Comparison

Orca IDE vs Conductor.build

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

Conductor.build

Manage a team of cloud-based coding agents directly from your Mac or phone. This tool allows for seamless control and operation of your development team from anywhere.

Highlights
  • Cloud-based coding agents
  • Remote team management
  • Mac and phone control
  • Developer tool
Read full description

Conductor lets you run a team of coding agents in the cloud and control them from your mac or phone.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Conductor.build4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Conductor.build at 5.0 against Orca IDE's 4.6. Conductor.build also leads on review sentiment (100% vs 83%). Orca IDE's advantage is ratings volume (41 vs 6) and chart position (#13 vs #96). 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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Conductor.build holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Orca IDE has 41 ratings behind it against 6, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of Orca IDE's written reviews are positive against 100% of Conductor.build's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, Conductor.build every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 19, 2026 and October 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 5 level
Orca IDE versus Conductor.build: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDEConductor.build
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (41 ratings)5.0 (6 ratings) — better
Positive reviews83.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings41 — better6
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 6 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank#13 — better#96
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size42 MB74 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLovecast LLCMelty, Inc.

Customer experience

Orca IDE

All ratings41 ratings
Positive87.8%
Neutral7.3%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews42 reviews
Positive83.3%
Neutral9.5%
Negative7.1%

Conductor.build

All ratings6 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Conductor.build

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Conductor.build free?
Conductor.build is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Orca IDE or Conductor.build?
Conductor.build is rated higher. Orca IDE averages 4.6 out of 5 from 41 ratings, while Conductor.build averages 5.0 from 6 ratings.
Do Orca IDE or Conductor.build have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Conductor.build shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Conductor.build?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and Conductor.build every 6 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 19, 2026 and Conductor.build on October 3, 2026.
Which is more popular, Orca IDE or Conductor.build?
Orca IDE currently peaks at #13 in the App Store charts, and Conductor.build at #96. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

Other comparisons