Comparison

Hermex vs Crystl

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

Head to head
About

Hermex

This client app connects to your self-hosted AI agent, allowing you to manage conversations, review file edits, and interact with bots and sessions. It offers customization options and live activity integration for seamless workflow management.

Highlights
  • Connects to self-hosted AI agents
  • Manage conversations and streamed responses
  • Review file edits as diffs
  • Switch between Bots and Sessions
  • Customize themes, colors, and fonts
  • Live Activities for Lock Screen visibility
  • Share extension for content staging
Features
Read full description

Hermex is a native iPhone and iPad client for your self-hosted Hermes agent. It connects directly to your Hermes host, including a Hermes Webapp. Existing Hermes Web UI servers keep working as legacy. Open existing sessions, start conversations, and follow streamed responses, tools, and reasoning as they arrive. Queue, steer, or stop an active run. Review file edits as diffs, browse workspace files, send photos and files, and dictate messages. Switch between Bots and Sessions, manage Kanban boards and Cards, browse Tasks, Skills, Memory, and Usage, and choose models, Profiles, and reasoning settings. Make Hermex yours with themes, an accent color, fonts, and text size. Move to Hermes brings a Web UI server’s chats, drafts, and notifications over to your Hermes host. Live Activities keep working runs visible on the Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. Optional notifications let you know when work finishes or needs your attention. The share extension stages content from other apps for you to review and send. Agent execution happens on your configured server, not on the iPhone. Your server owns your conversations, tools, and workspace. Recent sessions and messages may be cached locally for read-only offline viewing; clear that cache from Settings. There is no Hermex-hosted agent backend, tracking, or analytics service. Optional push notifications use an open-source, self-hostable relay. Message previews are encrypted on your Hermes host and decrypted on your iPhone; the relay handles device tokens, notification metadata, and ciphertext, never message text, server URLs, or Hermes server credentials. Push is off until enabled. Hermex has no in-app account creation or in-app purchases. You need your own reachable Hermes server. Not affiliated with Nous Research.

About

Crystl

Features
Read full description

crystl for iPhone is the companion to crystl for Mac, the desktop app that runs your AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, Gemini). Pair over your local network to watch shards live, read transcripts, approve tool requests, answer agent questions, and steer sessions from anywhere in the house. Requires crystl running on your Mac.

Screenshots

Hermex4 screens
Crystl4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Crystl at every 3 days against Hermex's every 10 days. Crystl also leads on iOS requirement (16.1 vs 18.0). Hermex's advantage is chart position (#40 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

Hermex ships an update every 10 days, Crystl every 3 days. The most recent releases landed on November 9, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 8 level
Hermex versus Crystl: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHermexCrystl
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (221 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews84.6% of reviews—
Number of ratings221 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 daysEvery 3 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
Best chart rank#40 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB8 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUzair AnsarChristopher Bolton

In-app purchases

None

Hermex

No in-app purchases

None

Crystl

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Hermex free?
Hermex is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Crystl free?
Crystl is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Hermex or Crystl have ads?
Neither Hermex nor Crystl shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Hermex or Crystl?
Hermex ships an update every 10 days, and Crystl every 3 days. Most recently, Hermex was updated on November 9, 2026 and Crystl on November 5, 2026.

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