Comparison

Orca IDE vs Perchoir

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

Perchoir

Features
Read full description

Perchoir reconnects your iPhone to the agent sessions (Claude Code, Codex and others) that Fauconnier opened on your computer. Nothing runs on the phone: your agents stay on the computer, in tmux sessions that survive closing the app. • Reattach to a session in one gesture and find the buffer exactly as you left it. • Follow several agents at once — Canvas mode on iPad and large screens. • Dictate your instructions by voice, holding the orb. • Send a screenshot or a file to an agent. • Get a notification when an agent needs you. Direct SSH connection to your computer, on your own network. Private keys stay in the device keychain, never backed up to iCloud. Requires Fauconnier and Remote Login enabled on the host computer.

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
Perchoir4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Orca IDE at #20 against Perchoir's unranked. Orca IDE also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). 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 3 days, Perchoir every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Orca IDE versus Perchoir: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDEPerchoir
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (32 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews87.9% of reviews—
Number of ratings32 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterEvery 4 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#20 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB40 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLovecast LLCGabriel Turpin

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

Perchoir

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Perchoir free?
Perchoir is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or Perchoir have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor Perchoir shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or Perchoir?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and Perchoir every 4 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 11, 2026 and Perchoir on October 7, 2026.

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