thumbs.work vs Sill
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
thumbs.work
This app functions as a smart notepad that instantly calculates results as you type in plain language. It offers extensive scientific calculations, unit conversions, and time zone translations. Manage multiple scratchpads for different purposes and export your data in various formats.
- Calculate as you type
- Instant scientific calculations
- Extensive unit conversions
- Time zone calculations
- Running totals and previous results
- Separate, searchable scratchpads
- Import/export data
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Think with your brain. Work with your thumbs. thumbs.work is a notepad that does the math for you. Type a line in plain language and the answer appears right next to it. No equals button, no modes, no switching apps. CALCULATE AS YOU TYPE Every line evaluates instantly. Add up a bill, split it four ways, work out a budget. Change units for recipes in a single number. A full scientific set is built in: square roots, powers, logs, trig, factorials, and constants like pi and e. CONVERT ANYTHING Length, volume, weight, temperature, speed, area, data, even CSS units. Just write "10 km to miles" or "2 cups to ml" and get a clean answer. SKIP THE TIME ZONE MATH "9am PST to UTC", "time in Tokyo" — written the way you'd actually say it. RUNNING TOTALS Numbers on consecutive lines form a block. Type "sum" or "average" to total them, and "prev" to reference your last result. SEPARATE SCRATCHPADS Keep one for everything... groceries, travel, bills, a project. Rename, reorder, and search them. Import and export as JSON, Markdown, CSV, or plain text. A notepad for your thoughts. A calculator for real life. Works with plain text, markdown, and our own .calc files. MANY THUMBS, NO LIMIT Keep as many documents of every type as you like, free. Sync, every theme, and import/export are free too. SUBSCRIPTION thumbs.work Pro removes the single in-app promo card and supports an independent developer. Everything else is already free. • Pro Monthly — $2.99 per month • Pro Yearly — $19.99 per year Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase. The subscription renews automatically unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period; your account is charged for renewal within 24 hours before the period ends. Manage or cancel your subscription in your Apple Account settings after purchase. Terms of Use: https://thumbs.work/terms Privacy Policy: https://thumbs.work/privacy
Sill
Stream your Mac's desktop or individual windows to your iPhone or iPad. Control your computer remotely using touch, keyboard, or Apple Pencil with encrypted connections. Offers flexible streaming quality and connection options.
- Stream Mac windows or desktop to iPhone/iPad
- Remote control with touch, keyboard, Apple Pencil
- Encrypted connections with TLS 1.3
- Adjustable streaming quality and frame rate
- Virtual display option for continuous updates
- Multiple connection modes (Wired, Wi-Fi, Direct, Remote)
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Sill shows a window from your Mac, or its whole desktop, on your iPhone or iPad, and lets you use it with touch, a keyboard, a touchscreen trackpad or Apple Pencil. It streams straight from your Mac to your device over your own network, so there is no account to create and no server in between. You pair each device once, and every connection is encrypted. Both parts are free: the Sill app for iPhone and iPad, and Sill for Mac. Streaming: * Any single Mac window, or the whole Desktop, on your iPhone or iPad * Hardware HEVC video, up to 120 fps on ProMotion screens (60 elsewhere); the rate follows each device * Seven bitrate quality presets, from Low (4 Mbps) to Extreme (150 Mbps), plus Resolution, a frame-rate limit and Prioritize Encoding Speed * Text size (Aa): resizes your Mac window to fit your screen, so text is the size you want * Optional virtual display: a window streams from its own HiDPI display, sized to your device, and keeps updating even when covered on your Mac; full-screen video works too Controls: * Touch: tap to click, drag to scroll with momentum, touch and hold to right-click * Apple Pencil as the mouse, with hover * Software and hardware keyboards, with ⌘, ⌃ and ⌥ shortcuts, plus a key row with latching modifiers and a Spotlight key * Laptop layout when you hold the device upright: the picture on top, a key row and a trackpad (two-finger scroll, two-finger tap, hold then drag, three-finger gestures for Mission Control, App Exposé, switching Spaces, Apps and Show Desktop) * Dedicated iPhone and iPad layouts * Each Mac app's menus (File, Edit, View, etc) on your device, behind a Menus button * Window thumbnails: switch with a tap; hold one for close, minimize and full screen; drag to reorder * An Apps drawer: open windows and all installed apps, with search, and it launches apps Connecting: * Finds your Mac automatically; each Mac has 4 modes: Wired, Wi-Fi, Direct or Remote * USB cable (Wired) support, and a live session moves between the cable and Wi-Fi without dropping * Direct Wireless Connection (Direct, optional), for when you and your Mac don't share a network * Remote Access from anywhere through your own VPN, such as Tailscale, or a port forward * Pairing: every connection encrypted with TLS 1.3; pair each device once by QR code or a 12-digit code, and a USB cable pairs by itself; Require pairing is on by default * Your Mac keeps its keys in the protected part of its keychain that only Sill can read Sill for Mac: * A ~6 MB menu bar app with a live status card: each device, its frame rate and latency * Settings: General, Devices, Streaming, Virtual Display, Remote Access and Permissions * Launch at Login, a log window, and an update check that tells you when a new version is out * A notarized disk image download from getsill.app Sill for iPhone and iPad: * A Settings panel that changes your Mac's stream settings, and shows the connection and latency * A first-run tour, and Take the Tour to replay it * Tells you when your Mac or the device needs an update Free and open source (Apache 2.0) No account, no servers, no tracking: video goes straight from your Mac to your device, forever! Website: https://getsill.app/ GitHub: https://github.com/Saffsanity/sill Site GitHub: https://github.com/Saffsanity/sill-site
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is monetization model: Sill at free against thumbs.work's freemium. Sill also leads on ratings volume (44 vs 1). thumbs.work's advantage is iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, rating, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for thumbs.work against 4.9 for Sill. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Sill has 44 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | thumbs.work | Sill |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 4.9 (44 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | — | 100.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 44 — better |
| Update frequency | — | Every 2 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 39 MB | 3 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Iona, LLC | NOAH WILLIAM SAFFER |
In-app purchases
thumbs.work
No in-app purchases
Sill
No in-app purchases









