Comparison

MLX vs FrankenOCR

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

Head to head
About

MLX

This AI studio runs entirely on your device, processing conversations, voice recordings, and generated images locally. It offers hands-free calling, voice cloning, and image generation without any account creation, subscriptions, or tracking.

Highlights
  • On-device AI processing
  • Hands-free voice calls
  • Personalized voice cloning
  • Text-to-image generation
  • Offline model functionality
  • No account or tracking
Features
Read full description

MLX-Serve is a private AI studio that runs entirely on your iPhone. Every conversation, voice recording, and generated image is processed on-device by open-weight models — nothing you type, say, or create ever leaves your phone. There is no account to create, no subscription, and no tracking of any kind. MUSIC Generate songs locally using your device ! You can also play it back in the background and use MLX-Serve as a player for your generated music on the go. CHAT Talk with capable open language models (Google Gemma 4) right on your device. Ask questions, brainstorm, draft messages, get things explained. Some models can even understand photos you attach. CALL Tap Call inside any conversation to talk to the AI hands-free, like a phone call. Your speech is transcribed on-device and the reply is read back aloud. Speaker and handset modes are both supported, and the transcript is saved to your chat. VOICE CLONE Record about eight seconds of your voice and have the AI speak text in your own voice, using an on-device text-to-speech model. Great for narration and fun. IMAGES Generate images from a text prompt with an on-device diffusion model (FLUX.2). Tap a result to zoom in, save it to your photo library, or share it. FULLY PRIVATE, FULLY OFFLINE - Runs 100% on-device using Apple MLX and the Metal GPU. - No account, no analytics, no ads, no tracking. - The network is used only to download the AI models you choose from Hugging Face. After a model is downloaded, that feature works offline. REQUIREMENTS Models are multi-gigabyte downloads and on-device AI is demanding, so MLX Chat requires a recent, high-performance iPhone. Download over Wi-Fi is recommended. You pick which models to download and can delete them anytime to reclaim space. Open models are provided under their respective licenses (Gemma, Apache 2.0). MLX Chat is an independent app and is not affiliated with Google or Apple.

About

FrankenOCR

Features
Read full description

Extract text from an image or scanned PDF without uploading the document. FrankenOCR uses the same pure-Rust Unlimited-OCR engine as the FrankenOCR command-line project. Choose a photo, file, camera capture, tall scrolling screenshot, or scanned PDF. The app reads the input in memory and produces structured Markdown on the device. The flagship recognition path uses a downloaded, verified Baidu Unlimited-OCR model for careful document extraction. Tall screenshots are divided with overlap-aware smart cuts, while PDF pages are processed as a document and low-yield pages are called out instead of silently disappearing. Live Camera mode uses Apple's on-device Vision text recognition for speed. It is less accurate than the flagship FrankenOCR model, and the app labels that tradeoff clearly. Recognized words flow from their camera positions into the capture tray as the view updates. The current app ships one flagship model: Unlimited-OCR. It does not claim to include GOT-OCR2, SmolVLM2, OneChart, or a music-recognition model. Images, PDFs, camera frames, and recognized text stay on the device. Network access is used only to download the static flagship model files.

Screenshots

MLX4 screens
FrankenOCR2 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: FrankenOCR at none against MLX's 1. FrankenOCR also leads on update cadence (every 5 days vs every 3 weeks) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.2). On price, ads 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. MLX sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. FrankenOCR asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

MLX ships an update every 3 weeks, FrankenOCR every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 9, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
MLX versus FrankenOCR: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMLXFrankenOCR
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (9 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings9 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS26.217.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size211 MB10 MB
Age rating12+4+
DeveloperDavid DalcuJeffrey Emanuel

In-app purchases

1 purchases

MLX

One-time1
  • Music Generation$4.99
None

FrankenOCR

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is MLX free?
MLX is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is FrankenOCR free?
FrankenOCR is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do MLX or FrankenOCR have ads?
Neither MLX nor FrankenOCR shows ads.
Which is updated more often, MLX or FrankenOCR?
MLX ships an update every 3 weeks, and FrankenOCR every 5 days. Most recently, MLX was updated on October 9, 2026 and FrankenOCR on October 8, 2026.

Other comparisons