Comparison

ActivitySmith vs Orca IDE

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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...

About

Orca IDE

Control your coding environment remotely from your phone. Mirror your desktop terminal, manage AI agent sessions, and interact with your code using a smart on-screen keyboard. All your data remains on your desktop, with secure, end-to-end encrypted local network connections.

Highlights
  • Live desktop terminal mirror
  • AI agent session management
  • Full keyboard input
  • Multi-worktree support
  • Phone-fit zoom and smart keyboard
  • Background command execution
  • End-to-end encrypted pairing
Features
Read full description

Orca Mobile is the companion app for Orca, the open-source agentic coding workspace for macOS, Linux, and Windows. Pair your iPhone to your desktop in seconds and pick up a terminal session from the couch, the kitchen, or across the office. WHAT IT DOES • Live mirror of your desktop terminal, including running AI agent sessions (Claude Code, Codex, custom CLIs). • Full keyboard input — type, tab-complete, Ctrl-C, scroll back, all from the phone. • Multi-worktree, multi-terminal: jump between projects with a tap. • Phone-fit zoom and a smart on-screen keyboard with quick Ctrl/Alt accessory keys and shortcuts. • Background long-running commands and get a notification when a TUI goes idle (e.g. when Claude finishes thinking). HOW IT WORKS Orca Mobile is a thin client. Nothing runs on your phone except the viewer. Your code, your shells, your AI agents — all of that stays on your desktop. The phone shows you what's happening and forwards your keystrokes back over an encrypted local-network connection. Pairing is end-to-end encrypted. Your desktop generates a one-time keypair and shows a QR code; you scan it from the app. After that, all traffic between phone and desktop is sealed with that pair's keys. PRIVACY • No analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no third-party SDKs of any kind in the iOS app. • Pairing tokens and your preference list live in the app's own sandbox. The app's traffic to your desktop is end-to-end encrypted on your local network only. • The Orca desktop app collects anonymized usage metrics per the policy at https://www.onorca.dev/privacy. The mobile app itself does not. • Open source: every line is auditable at https://github.com/stablyai/orca. REQUIREMENTS • An iPhone (iOS 16+) on the same Wi-Fi as your desktop. • The Orca desktop app, free, from https://www.onorca.dev/ or https://github.com/stablyai/orca/releases.

Screenshots

ActivitySmith4 screens
Orca IDE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is ratings volume: Orca IDE at 71 against ActivitySmith's 1. Orca IDE also leads on chart position (#18 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). ActivitySmith's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and review sentiment (100% vs 85%). 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

ActivitySmith holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Orca IDE has 71 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of ActivitySmith's written reviews are positive against 85% of Orca IDE's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

ActivitySmith ships an update weekly, Orca IDE every 4 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
ActivitySmith versus Orca IDE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterActivitySmithOrca IDE
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.7 (71 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better85.5% of reviews
Number of ratings171 — better
Update frequencyWeeklyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank—#18 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB47 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAdam BardonLovecast LLC

Customer experience

ActivitySmith

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Orca IDE

All ratings71 ratings
Positive91.5%
Neutral5.6%
Negative2.8%
Written reviews62 reviews
Positive85.5%
Neutral9.7%
Negative4.8%

In-app purchases

None

ActivitySmith

No in-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is ActivitySmith free?
ActivitySmith is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, ActivitySmith or Orca IDE?
ActivitySmith is rated higher. ActivitySmith averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Orca IDE averages 4.7 from 71 ratings.
Do ActivitySmith or Orca IDE have ads?
Neither ActivitySmith nor Orca IDE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, ActivitySmith or Orca IDE?
ActivitySmith ships an update weekly, and Orca IDE every 4 days. Most recently, ActivitySmith was updated on November 5, 2026 and Orca IDE on November 5, 2026.

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