Comparison

Orca IDE vs Telecmux

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

Telecmux

Control AI coding agents running on your Mac directly from your iPhone. View terminal output, respond to prompts with quick actions, and manage multiple workspaces remotely. Securely connects via SSH using your private keys stored in the iOS Keychain.

Highlights
  • View workspaces and agent notifications
  • Read live terminal output with highlighting
  • Respond to prompts with one-tap soft-key ribbon
  • Send free text or dictate by voice
  • Switch between workspaces remotely
  • Secure SSH connection with key authentication
Features
Read full description

Telecmux is a focused iOS remote for cmux — the native macOS terminal built for AI coding agents. Run Claude Code (and other agents) in parallel on your Mac, then reach back to them from your phone: • See every workspace, pane, and pending agent notification at a glance • Read live terminal output, with highlighting for diffs, status lines, and prompts • Answer agent prompts in one tap with the soft-key ribbon (1 / 2 / delete / return / Esc) • Send free text or dictate by voice (on-device speech recognition) • Switch between workspaces without touching your Mac Connects over SSH using key authentication. Your private keys stay in the iOS Keychain and never leave your device. Host configuration syncs across your devices via iCloud Drive. Requires a Mac running cmux 0.64+ with socket automation enabled. Not a general-purpose terminal — built specifically for the parallel-AI-agent workflow.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Telecmux3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Orca IDE at 87% against Telecmux's 0%. Orca IDE also leads on update cadence (every 3 days vs fortnightly) and chart position (#18 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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, Telecmux fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 25, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 6 level
Orca IDE versus Telecmux: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDETelecmux
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (47 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.5% of reviews — better0.0% of reviews
Number of ratings47 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#18 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLovecast LLCShanghai Underplay Technology Co., Ltd.

Customer experience

Orca IDE

All ratings48 ratings
Positive89.6%
Neutral6.3%
Negative4.2%
Written reviews52 reviews
Positive86.5%
Neutral7.7%
Negative5.8%

Telecmux

Written reviews1 reviews
Positive0.0%
Neutral100.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Telecmux

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Telecmux free?
Telecmux is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or Telecmux have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Telecmux shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Telecmux?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and Telecmux fortnightly. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 25, 2026 and Telecmux on October 25, 2026.

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