Comparison

Lochan vs dev HTML Playground

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

Head to head
About

Lochan

Features
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Your coding agents keep working when you step away. Lochan is how you keep up with them, calmly. When Claude Code, Codex or any other agent on your computer stops to ask a question, open its real terminal on your phone, read what it did, and answer. Then get back to your walk. A CALM VIEW OF A BUSY HERD Every agent on the machine at a glance, with a line on where each one left off. The ones waiting on you always come first. - Tiles: the whole herd as a grid that moves as your agents do - Board: Blocked, Working, Done and Idle as columns you swipe through - Projects: agents grouped by the project they are working in ASK THE SHEPHERD One question, the whole herd. The Shepherd is an agent on your computer that reads every other pane. Ask it what needs you, what changed or whether anything is stuck, and it answers from what is on the screens, with a link to each pane it mentions. It runs Claude Code by default, or Codex, Pi, OpenCode or Grok. ANY AGENT CAN JOIN THE HERD Lochan does not plug into your agent. It opens the terminal the agent is already running in, so it works with Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI, Grok, OpenCode, Aider and anything else with a prompt. A new agent works the day it ships. A REAL TERMINAL, IN YOUR POCKET Tap any agent for the actual session: full output, scrollback and a keyboard. MAKE THE KEYS YOUR OWN Two rows of keys sit above the terminal. Drag any key to either row, switch off the ones you never use, and add your own: - Text keys for the commands you repeat, like /compact, /usage or /model sonnet - Chord keys for Ctrl, Option and Shift combos, like your tmux prefix or Ctrl-R SHARE A SCREENSHOT WITH YOUR AGENT Pick a photo, take one of the screen in front of you, or send a file. It lands on your computer and its path goes into the prompt, ready for you to finish and send. SAY IT. CHECK IT. SEND IT. Dictate a long instruction, read the transcript, and send it only when it reads right. Or write it in a real text box, with a draft that waits if you get pulled away. RUN THE HERD FROM YOUR PHONE Start a new agent in any project, rename it, and close it when it is done. BUILT FOR A PHONE Lochan tells each agent it is being driven from a phone, so it leads with the answer, keeps replies short and batches its questions. PAIRED IN ONE SCAN Run one line on your Mac or Linux machine, then scan the code it shows. Your phone makes its own key, and it stays in the phone's Keychain. Nothing to type, no private key to copy. Save every machine you own and switch between them from the title bar. No account, and no Lochan server in between: your phone talks to your computers over SSH. Away from home you need a route to them, and Tailscale is the two-minute version. ALSO IN LOCHAN: A PRIVATE AI CHAT Chat with Apple's on-device model, open models downloaded to your phone, or cloud models with your own API key. Conversations branch instead of overwriting, and you can share one with a link we cannot read. Lochan works with Herdr, the terminal workspace for AI coding agents, on the computers you own.

About

dev HTML Playground

Create and run HTML projects on your iPhone without coding knowledge. Easily integrate AI-generated code, preview instantly, and save your work. Turn your creations into standalone apps on your home screen.

Highlights
  • AI integration for code generation
  • Code editor with syntax highlighting
  • Instant code preview and debugging
  • Safe, project-specific data storage
  • Multiple project templates
  • Add projects to home screen
  • Export projects as ZIP or HTML
Features
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dev HTML Playground (dHP) runs HTML written by ChatGPT or any AI on your iPhone: free, no ads, and no coding knowledge needed. No computer required. Copy the AI's reply, paste it, and it becomes your own app. Its data stays on your phone, and it opens from your Home Screen like a regular app. IF YOU'RE LOOKING FOR - A way to run HTML that ChatGPT made, on an iPhone, for free, with no ads and no programming knowledge - A place to keep the budget tracker or diary an AI built for you, with its data, and use it every day - A way to build your own tools without owning a computer - A quick way to view HTML documents an AI wrote for you FEATURES Code Editor A syntax-highlighted editor for HTML, CSS and JavaScript with autosave and file management (add, rename, delete). Smart quotes and other typing "corrections" that break code are disabled. Instant Preview Run your code with one tap. console.log output and errors appear in a built-in console, so you can debug entirely on your phone. AI Integration A ready-made environment prompt for AIs like ChatGPT and Claude. Paste it, and the AI asks "What would you like to build?" — just answer in plain words. Bring the returned code in with one tap using "Paste & Replace All". You can finish real apps with zero programming experience. Safe Data Storage Every project ships with storage.js, a simple persistence library. Your apps' data is stored safely and kept separate per project. It also works in regular browsers, so your creations are portable. 7 Templates - Game (Crowd Rush): the real version of that "grow your crowd" ad game - Game (Pull the Pin): the real version of that pull-the-pin puzzle from the ads - Empty Project: start from a clean slate - Basic Sample: learn the ropes with a counter and notes - To-Do List: a practical task app - Habit Calendar: a monthly habit tracker - Game (NEON RUSH): a full neon mini-game demo Add to Home Screen Register your apps as Home Screen icons via Shortcuts and launch them like regular apps. Export Export as ZIP (for backup) or a single HTML file (for sharing). Send your work via AirDrop, save to Files, or continue editing on a Mac. Opening a saved .html file is just as easy: share it from the Files app and choose dHP. HTML that an AI exported "as a file", or that you received via AirDrop, becomes one of your apps. HTML Viewer Copy any HTML (like a document an AI wrote) and view it with one tap. Everything you view is kept in a history, and you can import it as a project to edit. Built-in Browser A browser tab for research or chatting with AI sites, so the whole loop stays in one app. About your AI Works with any AI you like — ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and more. Free AIs are fine; smarter ones just nail it on the first try more often. And if something breaks, dHP catches the error for you — copy it, paste it back to your AI, and it gets fixed. The interface is available in English, Japanese and Simplified Chinese. Everything is free, with no ads. Your "I want to build something" — right in your pocket.

Screenshots

Lochan4 screens
dev HTML Playground4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: dev HTML Playground at 17.0 against Lochan's 26.0. 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

Lochan ships an update fortnightly, dev HTML Playground every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 10, 2026 and September 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Lochan versus dev HTML Playground: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLochandev HTML Playground
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (3 ratings) — better
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings—3 — better
Update frequencyFortnightlyEvery 9 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS26.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size63 MB3 MB
Age rating17+17+
DeveloperPurplecones, LLCKOICHIRO YAMAMOTO

In-app purchases

None

Lochan

No in-app purchases

None

dev HTML Playground

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lochan free?
Lochan is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is dev HTML Playground free?
dev HTML Playground is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Lochan or dev HTML Playground have ads?
Neither Lochan nor dev HTML Playground shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lochan or dev HTML Playground?
Lochan ships an update fortnightly, and dev HTML Playground every 9 days. Most recently, Lochan was updated on October 10, 2026 and dev HTML Playground on September 29, 2026.

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