Comparison

Really Remote vs Termpolis R

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

Head to head
About

Really Remote

Control multiple Tmux sessions on your Mac from your iPhone. Ideal for developers managing long-running processes or AI agents remotely. Stay productive from anywhere with secure, on-network communication.

Highlights
  • Control multiple Tmux sessions
  • Remote agent orchestration
  • Send commands with special keys
  • Live status indicators
  • Auto-reconnects
  • Switch between sessions
  • Collapsible controls
Features
Read full description

Really Remote puts your Mac's terminal, and the coding agents running in it, in your pocket and on your wrist. Connect over your own network (Wi-Fi, VPN, or SSH tunnel) and keep working from anywhere: send commands, watch output stream live, and know the moment your agent finishes or needs your input. • Live status, see at a glance whether your agent is working or ready • Apple Watch app, a glance of your session on your wrist, and a buzz when it's your turn, even while your phone is locked • Reply from anywhere, special-key rows, a full keyboard, or a quick tap to answer • Multiple sessions, jump between tmux sessions on your Mac • Private by design, connects only over your own network; no public servers Requires the free Mac Relay Server on your Mac (download from our website). https://particlewaves.org/really-remote/

About

Termpolis R

Control and monitor terminals running on your computer directly from your phone. View output, send commands, and manage multiple desktop connections securely. Requires the companion desktop application.

Highlights
  • Remote terminal viewing
  • Type commands remotely
  • Monitor running terminals
  • Secure end-to-end encryption
  • Pair with multiple desktops
  • Granular permission control
Features
Read full description

Termpolis Remote is a companion for the Termpolis desktop app. It lets you check on the terminals already running on your computer, read what they have printed, and type into them, from your phone. It is a viewer and a keyboard. Nothing runs here. The work happens on your desktop, signed in the way it was already signed in, on the machine where your files, your repositories and your tools already are. Close this app and the work carries on without it. REQUIRES THE TERMPOLIS DESKTOP APP Termpolis Remote does nothing on its own. You need Termpolis running on a Mac, Windows or Linux computer, with Remote turned on in Settings. Termpolis is free and open source: github.com/codedev-david/termpolis RELAY ACCESS IS A SUBSCRIPTION The app is free to install. Your phone reaches your desktop through a relay we run and pay for, and that is what the subscription covers: Relay access -- $4.99 per month, auto-renewing. New subscribers get the first week free. The desktop app stays free and open source. There is no free tier here and nothing is held back from subscribers; the relay is the one thing this app does. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at confirmation of purchase. It renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period, and your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours of that. Manage or cancel it in your Apple ID account settings after purchase. Any unused part of a free week is forfeited when you buy a subscription. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy policy: https://termpolis.com/privacy.html PAIRING TAKES ONE SCAN Your desktop shows a code. You scan it. Both screens then show the same eight words -- if they match, the two devices agreed on a key nothing in between can derive. If they do not match, something is in between, and the right move is to unpair. ONE PHONE, SEVERAL DESKTOPS Pair with up to 16 computers -- a work machine, a home one, a Linux box in the corner -- and switch between them from the terminal list. Each pairing has its own key and its own name, so each desktop grants what this phone may do on that desktop alone, and unpairing one leaves the others exactly as they were. END TO END, NOT JUST IN TRANSIT Every message between your phone and your desktop is sealed with a key the two of them derived together, using X25519 key agreement and ChaCha20-Poly1305. The relay that carries the traffic sees a room id, a size and a time. It cannot read a single byte of what passes through it, and it keeps nothing. YOUR DESKTOP DECIDES WHAT THIS PHONE CAN DO Reading output, starting terminals, typing, closing terminals -- each is granted on the desktop, in Settings, and each is checked again on the desktop for every request. This app can report what it has been allowed. It cannot grant itself anything. WHAT IT STORES One encryption key and one pairing record for each desktop you have paired with, in the iOS keychain, on this device only. No transcript, no scrollback, no cache of what your desktop said. Unpairing erases that desktop's key and record, and works whether or not the desktop is reachable. WHAT IT DOES NOT DO No account. No sign-in. No analytics, no crash reporting, no advertising identifier, no tracking of any kind. There is no server of ours that your terminal output ever reaches, because there is nowhere for it to go. CAMERA Used for one thing: reading the pairing code on your desktop screen. Frames are decoded on the phone and thrown away. If you would rather not, the pairing code can be typed in by hand. Termpolis is open source under the Apache 2.0 licence, and the wire format this app speaks is published in full.

Screenshots

Really Remote4 screens
Termpolis R3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is monetization model: Really Remote at free against Termpolis R's subscription. Really Remote also leads on device support (3 vs 1). Termpolis R's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs monthly). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Really Remote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Termpolis R sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Really Remote against 5.0 for Termpolis R. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Really Remote ships an update monthly, Termpolis R every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 6 level
Really Remote versus Termpolis R: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterReally RemoteTermpolis R
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyMonthlyEvery 4 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree — betterSubscription
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB33 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperParticle WavesDavid Engelhart

Customer experience

Really Remote

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Termpolis R

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Really Remote

One-time1
  • Really Remote Pro$9.99
1 purchases

Termpolis R

Subscriptions1
  • Termpolis Remote7 Days trial$4.991 Month

Questions

Is Really Remote free?
Really Remote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Termpolis R free?
Termpolis R is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Really Remote or Termpolis R?
Really Remote and Termpolis R are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Really Remote or Termpolis R have ads?
Neither Really Remote nor Termpolis R shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Really Remote or Termpolis R?
Really Remote ships an update monthly, and Termpolis R every 4 days. Most recently, Really Remote was updated on October 2, 2026 and Termpolis R on October 14, 2026.

Other comparisons