CatClaw Terminal vs Cortex Relay
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
CatClaw Terminal
Transform your mobile device into a powerful development environment. Access an SSH terminal, AI chatrooms, file management, and advanced workflow tools for on-the-go coding and debugging.
- Full SSH client with persistent sessions
- AI ghost-text suggestions and error explanations
- SFTP file browser with batch operations
- Multi-tool AI chatrooms with various AI models
- On-device Apple Intelligence features
- Background job execution with push notifications
- DevOps toolkit for code review and monitoring
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ClawTerminal turns your iPhone or iPad into a full mobile dev environment. SSH terminal, AI chatrooms, file browser, multi-agent orchestration, and a Mac-class workflow that fits in one hand. Start a refactor on the train. Review a PR at lunch. Diagnose an outage from bed. Your Mac does the heavy lifting; your phone is the remote control. WHAT'S NEW IN v1.5.0 - Push with no account - the new ntfy channel needs no login or registration. Run /notifier ntfy, pick a topic, and subscribe in the free ntfy app. Telegram, Discord, and Slack work too. - Every Claude Code command works - ClawTerminal forwards any slash command your claude session supports, including new ones in future CLI releases, instead of an unknown-command error. - QR connect - set up a connection once, show it as a QR, and scan it on another iPhone or iPad. No retyping host, port, and key on a phone keyboard. - Claude Fable 5 - the fast 1M-context model is selectable everywhere, with a new Fast agent-routing preset that runs your whole team on it. - Quiet while the app is open - no more double-buzzing for a job you are already watching; banners resume when you leave. WHAT YOU GET A Real Terminal - Full SSH client with persistent sessions, themes, autocomplete - Vim, htop, tmux, mosh - everything just works - AI ghost-text suggestions; tap errors for instant explanations - SFTP file browser with batch operations - Share a connection by QR to set up a second device in one scan (NEW) - iPad multi-window, drag and drop, cursor support Multi-Tool AI Chatrooms - Claude, Codex, Gemini, or Aider - switch tools per chatroom - Direct API mode or CLI mode over SSH to your Mac - Claude Fable 5, Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku model options (NEW) - Apple Intelligence on-device when no API key is set - ?prefix routes a message through parallel exploration - Cross-session memory and custom skills tailored to you Power Commands - /research - in-app propose-evaluate-refine for about a penny - /whatif - predict 3 likely outcomes before a risky command - /frugal - strip the preamble for cheaper, faster answers - /duck - Socratic rubber-duck debugging - /standup - daily standup from yesterday's chat plus git log Multi-Agent Orchestration - /batch, /team, /race, /orchestrate - parallel agents, side-by-side - Quality, Balanced, Budget, or Fast (all Fable 5) routing presets (NEW) - Git worktree isolation per agent with --vcs - --app opens a visual command center; bare commands use Claude's native orchestration Background Jobs with Push - /submit runs long jobs in the background; push when they finish - /notifier ntfy - no account, no login, just a topic you pick (NEW) - /notifier setup for APNs from your own Mac; /notifier telegram for your own bot - Chat-app push for Hermes and OpenClaw results (Telegram, Discord, Slack, ntfy) - Per-job cost tracking, budgets, auto-recovery DevOps Toolkit - /git, /health, /monitor, /security, /pr, /preview, /conflicts - AI code review, live web preview, merge conflict resolver Context-Aware AI (OPT-IN) - Time, calendar, motion, battery shape Claude's tone and length The Learn Hub - 6 interactive tutorial tracks, 43 hands-on steps - Written tutorials and examples, bundled offline Cross-Device - /handoff between phone and Mac tmux sessions - Shared chatrooms, synced profiles, Apple Watch companion Voice and Camera - /voice and Speak with Search (iOS 26 SpeechAnalyzer) - Snap and Code - point camera at a whiteboard, get code Privacy First - All credentials in the iOS Keychain - On-device AI when supported - your prompts can stay on the phone - No account, no telemetry, no tracking, no ads WHO IT IS FOR - Developers who want their Mac available everywhere - Indie founders and DevOps engineers shipping from anywhere - Anyone who wants Claude Code, Codex, or Gemini from a phone Requires an SSH-reachable Mac or Linux server for heavy work. AI chatrooms also work fully offline from your Mac via direct API mode or Apple Intelligence on iOS 26.
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.
- AI agent chat interface
- Full SSH terminal access
- On-device voice input
- Persistent tmux sessions
- Secure SSH key management
- Customizable terminal themes
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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
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: CatClaw Terminal at 5.0 against Cortex Relay's 4.0. CatClaw Terminal also leads on update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On price, review sentiment, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
CatClaw Terminal holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.
CatClaw Terminal ships an update every 2 weeks, Cortex Relay every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | CatClaw Terminal | Cortex Relay |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better | 4.0 (1 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 27 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Liqun Chen | Maksim Mikheev |
Customer experience
CatClaw Terminal
Cortex Relay
In-app purchases
CatClaw Terminal
No in-app purchases
Cortex Relay
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is CatClaw Terminal free?
Is Cortex Relay free?
Which has better reviews, CatClaw Terminal or Cortex Relay?
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