Comparison

Multiplex vs Runline

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

Head to head
About

Multiplex

This app provides a powerful terminal experience for remote sessions on iPhone and iPad. It offers live session monitoring, seamless window management, and built-in support for AI agent sessions, files, and links.

Highlights
  • Live session monitoring
  • Stage Manager and Split View support
  • AI agent session integration
  • File and link viewer
  • Home Screen widgets and Shortcuts
  • MOSH support for seamless connections
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

Runline

Control AI coding agents on your Mac remotely from your iPhone. Assign tasks, answer prompts, and monitor progress without needing to be at your computer. Your code remains secure on your machine.

Highlights
  • Remote AI coding agent control
  • Assign tasks and answer prompts
  • Monitor progress live
  • Voice input and model switching
  • Secure code on your Mac
  • Notifications for agent needs
Features
Read full description

Runline connects the AI coding agents running on your Mac — Claude Code, Codex, Kimi Code and more — to your iPhone: assign work, answer questions and watch progress without being at the computer. It runs, you walk away Start a session on your Mac and follow it from your phone. Your Mac must stay powered on, awake and connected to the internet for tasks to continue. One sentence is one task "Make the retry exponential, five attempts max" — send it and the agent takes it from there. Voice input works too, and you can switch models and permission modes from the phone. It asks, you answer on the phone When the agent needs approval or wants you to pick between proposals, the notification carries the options. One tap and the turn resumes. The Dynamic Island shows the live session state and the tool currently running. See exactly what changed Every turn ends with a summary, and each tool call can be inspected. Read first, then decide whether it continues. Run tasks on your own Mac Repositories stay on your machine. Runline relays session messages and tool output to your phone; those messages may contain code excerpts. Permissions are controlled on the Mac, and a lost phone can be revoked there at any time. Requires the free Runline Mac app (runline.rethinking.art). No accounts — pairing is one QR scan. Terms of Service: https://runline.rethinking.art/terms Privacy Policy: https://runline.rethinking.art/privacy

Screenshots

Multiplex4 screens
Runline4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Multiplex at 3 against Runline's 1. On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume 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. Multiplex sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Runline sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $17.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Multiplex against 5.0 for Runline. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively. Written reviews split almost evenly too, at 100% and 100% positive.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Multiplex ships an update weekly, Runline every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 5, 2026 and November 10, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Multiplex versus Runline: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMultiplexRunline
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFreemium
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro — betteriPhone
Requires iOS17.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB70 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJhen Jie HongRethinking.Studio

Customer experience

Multiplex

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Runline

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Multiplex

One-time1
  • Multiplex Pro$19.99
3 purchases

Runline

Subscriptions2
  • Monthly Pro$17.991 Month
  • Annual Pro$69.991 Year
One-time1
  • Buyout$99.99

Questions

Is Multiplex free?
Multiplex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Runline free?
Runline is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Multiplex or Runline?
Multiplex and Runline are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Multiplex or Runline have ads?
Neither Multiplex nor Runline shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Multiplex or Runline?
Multiplex ships an update weekly, and Runline every 2 weeks. Most recently, Multiplex was updated on November 5, 2026 and Runline on November 10, 2026.

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