Orca IDE vs ArloLite
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- 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
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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.
ArloLite
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Arlo Lite is a free, open-source iOS client for interacting with large language models. Bring your own API key and talk directly to the provider — no middleman server, no account, no subscription. SUPPORTED PROVIDERS • OpenAI — Chat Completions & Responses API • Anthropic — Claude via Messages API • Local Inference — Ollama, llama.cpp, vLLM, or any OpenAI-compatible endpoint KEY FEATURES • Real-time streaming with token-by-token display • Rich Markdown rendering with syntax-highlighted code blocks • Session management — switch models mid-conversation, rename, resume • Thinking effort controls — adjust reasoning depth per session • Per-turn and per-session cost tracking • System prompt library — save and reuse your favorite prompts • iCloud backup for chat history (text only, keys never leave your device) PRIVACY BY DESIGN • API keys stored exclusively in the iOS Keychain • No backend server — all calls go direct to the provider • No telemetry, no analytics, no tracking • No account or sign-up required • Offline read access to past conversations BUILT FOR POWER USERS Arlo Lite is designed for developers and AI enthusiasts who want a clean, fast interface for daily-driving LLM APIs. Light/dark/system appearance, Dynamic Type support, and VoiceOver accessibility built in. 100% open source. MIT licensed. Contributions welcome on GitHub.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: Orca IDE at every 3 days against ArloLite's every 10 days. Orca IDE also leads on chart position (#18 vs unranked). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, ArloLite every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Orca IDE | ArloLite |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (38 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 83.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 38 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 3 days — better | Every 10 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Best chart rank | #18 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 25 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Lovecast LLC | Chang KaiChieh |
In-app purchases
Orca IDE
No in-app purchases
ArloLite
No in-app purchases









