Comparison

Orca IDE vs ArloLite

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

ArloLite

Features
Read full description

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

Orca IDE4 screens
ArloLite3 screens

Verdict

The call

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

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, ArloLite every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Orca IDE versus ArloLite: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDEArloLite
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (38 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews83.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings38 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 10 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#18 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS15.115.1
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB25 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperLovecast LLCChang KaiChieh

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

ArloLite

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is ArloLite free?
ArloLite is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or ArloLite have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor ArloLite shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or ArloLite?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and ArloLite every 10 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 15, 2026 and ArloLite on October 7, 2026.

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