Comparison

Orca IDE vs Kangentic

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

Kangentic

Read full description

Kangentic Mobile is the companion app for Kangentic, the desktop tool for running coding agent sessions. Pair your phone with your desktop once, then check on your agents, read their progress, answer prompts, and review diffs from wherever you are. Key features: - Live session view: read the agent's transcript as a clean chat feed, or mirror the raw terminal when you need the full picture. - Answer permission prompts and questions the agent raises, right from your phone. - Review file changes with a per-file diff view before they land. - Push notifications when a session needs your attention. - End-to-end encrypted connection between your phone and desktop. No account required, and no Kangentic server ever sees your session content. Kangentic Mobile requires the Kangentic desktop app running on the same network (or reachable through a relay) to pair with.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Kangentic4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Orca IDE at every 3 days against Kangentic's every 10 days. Orca IDE also leads on chart position (#17 vs unranked) and device support (3 vs 1). On price, ads, in-app purchases and iOS requirement 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, Kangentic every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 15, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Orca IDE versus Kangentic: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDEKangentic
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#17 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.1 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB50 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperLovecast LLCTyler Vorpahl

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Kangentic

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Kangentic free?
Kangentic is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or Kangentic have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Kangentic shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Kangentic?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and Kangentic every 10 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 15, 2026 and Kangentic on October 8, 2026.

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