Comparison

OpenRemote vs Tailscode

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

Head to head
About

OpenRemote

Features
Read full description

Control your AI coding agents from anywhere, right from your iPhone. Connect to your development machine running coding agents and interact with them in real time — without being at your desk. Step away from your desk, get notified when a decision is needed, and respond in a tap. KEY FEATURES - Real-time session streaming — follow every action your agent takes as it happens - Approval controls — review and approve or deny every file edit, command, or action before it runs - Plan mode — let your agent plan first, and validate the approach before any change is made - Voice input — dictate prompts hands-free with speech-to-text - Image attachments — send screenshots or photos to your agent - Session history — browse past sessions and their full output - Multi-provider — works with Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, and Qwen Coder HOW IT WORKS 1. Install the free OpenRemote CLI on your development machine 2. Sign in with the same account on your iPhone 3. Start a session from your phone — your agent begins working on your machine 4. Watch the output live, approve actions, and guide the agent from wherever you are Built for developers who want to stay in control of their AI agents without being tied to their computer. Free and open source. No subscriptions, no in-app purchases. You bring your own API credentials from Anthropic, OpenAI, or Alibaba — your prompts and output stay private.

About

Tailscode

Interact with AI agents like Claude Code and Oh My Pi from your phone. Monitor and approve commands, view code changes, and manage conversations live on your lock screen. All data is transmitted point-to-point over your private network.

Highlights
  • Live Lock Screen Activities for conversations
  • Approve commands and answer agent questions
  • View code diffs and output inline
  • Manage multiple servers and conversations
  • Track conversation costs and model usage
  • End-to-end encrypted communication
Features
Read full description

Send a prompt to Claude Code, opencode or Oh My Pi from your phone, pocket it, and watch the turn finish on your Lock Screen. Approve the risky command, answer the agent's question, read every diff — from anywhere on your own Tailscale network. WHAT YOU NEED A Mac or Linux machine on your tailnet (Tailscale is free for personal use) running one of your agents: opencode, Claude Code through the open-source claude-bridge, or Oh My Pi through the open-source omp-bridge. Set-up is three verified steps, and a built-in demo lets you try every screen before you wire anything. THE TURN, LIVE ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN • A Live Activity per conversation: what it is doing, for how long, and how many tools it has run. • An approval request alerts you; a finished turn lingers with its outcome. Tap to land in the exact chat. • Updates arrive by push while the app is suspended. A NATIVE TRANSCRIPT, NOT A TERMINAL • Streaming text written at the model's own speed, with thinking and tool runs folded into readable groups. • Diffs, commands and their real output inline; syntax-highlighted code with byte-exact copy. • Allow once, always, or deny — without leaving the chat. Agent questions become tappable cards. • Queue the next message while a turn runs, edit it before it goes, or stop the turn on the server. • Every picture the agent hands you, in a gallery you can zoom, save or share. EVERY MACHINE ON ONE BOARD • All your servers' conversations in one list, live status first, grouped by project. • Read the repository before you trust the change: branch, staged, changed, untracked, and the diff of any file. • Subagents dock inside the turn that spawned them; a compaction is drawn as a seam with what it kept. • Slash commands from the server's own catalog, per-message model and reasoning effort, forking. KNOW WHAT IT COSTS • Every conversation priced, every month totalled across machines — by model, project and tool. • Plan limits and quotas for Claude, Grok, Ollama Cloud, DeepSeek and more, on Home and in a widget. YOURS, END TO END • Point-to-point over your tailnet. No relay servers, no account, no analytics, nobody reading your code. • Programmatic UIKit, Swift 6, Liquid Glass on iOS 26. Dark mode, Dynamic Type, haptics. • Open source under GPL-3.0 — the app, the engine, and both bridges. FREE, WITH AN HONEST PRO The free app is the complete core: one server, full chat, approvals, attachments, models, forking, and Live Activities. Tailscode Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription: multiple saved servers, concurrent Live Activities, and a supporter badge. Tailscode is independent open-source software: not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, Tailscale Inc., the opencode project or Oh My Pi. Privacy policy: https://midgarcorp.cc/tailscode/privacy Source code: https://github.com/guitaripod/Tailscode

Screenshots

OpenRemote4 screens
Tailscode4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: OpenRemote at none against Tailscode's 4. OpenRemote also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). 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. Tailscode sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. OpenRemote asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

OpenRemote ships an update every 4 days, Tailscode every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 1, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
OpenRemote versus Tailscode: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOpenRemoteTailscode
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
Monetization—Free with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS15.1 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size36 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUlycorpMidgar Oy

In-app purchases

None

OpenRemote

No in-app purchases

4 purchases

Tailscode

One-time4
  • Small Tip$2.99
  • Generous Tip$9.99
  • Tailscode Pro$14.99
Show 1 more
  • Lavish Tip$19.99

Questions

Is OpenRemote free?
OpenRemote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tailscode free?
Tailscode is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do OpenRemote or Tailscode have ads?
Neither OpenRemote nor Tailscode shows ads.
Which is updated more often, OpenRemote or Tailscode?
OpenRemote ships an update every 4 days, and Tailscode every 2 days. Most recently, OpenRemote was updated on October 1, 2026 and Tailscode on October 3, 2026.

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