Comparison

Boxes.dev vs Cortex Relay

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

Head to head
About

Boxes.dev

Manage your cloud-based development environments from your mobile device. Seamlessly transition coding sessions between your computer and the app. Requires an existing account to begin.

Highlights
  • Cloud development environment management
  • Continue coding sessions on mobile
  • Requires existing account
  • Cross-device synchronization
Features
Read full description

Manage your boxes.dev cloud development environments on the go! Start coding sessions on your computer, then continue them in the app. This app requires an existing boxes.dev account to get started.

About

Cortex Relay

Access powerful AI agents like Claude Code from your iPhone via a chat interface or a full SSH terminal. Features include on-device voice input, persistent sessions, and secure credential management. Customize your terminal experience with various themes and font sizes.

Highlights
  • AI agent chat interface
  • Full SSH terminal access
  • On-device voice input
  • Persistent tmux sessions
  • Secure SSH key management
  • Customizable terminal themes
Read full description

Run Claude Code (or Codex and any other AI agent) from your iPhone. Cortex Relay gives you two ways to work with Claude Code on a remote machine — a friendly chat UI and a full-blown SSH terminal. Pick the right tool for the moment. THE CHAT Speak or type a prompt. Claude Code runs on your server, and the response streams back as a clean conversation with tool activity, cost breakdowns, and one-tap shortcuts for common tasks like committing, reviewing branches, or checking status. Upload photos from your camera roll and Claude can see them too. THE TERMINAL A real SSH terminal session. Cortex Relay renders the full CLI experience — interactive permission prompts, slash commands, MCP integrations, vim, git, whatever you need. Seven color themes from Nord to Dracula, pinch to resize, and a shortcut bar for /compact, /clear, /model, /status, and /cost. VOICE INPUT On-device speech recognition powered by OpenAI's Whisper. Pick a model size (tiny, base, small) and language (English or multilingual). Runs entirely on your phone — no server round-trip, works offline. Apple's built-in speech engine is available by default too. SESSIONS THAT SURVIVE Every terminal session runs inside tmux. Background the app, lose WiFi, switch to a call — your session keeps running on the server. Come back and everything is exactly where you left off. No reconnect dance. NOTIFICATIONS Get a push when Claude finishes a long task or needs your approval. The chat sends these automatically. For terminal sessions, drop a one-line webhook into your project's CLAUDE.md and Claude does the rest. SECURE BY DEFAULT Generate ed25519 SSH keys directly in the app or import your existing ones. Keys live in the iOS Keychain, optionally locked behind Face ID or Touch ID. Password auth is supported too, with the same biometric protection. Your credentials never leave the device. ORGANIZED Create named servers with saved directories. Spin up Chat or Terminal connections to any project on any machine. Each connection remembers its own dictation preferences. One server, many projects, zero re-entering credentials. YOUR TERMINAL, YOUR WAY Navy, Homebrew, Nord, Dracula, Solarized Dark, One Dark, Pure Black — pick a theme, see it applied instantly. Pinch to zoom the font size. It sticks between sessions. WHAT STAYS ON YOUR PHONE - SSH keys and passwords in iOS Keychain with biometric lock - Whisper speech recognition runs on-device only - No credentials sent to our servers - Push relay handles notification delivery — nothing else

Screenshots

Boxes.dev3 screens
Cortex Relay4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Boxes.dev at 5.0 against Cortex Relay's 4.0. Boxes.dev also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs every 2 months). Cortex Relay's advantage is ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). On price, ratings volume, 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Boxes.dev holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Boxes.dev ships an update every 2 days, Cortex Relay every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Boxes.dev versus Cortex Relay: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBoxes.devCortex Relay
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better4.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsYesNo — better
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.4 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size61 MB14 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperND Innovations LLCMaksim Mikheev

Customer experience

Boxes.dev

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

Cortex Relay

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Boxes.dev

No in-app purchases

None

Cortex Relay

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Boxes.dev free?
Boxes.dev is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Cortex Relay free?
Cortex Relay is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Boxes.dev or Cortex Relay?
Boxes.dev is rated higher. Boxes.dev averages 5.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while Cortex Relay averages 4.0 from 1 ratings.
Do Boxes.dev or Cortex Relay have ads?
Boxes.dev shows ads; Cortex Relay does not.
Which is updated more often, Boxes.dev or Cortex Relay?
Boxes.dev ships an update every 2 days, and Cortex Relay every 2 months. Most recently, Boxes.dev was updated on October 9, 2026 and Cortex Relay on October 5, 2026.

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