Comparison

Beam vs WinDrop

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

Head to head
About

Beam

Features
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See your Mac on your iPhone or iPad, and control it from there. Beam streams your Mac's screen and sound to your phone. Tap to click, type with real Mac keys, run your own shortcuts and macros, and play Mac games with a controller. Answer a prompt on the Mac from the couch. Keep a film going in bed. Watch a render finish from the kitchen, then tap in when it needs you. CONTROL YOUR MAC FROM YOUR PHONE • Click mode: tap to click, double or triple tap, touch and hold then lift to right-click, touch and hold then move to drag, slide two fingers to scroll • Live keyboard with a row of Mac keys above it: esc, tab, arrows, home, end, page up and down, F1 to F12, plus command, option, control and shift (tap for one use, hold to lock) • A bar of up to eight buttons you design in Beacon on the Mac: keys and shortcuts, media keys, recorded macros, a text box, the live keyboard and click mode • Pair a game controller with your iPhone or iPad and your Mac sees a real gamepad. No driver to install. STREAM YOUR MAC • Your whole Mac display, or one window you pick from the phone • Mac audio on your phone, or turn it off • About 25 ms typical delay on good home Wi-Fi • Up to 4K or your Mac display's native resolution • Up to 120 fps on ProMotion iPhones and iPads when your Mac's display runs that fast • Picture in Picture, pinch to zoom, and crop to one area of the screen • Flip the picture for teleprompter glass SET UP IN ABOUT 2 MINUTES 1. Install the free Beacon app on your Mac from beamscreen.app. It needs macOS 14 or later. 2. Open Beam on the same Wi-Fi and tap Pair Your Mac. 3. Type the 6-digit code Beacon shows. You only pair once. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • The stream goes straight from your Mac to your phone. It never passes through a Beam server. • The picture, the sound, your clicks and everything you type are encrypted end to end with keys from your pairing. • No account, no sign-up, no email. • Beam and Beacon are open source under AGPL-3.0. FREE, THEN BEAM UNLIMITED • Your first stream starts a 3-day trial with no limits. • After that, 30 minutes of streaming in every 24 hours on your home Wi-Fi, with every feature and every quality setting. • Beam Unlimited is a one-time purchase, not a subscription. It removes the time limit and lets you stream and control your Mac from anywhere over your own Tailscale network (free for personal use). GOOD TO KNOW • Clicking and typing from the phone need Accessibility permission for Beacon on the Mac. • Beam shows and controls your Mac's screen. It doesn't add a second display, move files or sync the clipboard. • Beacon runs on Macs only, not Windows or Linux. • Beam needs iOS 16 or later. Questions go to support@beamscreen.app. A person reads every message, usually within a day.

About

WinDrop

Features
Read full description

WinDrop is the fastest and easiest way to transfer photos, videos, and documents between your iPhone and Windows PC. No more cables, no more cloud storage limits, and no more emailing files to yourself. WinDrop works directly over your local network. Key Features: Wireless Freedom: Transfer files via Wi-Fi with zero quality loss. Background Task Support: WinDrop keeps working even when minimized, ensuring your transfers complete without interruption. Privacy First: Your data never leaves your local network. No internet connection or servers involved. No Clouds, No Subscriptions: Direct device-to-device transfer. No storage fees, no waiting for uploads. High-Speed Transfers: Experience lightning-fast speeds limited only by your Wi-Fi router.

Screenshots

Beam4 screens
WinDrop3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: WinDrop at none against Beam's 2. WinDrop also leads on iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.0). On price, update cadence, ads 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. Beam sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. WinDrop asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Beam ships an update every 10 days, WinDrop weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 25, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 4 level
Beam versus WinDrop: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBeamWinDrop
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS16.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB77 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperKEVIN ERIK IINIlyas Zhunussov

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Beam

One-time1
  • Beam Unlimited2 variants$7.99
None

WinDrop

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Beam free?
Beam is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is WinDrop free?
WinDrop is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Beam or WinDrop have ads?
Neither Beam nor WinDrop shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Beam or WinDrop?
Beam ships an update every 10 days, and WinDrop weekly. Most recently, Beam was updated on October 28, 2026 and WinDrop on October 25, 2026.

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