Comparison

Octopus vs Sidecar ML

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

Head to head
About

Octopus

Features
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Octopus brings Codex to iPhone and iPad. Connect to your Mac, development server, or remote workspace and keep real coding threads moving from anywhere. It is not another closed cloud IDE. Octopus is a mobile control surface for the environment you already use: connect through Codex app-server or SSH, browse workspaces, projects, and recent sessions, return to active threads, and follow Thinking, Waiting, and Ready states in real time. When an agent needs a decision, resolve approvals with Allow, Allow for Session, or Deny. Use text, voice, images, and files to add context without returning to your desk. Review automation runs, start a task again, inspect history, and jump back from notifications or Live Activities when work changes state. Built for developers who want to: • Monitor AI coding agents from iPhone • Resume Codex threads away from the desk • Approve commands, permissions, and structured questions remotely • Keep Mac, server, workspace, and thread context organized • Dictate quick prompts, bug notes, and test results by voice Key features: • Codex app-server and SSH connections • Server, project, thread, and recent session management • Runtime status, notifications, and Live Activity deep links • Approval cards for command and permission decisions • Markdown messages, tool results, image input, and file context • Automation list, run-now actions, and run history • SSH host fingerprint confirmation and credentials stored in device Keychain • Octopus turns your phone into a second development screen, so you can stay close to the code even when you step away from the keyboard. Subscription Legal Links: • Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ • Privacy Policy: https://velocai.net/octopus/privacy/

About

Sidecar ML

Features
Read full description

Turn your iPhone into a private, on-device AI server for your whole network. Sidecar ML runs a lightweight HTTP server on your iPhone that exposes Apple's built-in machine-learning models to any device on your local network. Tap Start Server, scan the QR code, and your Mac, PC, Raspberry Pi, or browser can call powerful on-device AI over plain REST — no cloud, no accounts, no API keys, no usage fees, and no data leaving your network. Everything runs on the phone. Nothing is uploaded to a server and there's nothing to pay for. (The one exception, music recognition, matches against Apple's catalog and tells you so up front.) ONE IPHONE, A DOZEN AI CAPABILITIES • Chat with the on-device large language model through a chat-completions endpoint that's compatible with the popular OpenAI API format — streaming, JSON mode, and structured output included. Point existing tools and SDKs at your phone and they just work. • Generate images from a text prompt in a choice of art styles. • OCR — pull text out of photos, receipts, and screenshots with per-line boxes and multi-language support. • Read barcodes and QR codes (EAN, Code128, and more). • Classify images across roughly a thousand categories, or produce image embeddings for similarity search. • Remove backgrounds and isolate subjects or people as clean PNG cut-outs. • Detect faces and facial landmarks, body pose, and hand pose. • Scan documents with automatic edge detection and perspective correction. • Convert speech to text and text to speech, with a wide range of voices (including Personal Voice). • Translate text between languages completely offline. • Analyse text: language, sentiment, named entities, tokens, and embeddings. • Classify sounds across hundreds of categories, or identify the music that's playing. BUILT FOR DEVELOPERS AND MAKERS • Clean REST + Server-Sent Events API — call it from curl, Python, JavaScript, or any HTTP client. • Chat endpoint compatible with the OpenAI format, so many existing tools and SDKs work unchanged. • Automatic discovery on your network via Bonjour. • Honest capability reporting: ask the server what it can do and it tells you exactly what's available on your device, and why. • Optional bearer-token authentication to lock the server down on shared networks. FREE WEB CONSOLE AND CODE EXAMPLES A ready-to-use web console — plus Python examples, a command-line client, and full API documentation — is free and open-source. Download the single-file console and browse the source here: https://github.com/AndersFB/Sidecar-ML-Console/ Open the console in any browser, enter your phone's address, and try every capability with a friendly UI — nothing to install. GOOD TO KNOW • The on-device large language model and image generation require an Apple Intelligence-capable iPhone. The other capabilities run on a much wider range of devices. • The server runs while the app is in the foreground; a keep-awake option helps during longer sessions. • Some features (offline translation language pairs and certain speech models) download their models on first use. Turn the iPhone in your pocket into a private AI endpoint for your projects, your home lab, and your prototypes — Sidecar ML.

Screenshots

Octopus4 screens
Sidecar ML4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Octopus at 17.6 against Sidecar ML's 26.0. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Octopus ships an update every 5 days, Sidecar ML every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on September 23, 2026 and September 22, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference Ā· 5 level
Octopus versus Sidecar ML: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOctopusSidecar ML
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 5 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.6 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size67 MB5 MB
Age rating4++4
DeveloperVelocAI LTDAnders Fog Bunzel

In-app purchases

None

Octopus

No in-app purchases

None

Sidecar ML

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Octopus free?
Octopus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Sidecar ML free?
Sidecar ML is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Octopus or Sidecar ML have ads?
Neither Octopus nor Sidecar ML shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Octopus or Sidecar ML?
Octopus ships an update every 5 days, and Sidecar ML every 3 days. Most recently, Octopus was updated on September 23, 2026 and Sidecar ML on September 22, 2026.

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