Comparison

Cortex Relay vs ShelveApp

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

Head to head
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

About

ShelveApp

Features
Read full description

Shelve is a powerful SSH client for iOS with a built-in AI coding agent. Connect to your servers, run terminals, and let Claude or Codex work on your codebase — all from your iPhone. AI AGENT OVER SSH Run Claude or Codex directly on your remote servers. Multi-session conversations organized by working directory, with git-aware context, image attachments, safety approvals, and model selection. FULL TERMINAL Native terminal emulator with color support, keyboard shortcuts, and smooth scrolling. Manage tmux sessions and keep your work running. HOST WORKSPACE A complete toolkit for every server: • Terminal — Interactive shell access • Tmux — Session management • Browser — Discover and access web services by port • Files — Browse and manage remote files • Services — Monitor Docker, PM2, and system processes • System — View server metrics and resource usage • Logs — Tail and search remote log files SECURITY FIRST • SSH keys generated in the Secure Enclave • Biometric authentication (Face ID / Touch ID) • Full audit log of all key signing operations • Safety approval system for AI agent commands Built for developers who manage servers on the go

Screenshots

Cortex Relay4 screens
ShelveApp4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Cortex Relay at none against ShelveApp's 1. ShelveApp's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months). 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. ShelveApp sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Cortex Relay asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Cortex Relay ships an update every 2 months, ShelveApp weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 5, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Cortex Relay versus ShelveApp: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterCortex RelayShelveApp
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size14 MB29 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMaksim MikheevRefael Yerusalmi

In-app purchases

None

Cortex Relay

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

ShelveApp

One-time1
  • Unlock 2+ Servers$2.99

Questions

Is Cortex Relay free?
Cortex Relay is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ShelveApp free?
ShelveApp is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Cortex Relay or ShelveApp have ads?
Neither Cortex Relay nor ShelveApp shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Cortex Relay or ShelveApp?
Cortex Relay ships an update every 2 months, and ShelveApp weekly. Most recently, Cortex Relay was updated on October 5, 2026 and ShelveApp on October 17, 2026.

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