Comparison

Orca IDE vs Tmux Term

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

Head to head
About

Orca IDE

This app mirrors your desktop terminal sessions, including AI agent interactions, directly to your iPhone. It provides full keyboard input and multi-terminal support for seamless remote coding management. All processing remains on your desktop, ensuring your data stays secure.

Highlights
  • Live desktop terminal mirror
  • AI agent session management
  • Full keyboard input
  • Multi-worktree, multi-terminal support
  • Phone-fit zoom and smart keyboard
  • Background command execution
  • End-to-end encrypted pairing
Features
Read full description

Orca Mobile is the companion app for Orca, the open-source agentic coding workspace for macOS, Linux, and Windows. Pair your iPhone to your desktop in seconds and pick up a terminal session from the couch, the kitchen, or across the office. WHAT IT DOES • Live mirror of your desktop terminal, including running AI agent sessions (Claude Code, Codex, custom CLIs). • Full keyboard input — type, tab-complete, Ctrl-C, scroll back, all from the phone. • Multi-worktree, multi-terminal: jump between projects with a tap. • Phone-fit zoom and a smart on-screen keyboard with quick Ctrl/Alt accessory keys and shortcuts. • Background long-running commands and get a notification when a TUI goes idle (e.g. when Claude finishes thinking). HOW IT WORKS Orca Mobile is a thin client. Nothing runs on your phone except the viewer. Your code, your shells, your AI agents — all of that stays on your desktop. The phone shows you what's happening and forwards your keystrokes back over an encrypted local-network connection. Pairing is end-to-end encrypted. Your desktop generates a one-time keypair and shows a QR code; you scan it from the app. After that, all traffic between phone and desktop is sealed with that pair's keys. PRIVACY • No analytics SDK, no crash reporter, no third-party SDKs of any kind in the iOS app. • Pairing tokens and your preference list live in the app's own sandbox. The app's traffic to your desktop is end-to-end encrypted on your local network only. • The Orca desktop app collects anonymized usage metrics per the policy at https://www.onorca.dev/privacy. The mobile app itself does not. • Open source: every line is auditable at https://github.com/stablyai/orca. REQUIREMENTS • An iPhone (iOS 16+) on the same Wi-Fi as your desktop. • The Orca desktop app, free, from https://www.onorca.dev/ or https://github.com/stablyai/orca/releases.

About

Tmux Term

Features
Read full description

Tmux Term turns your iPhone into a real terminal. SSH into your servers, attach to tmux sessions that never die, and run AI coding agents — from the train, the couch, or anywhere your laptop isn't. Built for developers who don't stop working when they leave the desk. — SECURE BY DESIGN — Password and private-key auth (ed25519, RSA). Host keys are pinned on first connect to stop man-in-the-middle attacks. Every credential lives in the iOS Keychain and never leaves your device. No accounts on our servers, no telemetry on your sessions. — TMUX THAT SURVIVES ANYTHING — Attach to long-running sessions, switch windows, and scroll back through history. Drop a connection in a tunnel? Tmux Term reconnects and reattaches the moment you're back — your work is exactly where you left it. — AI CLI, ONE TAP AWAY — Launch Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, OpenCode, or Nmap instantly and resume sessions where you stopped. The remote agents you already use, now driven from your phone. — SEND SCREENSHOTS STRAIGHT TO CLAUDE — Upload images over SFTP directly into your Claude Code conversation. No clipboard tricks, no base64 paste — just pick a photo and go. — A KEYBOARD THAT ACTUALLY WORKS ON MOBILE — Ctrl, Esc, Tab, arrows, function keys, the tmux prefix, one-tap password injection, and custom snippets — all sitting right above the iOS keyboard, where your thumbs can reach them. — GESTURES MADE FOR A PHONE — Two-finger scroll through terminal history. Side buttons for tmux copy-mode. Toggle mouse mode with a single tap. This isn't a desktop client squeezed onto a screen — it's designed for the device in your hand. — ONE PRICE, FOREVER — Try everything free for 7 days. Then unlock it all with a single purchase. No subscriptions, no upsells, no ads. Future updates included. Tmux Term is a purpose-built SSH and tmux client. You'll need a server you own or have permission to access.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Tmux Term4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Orca IDE at #14 against Tmux Term's unranked. Orca IDE also leads on device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, Tmux Term every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Orca IDE versus Tmux Term: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDETmux Term
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (41 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews—
Number of ratings41 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#14 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB12 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLovecast LLCErdinc Curebal

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Tmux Term

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tmux Term free?
Tmux Term is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or Tmux Term have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Tmux Term shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Tmux Term?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and Tmux Term every 2 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 19, 2026 and Tmux Term on October 13, 2026.

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