Comparison

Multiplex vs Multiplex

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

Head to head
About

Multiplex

This open-source terminal app for iPhone and iPad allows users to manage persistent remote sessions with live monitoring and quick reconnections. It offers advanced features for AI agent sessions, file viewing, and home screen widgets, enhancing productivity for developers.

Highlights
  • Live session monitoring
  • One-tap reconnection
  • AI agent session integration
  • File and link viewer
  • Home screen widgets
  • MOSH support (Pro)
  • Connection statistics (Pro)
Features
Read full description

Multiplex is a terminal for people who live inside persistent remote sessions — open source, built native for iPhone and iPad. THE WALL Hosts probe concurrently. Every session is a live monitor: its actual last screen lines, red LIVE while attached. See the fleet before attaching; NO SIGNAL reconnects in one tap. Run tmux, or switch a host to herdr — one tile per session, agent state from herdr itself. A SESSION WHERE YOU NEED IT On iPad each session opens in a real scene for Stage Manager, Split View, and external displays. Merge windows into tabs and split them back out — the SSH connection and scrollback move with the tab, so shells never drop. On iPhone, the wall and terminal share one adaptive full-screen shell. BUILT FOR AI AGENT SESSIONS Start Claude Code, Codex, Pi, Grok Build, Antigravity CLI, or Hermes with a setup script, model, and first prompt in one step. Multiplex spots all six in any pane; helper chips follow the foreground agent — commands reach the process receiving your keystrokes; rearrange or add your own, synced everywhere. A message box takes longer prompts: autocorrect, dictation, attached or dropped files land in the pane's directory, sent as one message. Pro lifts the daily chip limit, alerts you when an unwatched turn ends or needs input (Claude Code, Codex, Grok Build on tmux; all agents on herdr), and opens Claude Code prompt history with transcript jumps. FILES & LINKS BESIDE THE TERMINAL Tap a link or path — Multiplex confirms the resolved target first. Files open read-only in the ▤ File Viewer: code, rendered Markdown, images, PDFs, sound files, git diffs. Web links can open in an inline ⌗ viewport. On iPad both land in a side panel beside the pane — the terminal never changes size — or move into a tab. WIDGETS & SHORTCUTS Put a host on your Home Screen — last-known frames, an honest SEEN stamp, SHELL and AGENT keys straight into a connection — or a fleet widget for every host at a glance. Shortcuts and Siri open a shell, show a remote file, or launch an agent in a chosen directory, fresh or inside an existing session. A multiplex:// URL scheme drives automations. MOSH BUILT IN With Pro, switch a host to mosh and the session survives sleep, roaming, and IP changes — a native Swift mosh client, no companion app. CONNECTION STATS A live latency chip on every host rail; Pro opens the full per-host board: round-trips, typing echo, mosh loss and roams, reconnects, data volume. Measured in-session; nothing leaves the device. A REAL TERMINAL xterm-256color emulation, multilingual system-keyboard input, touch and pointer clicks for mouse TUIs, hardware keyboards, live PTY resize, and a menu of everyday tmux (or herdr) commands. Hold CTRL for Key Commands: saved chords the software keyboard cannot press (Shift+Enter, a double Ctrl-C) and one-line text macros, synced everywhere. Pane-clamped selection on long press or double tap. System, Light, and Dark switch the whole chassis, each with its own terminal theme — ten built in; Pro adds an editor down to all 16 ANSI colors. The app speaks English, Traditional Chinese, and Japanese. OPEN SOURCE, PRIVATE BY DESIGN The complete app — terminal engine, mosh client, and all — is open source, Apache 2.0, at github.com/multiplex-term/Multiplex. Read the code that holds your keys, or build it yourself. Hosts, command setups, and secrets sync through iCloud Keychain, end-to-end encrypted. Nothing touches our servers — there are none. No account, no analytics, no tracking. MULTIPLEX PRO One purchase, no subscription: unlimited hosts, mosh, agent notifications, the Connection Stats board, the unmetered command strip, custom themes, and twelve Key Commands. Free includes two hosts, the complete terminal, five Key Commands, and 10 chip taps a day. WHAT YOU NEED A remote host reachable over SSH (password or ed25519/RSA key). The wall and persistent sessions need tmux 1.8+ or herdr 0.7.5+; plain SSH shells need neither. mosh needs mosh-server on the host.

About

Multiplex

Features
Read full description

Multiplex Remote keeps you connected to the terminal and Coding agents like Claude code sessions running on your Mac, from your phone. Pair your iPhone with the Multiplex app on your Mac and pick up any running session: watch live output, type commands, and respond the moment Claude Code needs your input. TERMINAL, WHEREVER YOU ARE Every paired session is a real terminal, mirrored from your Mac in real time. Scroll back through history, use the on-screen arrow keys and modifiers, or fit the output to your phone's width for readable text on the smallest screens. NEVER MISS A "NEEDS YOU" MOMENT Get a lock screen Live Activity and a notification the instant a Claude Code session is waiting on you, so you can approve, answer, or steer it without opening your Mac. GIT, WITHOUT LEAVING THE SESSION Open the built-in git inspector to browse changes, diffs, commit history, and branches for the repo your session is working in. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Your session reaches your phone through a relay that only ever routes opaque traffic between your own devices. Pairing uses a one-time code shown on your Mac and confirmed on your phone. Requires the free Multiplex app on your Mac.

Screenshots

Multiplex4 screens
Multiplex4 screens

Verdict

The call

Multiplex and Multiplex are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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. Multiplex sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Multiplex sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Multiplex ships an update weekly, Multiplex every 9 days. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Multiplex versus Multiplex: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMultiplexMultiplex
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 9 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size21 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJhen Jie HongDataGrids

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Multiplex

One-time1
  • Multiplex Pro$19.99
1 purchases

Multiplex

One-time1
  • Lifetime Unlock$24.99

Questions

Is Multiplex free?
Multiplex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Multiplex free?
Multiplex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Multiplex or Multiplex have ads?
Neither Multiplex nor Multiplex shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Multiplex or Multiplex?
Multiplex ships an update weekly, and Multiplex every 9 days. Most recently, Multiplex was updated on October 18, 2026 and Multiplex on October 9, 2026.

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