Peoplebox vs Tessera
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Peoplebox
This app helps you remember the important people in your life by storing private notes and setting follow-up reminders. It offers smart organization, freshness indicators, and privacy features, keeping all your data on your device.
- Private notes timeline for contacts
- Follow-up reminders
- Smart tags for organization
- Stale contact detection
- Freshness indicators
- Face ID app lock
- CSV export
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Your contacts tell you who someone is. Peoplebox helps you remember the relationship — what matters, when to follow up, and who needs a check-in. Keep private notes on the people in your life, set follow-up reminders, and never lose touch with the ones who matter. Your relationship notes are stored locally on your iPhone. No account, cloud sync, or analytics. Calling, messaging, email, and exports use the system services or destinations you choose. KEY FEATURES - Private notes timeline for every contact, with optional interaction type (meeting, call, coffee, email, event) - Read-only access to your iOS Contacts so you can attach notes without changing your address book - Create contacts only in Peoplebox without Contacts permission. Names and optional phone, email, company and job title stay in Peoplebox; system contacts are never added or changed. - Smart tags to organize people by Client, Friend, Family, or any custom category you create - Follow-up reminders with multiple lead-time alerts (3 days, 1 day, day-of) - See each follow-up's contact, task, and due date, then tap to open the related person and follow-up - Start a message from a contact's page using the system message composer; choose a number and confirm sending yourself - Stale contact detection: get a gentle nudge when you haven't talked to someone in a while - Per-tag "haven't talked to" thresholds, so you can treat close family differently from acquaintances - Smart Groups that automatically surface favorites, overdue follow-ups, and contacts you have been neglecting - Freshness indicators at a glance: green for fresh, yellow, orange, red for long-silent - Home screen widgets showing your upcoming follow-ups - Face ID app lock for an extra layer of privacy - Readable CSV contact summaries with notes and follow-up history (not a restorable database backup) - No login, no account, no data collection PEOPLEBOX PRO Manage up to 20 contacts with private relationship records for free, counting Peoplebox-only contacts and system contacts with saved records together. Existing records remain editable if Pro expires. CSV export, Face ID / Touch ID app lock, home screen widgets, and all follow-up reminder intervals are available to everyone. Upgrade to Peoplebox Pro for unlimited contacts, custom tags and Smart Groups. - Annual: USD 14.99 per year (a 1-week free trial may be available to eligible subscribers, as confirmed by Apple) - Lifetime: USD 19.99 one-time purchase Prices may vary by region; the App Store shows your current localized price. Existing monthly subscriptions remain supported and can be managed in Apple Account settings. Payment will be charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. Subscriptions automatically renew unless canceled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged for renewal within 24 hours before the end of the current period at the stated price. Manage or cancel in Account Settings. A free trial, if offered, automatically converts to a paid subscription unless canceled at least 24 hours before it ends. Lifetime access is a one-time, non-consumable purchase and does not renew. Privacy Policy: https://app-legal-pages.vercel.app/peoplebox/privacy Terms of Service: https://app-legal-pages.vercel.app/peoplebox/terms
Tessera
A fast, keyboard-first SSH, Mosh, and tmux terminal for iOS devices. It offers seamless session handoff between devices, robust tmux integration, and secure, private connections directly to your servers without any tracking.
- Keyboard-first SSH, Mosh, and tmux terminal
- Seamless session handoff between devices
- First-class tmux integration with auto-attach
- Mosh for persistent connections across network changes
- Hardware keyboard support with shortcuts and key legend
- Configurable swipe pad for quick access
- Remote file panel with native iOS sharing
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Tessera is a fast, keyboard-first SSH, Mosh, and tmux terminal for iPhone and iPad. It connects directly to servers you own or control — no middleman, no account, no tracking. MOVE BETWEEN YOUR DEVICES • Hand off a live session: start on iPad, pick it up on iPhone, then double-tap to take back control. The session keeps running either way. • Your focused session appears in the App Switcher and Dock on your other devices. • Nearby Setup copies your hosts, keys, and preferences to a new device directly over the local network — you choose exactly what to copy, both devices confirm a matching code, and each grant needs Face ID. • Or don't sync at all: choose whether sessions follow you or stay on each device. STAY CONNECTED • First-class tmux integration: auto-attach on connect, so a dropped connection never loses your work. • Native tmux windows as tabs, with real panes. • Mosh keeps your session alive across Wi-Fi ↔ cellular roaming and sleep/wake — pick up exactly where you left off. • Session restore brings your saved hosts and layout back after relaunch. BUILT FOR TOUCH AND KEYBOARD • First-class hardware-keyboard support: shortcuts, a key legend (⌘ hold), and careful handling of modifier keys for real terminal work. • A configurable swipe pad puts arrows, Esc, Ctrl and your own macros in the thumb zone. • Mouse and trackpad support, including scrolling that works. • Find-in-terminal, themes, and adjustable fonts and appearance. • Optional on-device dictation straight into the terminal. FILES, PORTS, AND JUMP HOSTS • A remote file panel that tracks your shell's current directory, over SSH and mosh alike — with native iOS sharing to move files and images in and out. • Local port forwarding with a live tunnels overview. • Jump hosts for servers you can only reach through a bastion. PRIVATE BY DEFAULT • Tessera has no servers, no analytics, and collects no data. Connections go directly from your iOS devices to your machines. SECURITY YOU EXPECT • Keys are generated and stored in the iOS Keychain; Secure Enclave–backed keys never leave your device and can require Face ID to use. • Host-key verification with a persistent known-hosts store. • App lock with Face ID / passcode on launch, background return, and idle timeout. OPEN SOURCE • Tessera is free software (GPL-3.0). The full source code is available at github.com/bambouville/tessera. Tessera requires servers you provide — it is a client, not a hosting service. Mosh and tmux features require mosh/tmux installed on the server.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Tessera at every 4 days against Peoplebox's every 3 months. Tessera also leads on monetization model (free vs freemium). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Peoplebox sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month and Tessera sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Peoplebox against 5.0 for Tessera. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 2 respectively.
Peoplebox ships an update every 3 months, Tessera every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 28, 2026 and October 22, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Peoplebox | Tessera |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 2 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 3 months | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 4 MB | 47 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 慧慧 高 | Bambouville Inc. |
Customer experience
Peoplebox
Tessera
In-app purchases
Peoplebox
- Peoplebox Pro Monthly$1.991 Month
- Peoplebox Pro Annual7 Days trial$14.991 Year
- Lifetime$19.99
Tessera
- Unlimited Saved Hosts$9.99









