Comparison

Locallama vs LLMster

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

Head to head
About

Locallama

Experience a personal AI companion on your phone with local processing for enhanced privacy and offline access. Import existing workspaces and enjoy a lightweight, device-first AI interaction for everyday tasks.

Highlights
  • On-device AI processing
  • Enhanced privacy by design
  • Offline availability
  • Import OpenClaw workspaces
  • Personal AI companion
  • Lightweight mobile workflow
Features
Read full description

This app is built around a simple idea: bring a real local small-model AI experience to your phone. Instead of relying entirely on cloud processing, it lets you run AI on-device whenever possible, so conversations, imported content, and everyday usage can stay closer to your own device. It is designed for people who care about privacy, offline access, and the practicality of having a personal AI companion in their pocket. Key features: Local inference, with stronger privacy by design AI processing is designed to happen on your phone whenever possible, reducing the need to send your content to remote servers by default. This makes it a better fit for personal notes, drafts, ideas, and other privacy-sensitive content. A real mobile small-model experience Open the app and interact directly with on-device AI. It offers a fast, lightweight, and more personal way to explore what small models can do on a phone. Import OpenClaw workspaces Bring in your OpenClaw workspace so your existing content, structure, and workflows can travel with you. It is a practical way to continue using your workspace in a mobile, local-first environment. Offline availability Many core experiences remain useful without a stable connection, making the app convenient for commuting, travel, or low-connectivity situations. Personal, device-first AI Your models, content, and workflows stay closer to your own device, helping you build a more personal and controllable AI setup. Simple mobile workflow Made for quick questions, lightweight writing, note capture, browsing workspace content, and everyday AI interactions on the go. Important limitations: This app focuses on the real experience of local small models, not on overstating their capabilities. Because the models run locally and are relatively small: reasoning depth is more limited than large cloud models answers may be less accurate, less complete, or less stable on complex tasks long, highly technical, or multi-step requests may not perform as well performance depends on your device, including speed, memory, and thermal limits If you need the strongest possible reasoning, broad knowledge coverage, or consistently high performance on demanding tasks, large cloud models are still a better fit. But if you value privacy, offline use, local control, and the feeling of having AI truly running on your phone, this app offers a distinctive and practical alternative.

About

LLMster

Connect to local AI models running on your server for private, fast conversations. Stream replies, reasoning, and image-based interactions. Organize, back up, and restore your chat library securely.

Highlights
  • Connects to local LM Studio servers
  • Private by design, no cloud relay
  • Organize chats by model, folder, or pin
  • Backup and restore chat library
  • Supports vision models with image input
  • Hands-free voice chat with on-device speech recognition
  • Customizable system prompts and tool integrations per chat
Features
Read full description

LLMster is a fast, private iPhone and iPad client for models running on your LM Studio server (https://lmstudio.ai). Stream replies, reasoning, tool activity, and image-based conversations from the models you host—in an app designed to feel at home on iOS. Private by design LLMster connects directly to the server you choose. There’s no LLMster account, telemetry, hosted chat service, or cloud relay in the middle. Your conversation library stays on your device, while model context stays with your configured server. External integrations run only when you choose to enable them. Your models, wherever you run them Keep your models on the machine built for them: a workstation, home server, or always-on computer. Run the LM Studio desktop app or LM Studio’s headless daemon, point LLMster at the host, and start chatting. No companion desktop client is required. Choose the right model without leaving the conversation: • Search or sort by name, size, or format, then pin favorites • See which models support vision, reasoning, or tool calls • Change models without starting a new chat Organized from the start Search chats by title, model, or folder. Browse recent conversations across every folder, then organize, rename, pin, or duplicate important threads. Move and protect your chats Share individual conversations as .llmster files and import them on another device while preserving messages, images, reasoning, tool history, and chat settings. Back up and restore your entire local chat library—including folders, pins, drafts, and attachments—with optional password protection. Backups do not include server addresses, authentication keys, or app-wide settings. LLMster also verifies transferred response context against your configured LM Studio server before continuing a chat. Vision, direct to your server Attach up to four screenshots, photos, or scanned pages to a message and send them to a compatible vision model. LLMster resizes and compresses images on your device before sending them, so the originals remain with you. Open any attachment and pinch to zoom when you need to inspect the details. Hands-free voice chat Talk naturally using on-device speech recognition and text-to-speech. Audio stays on your device; only the resulting text is sent to your configured server. Natural turn-taking and subtle haptics keep the conversation moving without touching the screen. Control each conversation Every chat can have its own: • Integrations already configured in LM Studio • Custom system prompt • Tool-call visibility • Live reasoning preference Stream reasoning as Markdown while the model works, or keep the interface quiet with a compact Thinking indicator and open the completed reasoning when you want it. Control response auto-scrolling, and choose System, Light, or Dark appearance with your preferred accent color. Rich responses, as they arrive LLMster renders streaming Markdown smoothly, including syntax-highlighted code with copy controls, inline and block math, tables, links, lists, and more. Export or share transcripts with their original Markdown intact. Keep going while you move on Run LM Studio on a workstation or headless server and connect from your phone. With Tailscale on both devices, you can keep chatting over cellular or another Wi-Fi network while your models run at home. Setup instructions are available at https://llmster.app/support

Screenshots

Locallama4 screens
LLMster4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: LLMster at 100% against Locallama's 0%. LLMster also leads on price (Free vs $0.99) and rating (5.0 vs 3.0). Locallama's advantage is update cadence (every 4 days vs every 10 days) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On ads, 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

LLMster is free to download; Locallama costs $0.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

LLMster holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 3 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 0% of Locallama's written reviews are positive against 100% of LLMster's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Locallama ships an update every 4 days, LLMster every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
Locallama versus LLMster: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLocallamaLLMster
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating3.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings13 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaidFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size30 MB10 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperTenpercentDave Sebek

Customer experience

Locallama

All ratings1 ratings
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral50.0%
Negative50.0%

LLMster

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Locallama

No in-app purchases

None

LLMster

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Locallama free?
Locallama costs $0.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is LLMster free?
LLMster is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Locallama or LLMster?
LLMster is rated higher. Locallama averages 3.0 out of 5 from 1 ratings, while LLMster averages 5.0 from 3 ratings.
Do Locallama or LLMster have ads?
Neither Locallama nor LLMster shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Locallama or LLMster?
Locallama ships an update every 4 days, and LLMster every 10 days. Most recently, Locallama was updated on November 5, 2026 and LLMster on October 31, 2026.

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