Comparison

Orca IDE vs SessionBell

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

SessionBell

Features
Read full description

Leave your computer freely. Your local AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex and more) now run for long stretches, needing only the occasional approval or nudge. SessionBell puts that on your iPhone — so you can step away and still stay in control: • Rings only when it should — a task is waiting for input, has finished, or is asking to run a command. Delivered straight to your Lock Screen. Idle detection stays quiet while you're at your desk. • Every machine, one panel — a live Lock Screen view of all your Macs and Windows PCs: waiting / running / done, ticking in real time, no unlock. • Approve with one tap — allow or deny a command right on the Lock Screen card. No need to walk back to your computer. • Steer and see the terminal — send the next instruction to a session, watch real terminal output, even start a new session remotely. • Usage at a glance — this week's limits and premium-model usage, official numbers. Works with a free desktop companion for Mac and Windows — one command to pair after install. SessionBell is MIT-licensed open source, fully auditable and self-hostable — your data can flow through your own server only. Privacy by design: only project names, machine names, and status summaries are sent, never your source files. No ads, no tracking. GitHub: github.com/westie-ai/session-bell

Screenshots

Orca IDE4 screens
SessionBell4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is chart position: Orca IDE at #19 against SessionBell's unranked. Orca IDE also leads on iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.2). 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, SessionBell every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 25, 2026 and October 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 9 level
Orca IDE versus SessionBell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOrca IDESessionBell
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (47 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews86.5% of reviews—
Number of ratings47 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#19 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.1 — better17.2
Further details — not scored
Size41 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLovecast LLC越 孙

In-app purchases

None

Orca IDE

No in-app purchases

None

SessionBell

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Orca IDE free?
Orca IDE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SessionBell free?
SessionBell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Orca IDE or SessionBell have ads?
Neither Orca IDE nor SessionBell shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Orca IDE or SessionBell?
Orca IDE ships an update every 3 days, and SessionBell every 2 days. Most recently, Orca IDE was updated on October 25, 2026 and SessionBell on October 10, 2026.

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