Comparison

hot.keys 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

hot.keys

Enhance your mobile typing experience with a specialized keyboard designed for developers and content creators. It provides quick access to essential symbols, a dedicated number row, and navigation keys to streamline coding and writing.

Highlights
  • Always-on number row
  • Dedicated symbol strip
  • Left/right arrows and tab
  • Backspace repeat on hold
  • Live shift/caps labels
  • Offline-first data collection
  • Typing practice drills
Features
Read full description

hot.keys is a desktop-style keyboard for people who write code, Markdown, JSON, XML, and structured prompts on mobile. It keeps symbols visible so you stay in flow. - Always-on number row plus a dedicated symbol strip for brackets, braces, angle brackets, slash, equals, question mark, semicolon, and apostrophes - Left and right arrows, tab inserts spaces, backspace repeat on hold, shift/caps labels update live - Haptics toggle shared between app and keyboard; works in any app that accepts text - Offline-first: no typing data collected; Full Access only needed briefly to sync settings - Built-in 30 second practice drills with WPM, CPM, and accuracy so you can track progress Setup: Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> Keyboards -> Add New Keyboard -> hot.keys, then switch with the globe key.- Built-in 30-second practice drills with WPM/CPM/accuracy so you can track progress

About

Orca IDE

This app mirrors your desktop terminal sessions, including AI agent interactions, directly to your iPhone. It provides full keyboard input and multi-terminal support for seamless remote coding management. All processing remains on your desktop, ensuring your data stays secure.

Highlights
  • Live desktop terminal mirror
  • AI agent session management
  • Full keyboard input
  • Multi-worktree, multi-terminal 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

hot.keys4 screens
Orca IDE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Orca IDE at 4.7 against hot.keys's 3.7. Orca IDE also leads on chart position (#17 vs unranked) and ratings volume (25 vs 3). hot.keys's advantage is update cadence (daily vs every 3 days). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Orca IDE holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Orca IDE has 25 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

hot.keys ships an update daily, Orca IDE every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 14, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
hot.keys versus Orca IDE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parameterhot.keysOrca IDE
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.7 (3 ratings)4.7 (25 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—93.1% of reviews
Number of ratings325 — better
Update frequencyDaily — betterEvery 3 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank—#17 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS16.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTing-Chun Matthew ManLovecast LLC

Customer experience

hot.keys

All ratings3 ratings
Positive66.7%
Neutral0.0%
Negative33.3%

Orca IDE

All ratings25 ratings
Positive92.0%
Neutral4.0%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews29 reviews
Positive93.1%
Neutral3.4%
Negative3.4%

In-app purchases

None

hot.keys

No in-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is hot.keys free?
hot.keys 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, hot.keys or Orca IDE?
Orca IDE is rated higher. hot.keys averages 3.7 out of 5 from 3 ratings, while Orca IDE averages 4.7 from 25 ratings.
Do hot.keys or Orca IDE have ads?
Neither hot.keys nor Orca IDE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, hot.keys or Orca IDE?
hot.keys ships an update daily, and Orca IDE every 3 days. Most recently, hot.keys was updated on September 14, 2026 and Orca IDE on September 23, 2026.

Other comparisons