Comparison

Shiny Code vs Apperture

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

Head to head
About

Shiny Code

Access your development machine remotely to manage code tasks and review changes. This app allows you to interact with AI coding tools on your computer from your iPhone, keeping your code secure on your own hardware.

Highlights
  • Remote SSH access
  • Invoke Claude Code on dev machine
  • Kick off tasks remotely
  • Review code diffs
  • Approve tool calls
  • Code stays on your machine
Features
Read full description

Shiny Code connects to your dev machine over SSH and invokes Claude Code there, so you can kick off tasks, review diffs, and approve tool calls from anywhere — no special setup required. Just your Mac or Linux box, Claude Code, and an iPhone. Your code stays on your machine. Your AI stays productive. And you stay in the loop, whether you're at your desk or away from it.

About

Apperture

Features
Read full description

Apperture lets you see and control one Mac app right from your iPhone — not your whole desktop. Apperture mirrors just the app that matters, full-screen on your phone, so it feels like the app is running in your hand. Traditional screen sharing puts a 27-inch desktop on a 6-inch screen and makes you pan, zoom, and hunt for windows. Apperture takes the opposite approach: pick a single running Mac app and it fills your iPhone with a sharp, low-latency live view sized for the screen you're actually holding. BUILT FOR DEVELOPERS • Mirror the iOS Simulator and it feels native: touches map directly, and rotating your phone rotates the simulated app. • Keep working while your Mac builds and runs. Perfect for agent-assisted coding — let Claude Code or your favorite agent build and launch the app on your Mac, then review and interact with the result from anywhere in the house. • Stream any Xcode-launched Mac app with its real window chrome intact. FULL CONTROL, NOT JUST A VIEW • Tap, drag, long-press for right-click, two-finger scroll — touch input translated naturally to the Mac. • Type with the iPhone keyboard, including full Unicode text entry. • Browse and run the Mac app's real menu bar commands from a searchable, touch-friendly palette. • Send clipboard text securely between devices. • Fit-width, fit-height, and readable-zoom layout modes in portrait and landscape. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No accounts. No cloud relay. Your screen never touches our servers. • Pairing starts with a short-lived QR code on your Mac, and the Mac owner must explicitly approve every phone. • Connections work only over private networks — your Wi-Fi or your own VPN such as Tailscale. Public endpoints are rejected by design. • Every session is encrypted. Pairing trust is stored in the device Keychain and never synced to the cloud. • Review or revoke paired devices anytime. The Mac keeps a local 30-day session history — device, time, and app names only, never keystrokes or screen contents. GOOD TO KNOW • Apperture requires the free companion Mac app from runapperture.com. It's notarized by Apple and distributed directly because it uses Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions the Mac App Store doesn't allow. • Away from home, you'll need a VPN to reach your Mac — Tailscale takes about five minutes to set up, works beautifully, and is free for personal use. • Your Mac does all the work, so it needs to be on, awake, and logged in. Apperture is a viewer and controller for your own Mac, not a way to run Mac apps on iPhone. • Apperture streams one selected window at a time — that focus is the point. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Shiny Code4 screens
Apperture4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Shiny Code at none against Apperture's 1. On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. Apperture sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Shiny Code asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Shiny Code versus Apperture: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterShiny CodeApperture
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequency—Every 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS18.018.0
Further details — not scored
Size12 MB11 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperPaul CannonLAND MK 1

In-app purchases

None

Shiny Code

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

Apperture

One-time1
  • Early Adopter$24.99

Questions

Is Shiny Code free?
Shiny Code is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Apperture free?
Apperture is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Shiny Code or Apperture have ads?
Neither Shiny Code nor Apperture shows ads.

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