Comparison

Happy vs Hermex

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

Hermex

This app provides a native mobile interface for interacting with your self-hosted Hermes Agent server. It allows you to manage conversations, control agent settings, and access workspace files directly from your iPhone.

Highlights
  • Connect to your own Hermes server
  • Manage existing and start new conversations
  • Control models, profiles, and reasoning
  • Attach files and photos
  • Browse workspace files
  • Offline read-only viewing of recent sessions
Features
Read full description

Hermex is a native iPhone and iPad client for your self-hosted Hermes agent. Connect to a reachable Hermes Web UI server, or enable the optional Bot Mode beta to connect directly to a Hermes agent host. Open existing sessions, start conversations, and follow streamed responses, tools, and reasoning as they arrive. Queue, steer, or stop an active run. Review file edits as diffs, browse workspace files, send photos and files, and dictate messages. Manage Kanban boards and cards, browse Tasks, Skills, Memory, and Usage, and choose models, profiles, and reasoning settings. Bot Mode adds a Bots inbox, Desktop sections, reactions, quick replies, approvals, questions, and group rooms. Live Activities keep working runs visible on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Optional notifications let you know when work finishes or needs your attention. The share extension stages content from other apps for you to review and send. Agent execution happens on your configured server, not on the iPhone. Your server owns your conversations, tools, and workspace. Recent sessions and messages may be cached locally for read-only offline viewing; clear that cache from Settings. There is no Hermex-hosted agent backend, tracking, or analytics service. Optional push notifications use an open-source, self-hostable relay. Message previews are encrypted on your Hermes host and decrypted on your iPhone; the relay handles device tokens, notification metadata, and ciphertext, never message text, server URLs, or Hermes server credentials. Push is off until enabled. Hermex has no in-app account creation or in-app purchases. You need your own reachable Hermes server. Not affiliated with Nous Research.

Screenshots

Happy4 screens
Hermex4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Hermex at none against Happy's 1. Hermex also leads on review sentiment (85% vs 72%). Happy's advantage is rating (4.9 vs 4.7) and ratings volume (1K vs 135). On price, update cadence, ads and chart position 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. Hermex asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Happy holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Happy has 1K ratings behind it against 135, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 72% of Happy's written reviews are positive against 85% of Hermex's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly weekly. Both last shipped on October 14, 2026.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Happy versus Hermex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHappyHermex
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (1K ratings) — better4.7 (135 ratings)
Positive reviews71.6% of reviews85.1% of reviews — better
Number of ratings1K — better135
Update frequencyWeeklyWeekly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#79#30 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size98 MB72 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperBulka, LLCUzair Ansar

Customer experience

Happy

All ratings1,024 ratings
Positive96.7%
Neutral1.0%
Negative2.3%
Written reviews67 reviews
Positive71.6%
Neutral10.4%
Negative17.9%

Hermex

All ratings135 ratings
Positive92.6%
Neutral1.5%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews87 reviews
Positive85.1%
Neutral6.9%
Negative8.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Happy

Subscriptions1
  • Plus Plus Monthly$19.991 Month
None

Hermex

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Happy free?
Happy is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hermex free?
Hermex is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Happy or Hermex?
Happy is rated higher. Happy averages 4.9 out of 5 from 1K ratings, while Hermex averages 4.7 from 135 ratings.
Do Happy or Hermex have ads?
Neither Happy nor Hermex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Happy or Hermex?
Happy ships an update weekly, and Hermex weekly. Most recently, Happy was updated on October 14, 2026 and Hermex on October 14, 2026.
Which is more popular, Happy or Hermex?
Happy currently peaks at #79 in the App Store charts, and Hermex at #30. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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