Comparison

Orca IDE vs Crystl

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

Head to head
About

Orca IDE

Control your coding environment remotely from your phone. Mirror your desktop terminal, manage AI agent sessions, and interact with your code using a smart on-screen keyboard. All your data remains on your desktop, with secure, end-to-end encrypted local network connections.

Highlights
  • Live desktop terminal mirror
  • AI agent session management
  • Full keyboard input
  • Multi-worktree 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

Crystl

Features
Read full description

crystl for iPhone is the companion to crystl for Mac, the desktop app that runs your AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini). Pair over your local network to watch shards live, read transcripts, approve tool requests, answer agent questions, and steer sessions from anywhere in the house. Requires crystl running on your Mac.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Crystl4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Orca IDE at #19 against Crystl's unranked. Orca IDE also leads on device support (3 vs 1). 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 4 days, Crystl every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Orca IDE versus Crystl: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDECrystl
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (76 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.1% of reviews—
Number of ratings76 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 4 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#19 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.1
Further details — not scored
Size47 MB8 MB
Age rating+44+
DeveloperLovecast LLCChristopher Bolton

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Crystl

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Crystl free?
Crystl is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or Crystl have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Crystl shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Crystl?
Orca IDE ships an update every 4 days, and Crystl every 3 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on November 9, 2026 and Crystl on November 5, 2026.

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