Comparison

Chell vs Lochan

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

Head to head
About

Chell

Manage your cloud environments and code repositories directly from your mobile device. Run builds, test code, and receive instant alerts for AI agent tasks. Edit code on the go with a fast, mobile-ready interface.

Highlights
  • Cloud environment management
  • Code testing and builds
  • AI agent task alerts
  • GitHub repository cloning
  • Direct code editing
  • Mobile-ready interface
Features
Read full description

Whether you’re self-hosting or using our cloud environments, you have full control over your workflow — your project, your way. Run builds, test code, or manage your cloud containers straight from your pocket. Get instant alerts when your AI agent completes a task, and approve or deny results right from your lock screen. Easily clone any repository by linking your GitHub account. Need to make a quick fix? Edit directly in the app — smooth, fast, and mobile-ready.

About

Lochan

Features
Read full description

Your coding agents keep working when you step away. Lochan is how you keep up with them, calmly. When Claude Code, Codex or any other agent on your computer stops to ask a question, open its real terminal on your phone, read what it did, and answer. Then get back to your walk. A CALM VIEW OF A BUSY HERD Every agent on the machine at a glance, with a line on where each one left off. The ones waiting on you always come first. - Tiles: the whole herd as a grid that moves as your agents do - Board: Blocked, Working, Done and Idle as columns you swipe through - Projects: agents grouped by the project they are working in ASK THE SHEPHERD One question, the whole herd. The Shepherd is an agent on your computer that reads every other pane. Ask it what needs you, what changed or whether anything is stuck, and it answers from what is on the screens, with a link to each pane it mentions. It runs Claude Code by default, or Codex, Pi, OpenCode or Grok. ANY AGENT CAN JOIN THE HERD Lochan does not plug into your agent. It opens the terminal the agent is already running in, so it works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Grok, OpenCode, Aider and anything else with a prompt. A new agent works the day it ships. A REAL TERMINAL, IN YOUR POCKET Tap any agent for the actual session: full output, scrollback and a keyboard. MAKE THE KEYS YOUR OWN Two rows of keys sit above the terminal. Drag any key to either row, switch off the ones you never use, and add your own: - Text keys for the commands you repeat, like /compact, /usage or /model sonnet - Chord keys for Ctrl, Option and Shift combos, like your tmux prefix or Ctrl-R SHARE A SCREENSHOT WITH YOUR AGENT Pick a photo, take one of the screen in front of you, or send a file. It lands on your computer and its path goes into the prompt, ready for you to finish and send. SAY IT. CHECK IT. SEND IT. Dictate a long instruction, read the transcript, and send it only when it reads right. Or write it in a real text box, with a draft that waits if you get pulled away. RUN THE HERD FROM YOUR PHONE Start a new agent in any project, rename it, and close it when it is done. BUILT FOR A PHONE Lochan tells each agent it is being driven from a phone, so it leads with the answer, keeps replies short and batches its questions. PAIRED IN ONE SCAN Run one line on your Mac or Linux machine, then scan the code it shows. Your phone makes its own key, and it stays in the phone's Keychain. Nothing to type, no private key to copy. Save every machine you own and switch between them from the title bar. No account, and no Lochan server in between: your phone talks to your computers over SSH. Away from home you need a route to them, and Tailscale is the two-minute version. ALSO IN LOCHAN: A PRIVATE AI CHAT Chat with Apple's on-device model, open models downloaded to your phone, or cloud models with your own API key. Conversations branch instead of overwriting, and you can share one with a link we cannot read. Lochan works with Herdr, the terminal workspace for AI coding agents, on the computers you own.

Screenshots

Chell4 screens
Lochan4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Chell at every 5 days against Lochan's fortnightly. Chell also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Chell ships an update every 5 days, Lochan fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on September 26, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Chell versus Lochan: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterChellLochan
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (5 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews80.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings5 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 5 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size56 MB63 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperCerulin, Inc.Purplecones, LLC

In-app purchases

None

Chell

No in-app purchases

None

Lochan

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Chell free?
Chell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Lochan free?
Lochan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Chell or Lochan have ads?
Neither Chell nor Lochan shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Chell or Lochan?
Chell ships an update every 5 days, and Lochan fortnightly. Most recently, Chell was updated on September 26, 2026 and Lochan on October 10, 2026.

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