting for common languages. • Multi-project — switch between active projects in one tap; each project keeps its own terminal session and AI thread. HOW IT WORKS 1. Install the server on your laptop: npx helmrig@latest 2. Open Helmrig on iPhone, scan the QR code shown in the server. 3. The pairing key is generated locally on your devices and never leaves them. After pairing, phone and laptop talk directly over LAN or NAT-traversal when possible. When direct connection fails, the encrypted tunnel falls back through one of our regional relays. Relays forward opaque ciphertext only — they cannot decrypt anything. REQUIREMENTS • Laptop: macOS or Linux with Node.js 20+ • iPhone: iOS 17+ PRIVACY No third-party SDKs. No analytics. No crash reporting. Helmrig servers never see code, files, terminal output, or AI conversations. Full policy at helmrig.app/privacy.html CONTACT hi@helmrig.dev Privacy Policy: https://www.helmrig.app/privacy.html Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.helmrig.app/terms.html

Screenshots

Happy4 screens
Helmrig Agents4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Happy at #84 against Helmrig Agents's unranked. On price, update cadence, 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

Both are free to download. Happy sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $19.99 per month and Helmrig Agents sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $12.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Happy ships an update weekly, Helmrig Agents fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 14, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 10 level
Happy versus Helmrig Agents: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHappyHelmrig Agents
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (1K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews71.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings1K — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
Best chart rank#84 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size98 MB65 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBulka, LLCNikita Kislitsin

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Happy

Subscriptions1
  • Plus Plus Monthly$19.991 Month
1 purchases

Helmrig Agents

Subscriptions1
  • Helmrig Pro14 Days trial$12.991 Month

Questions

Is Happy free?
Happy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Helmrig Agents free?
Helmrig Agents is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Happy or Helmrig Agents have ads?
Neither Happy nor Helmrig Agents shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Happy or Helmrig Agents?
Happy ships an update weekly, and Helmrig Agents fortnightly. Most recently, Happy was updated on October 14, 2026 and Helmrig Agents on October 8, 2026.

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