Comparison

Apperture vs BalauDeck

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Apperture

Features
Read full description

Apperture lets you see and control one Mac app right from your iPhone — not your whole desktop. Apperture mirrors just the app that matters, full-screen on your phone, so it feels like the app is running in your hand. Traditional screen sharing puts a 27-inch desktop on a 6-inch screen and makes you pan, zoom, and hunt for windows. Apperture takes the opposite approach: pick a single running Mac app and it fills your iPhone with a sharp, low-latency live view sized for the screen you're actually holding. BUILT FOR DEVELOPERS • Mirror the iOS Simulator and it feels native: touches map directly, and rotating your phone rotates the simulated app. • Keep working while your Mac builds and runs. Perfect for agent-assisted coding — let Claude Code or your favorite agent build and launch the app on your Mac, then review and interact with the result from anywhere in the house. • Stream any Xcode-launched Mac app with its real window chrome intact. FULL CONTROL, NOT JUST A VIEW • Tap, drag, long-press for right-click, two-finger scroll — touch input translated naturally to the Mac. • Type with the iPhone keyboard, including full Unicode text entry. • Browse and run the Mac app's real menu bar commands from a searchable, touch-friendly palette. • Send clipboard text securely between devices. • Fit-width, fit-height, and readable-zoom layout modes in portrait and landscape. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • No accounts. No cloud relay. Your screen never touches our servers. • Pairing starts with a short-lived QR code on your Mac, and the Mac owner must explicitly approve every phone. • Connections work only over private networks — your Wi-Fi or your own VPN such as Tailscale. Public endpoints are rejected by design. • Every session is encrypted. Pairing trust is stored in the device Keychain and never synced to the cloud. • Review or revoke paired devices anytime. The Mac keeps a local 30-day session history — device, time, and app names only, never keystrokes or screen contents. GOOD TO KNOW • Apperture requires the free companion Mac app from runapperture.com. It's notarized by Apple and distributed directly because it uses Screen Recording and Accessibility permissions the Mac App Store doesn't allow. • Away from home, you'll need a VPN to reach your Mac — Tailscale takes about five minutes to set up, works beautifully, and is free for personal use. • Your Mac does all the work, so it needs to be on, awake, and logged in. Apperture is a viewer and controller for your own Mac, not a way to run Mac apps on iPhone. • Apperture streams one selected window at a time — that focus is the point. Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

About

BalauDeck

Manage your servers with this all-in-one client. It supports SSH, SFTP, tunnels, and MySQL/MariaDB databases, offering a real interactive shell and file browser. Features include split panes, resilient connections, and cross-device sync for seamless server management.

Highlights
  • SSH terminal with interactive shell
  • SFTP browser with file management
  • SSH tunnel port forwarding
  • MySQL/MariaDB client with SQL editor
  • Split panes and full-screen modes
  • Resilient connections with auto-reconnect
  • Cross-device sync for connections
Features
Read full description

BalauDeck is an all-in-one client for the servers you already run — SSH, SFTP, SSH tunnels, and MySQL/MariaDB — in one fast, native app for iPhone, iPad and Mac. • SSH terminal — a real interactive shell (xterm), password or key auth, host-key verification, and an on-screen key bar for the keys phones don't have. • SFTP browser — upload, download, rename, delete, mkdir, and change permissions (chmod), with an option to browse elevated. • SSH tunnels — forward a local port through a server to reach an internal service. • MySQL/MariaDB client — schema browser, SQL editor with highlighting, a results grid you can edit inline, table designer, and SQL import/export. • Split panes & full screen — arrange several sessions side by side, or maximize one to fill the display. • Resilient connections — keepalive detects drops, with reconnect and optional tmux session persistence so you pick up exactly where you left off. • Cross-device sync — export an encrypted, passphrase-protected bundle of your connections and import it on another device. Nothing is stored on our servers. Your connections and credentials stay on your device (passwords and keys live in the system keychain). BalauDeck has no account, no tracking, and no ads.

Screenshots

Apperture4 screens
BalauDeck3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: BalauDeck at none against Apperture's 1. BalauDeck also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks) and device support (4 vs 2). On price and ads 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. Apperture sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. BalauDeck asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Apperture ships an update every 3 weeks, BalauDeck every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 24, 2026 and September 12, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 5 level
Apperture versus BalauDeck: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterAppertureBalauDeck
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.014.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size11 MB37 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLAND MK 1OKDII SOLUTIONS

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Apperture

One-time1
  • Early Adopter$24.99
None

BalauDeck

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Apperture free?
Apperture is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is BalauDeck free?
BalauDeck is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Apperture or BalauDeck have ads?
Neither Apperture nor BalauDeck shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Apperture or BalauDeck?
Apperture ships an update every 3 weeks, and BalauDeck every 5 days. Most recently, Apperture was updated on September 24, 2026 and BalauDeck on September 12, 2026.

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