Lochan vs Herdwick
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Lochan
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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.
Herdwick
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Answer your coding agents from your phone. Herdwick connects to herdr on your own Mac or Linux machines over SSH. See what your agents did and reply from iPhone or iPad. ONE INBOX Every agent on your saved hosts, in one list. The ones waiting on you come first. READ THE CONVERSATION Conversations from omp, Claude Code and Codex show as a chat. Tool steps fold into one line; open it for detail. Edits show as diffs, line by line. Other agents, and transcripts that aren't available, open in the terminal. A line marks what's new since you last looked. ANSWER Tap an option on a supported question or permission prompt, or type a reply. The terminal is always there. USE THE TERMINAL Live output, a message box and keys for Esc, Tab, arrows, Enter and Ctrl-C. Typing mode is optional; it takes control and resizes the pane on your host. CONNECT YOUR MACHINES Use SSH with a key made on your device, or a password. Tailscale sign-in and a machine picker are built in; Tailscale SSH needs setup on your host and tailnet. Nothing to install for Herdwick on your host beyond herdr. KEEP YOUR PLACE While Herdwick reconnects, your last view stays on screen. Pick from seven terminal themes, set separately for light and dark. TRY THE DEMO Look around a scripted demo host before you connect your own. No Herdwick account needed. PRIVACY Your SSH private key stays in the device Keychain. Messages and attachments go to your host, not to a Herdwick server. No analytics. If you use Tailscale, its privacy policy applies. REQUIREMENTS iOS 26 or later, and a Mac or Linux host running herdr that you can reach. Your agents run on the host, not on your phone. Herdwick is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the herdr project or Tailscale Inc. Tailscale is a registered trademark of Tailscale Inc.
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Verdict
Lochan and Herdwick are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Lochan | Herdwick |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | โ |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 26.0 |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 63 MB | 39 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Purplecones, LLC | Briggs Craig |
In-app purchases
Lochan
No in-app purchases
Herdwick
No in-app purchases








