Comparison

Multiplex vs AgentPanes

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

Head to head
About

Multiplex

Features
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Multiplex is a terminal for people who live inside persistent remote sessions โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” Multiplex confirms the resolved target first. Files open read-only in the โ–ค File Viewer: code, rendered Markdown, images, PDFs, sound files, git diffs. Web links can open in an inline โŒ— viewport. On iPad both land in a side panel beside the pane โ€” the terminal never changes size โ€” or move into a tab. WIDGETS & SHORTCUTS Put a host on your Home Screen โ€” last-known frames, an honest SEEN stamp, SHELL and AGENT keys straight into a connection โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” 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 โ€” terminal engine, mosh client, and all โ€” 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 โ€” 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

AgentPanes

Features
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Your agents keep working when you step away. AgentPanes brings their terminals within reach. Connect to your own computers over SSH and find agents running in Herdr and tmux. Open a specific agent, switch between agents from the terminal, or start a normal SSH connection when you need a shell. FIND YOUR WORK - View supported agents across the machines you choose. - Sort by observed activity, pin important agents, and see output changes since your last visit. New output is not a claim that a task has finished. - Switch agents without returning to the main list. A TERMINAL BUILT FOR YOUR PHONE - Use terminal keyboard controls, text selection and supported links. - Scroll terminal output and adjust text size. - Keep separate saved zoom settings for tmux and Herdr/normal SSH. YOUR MACHINES, YOUR CONNECTION - Connect directly over SSH; no AgentPanes account or server-side AgentPanes installation is required. - Authenticate with a password or an imported OpenSSH Ed25519 private key. - Review the host fingerprint and per-machine Herdr/tmux permissions. - Use reachable IP addresses or hostnames. Tailscale hosts require a working Tailscale connection; host-led Tailscale SSH approval is supported. - Protect access with the app lock and device authentication. OPTIONAL NOTIFICATIONS AND DICTATION - Enable reply notifications per machine. This installs a helper on that machine and sends notification data through the AgentPanes relay, Firebase and Apple. Standard SSH connections do not require the notification service. - Dictate editable English text on supported devices using on-device recognition. Audio is not saved or uploaded by AgentPanes. AgentPanes is free to download. You supply your own SSH-accessible machines, agents and any third-party service accounts. Herdr or tmux must already be installed on the machines where you want to discover their sessions. Questions or a bug to report? Find Help & support in the app or email support@agentpanes.com. Third-party names and logos belong to their respective owners. AgentPanes is not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, OpenAI, or the other tool providers. This product includes software developed by Niels Provos.

Screenshots

Multiplex4 screens
AgentPanes4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: AgentPanes at none against Multiplex's 1. Multiplex's advantage is update cadence (every 6 days vs fortnightly). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement there is nothing between them.

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

CostPrice ยท In-app purchases ยท Ads ยท Monetization

Both are free to download. Multiplex sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. AgentPanes asks for nothing beyond the download.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Multiplex ships an update every 6 days, AgentPanes fortnightly. Both last shipped on October 2, 2026.

Scorecard2 real differences ยท 4 level
Multiplex versus AgentPanes: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterMultiplexAgentPanes
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 6 days โ€” betterFortnightly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo โ€” better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Vision Pro โ€” betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details โ€” not scored
Size18 MB21 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJhen Jie HongAditya Sharma

In-app purchases

1 purchases

Multiplex

One-time1
  • Multiplex Pro$19.99
None

AgentPanes

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Multiplex free?
Multiplex is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is AgentPanes free?
AgentPanes is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Multiplex or AgentPanes have ads?
Neither Multiplex nor AgentPanes shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Multiplex or AgentPanes?
Multiplex ships an update every 6 days, and AgentPanes fortnightly. Most recently, Multiplex was updated on October 2, 2026 and AgentPanes on October 2, 2026.

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