Comparison

Tailscode vs herdrup

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

Head to head
About

Tailscode

Interact with AI agents like Claude Code and Oh My Pi from your phone. Monitor and approve commands, view code changes, and manage conversations live on your lock screen. All data is transmitted point-to-point over your private network.

Highlights
  • Live Lock Screen Activities for conversations
  • Approve commands and answer agent questions
  • View code diffs and output inline
  • Manage multiple servers and conversations
  • Track conversation costs and model usage
  • End-to-end encrypted communication
Features
Read full description

Send a prompt to Claude Code, opencode or Oh My Pi from your phone, pocket it, and watch the turn finish on your Lock Screen. Approve the risky command, answer the agent's question, read every diff — from anywhere on your own Tailscale network. WHAT YOU NEED A Mac or Linux machine on your tailnet (Tailscale is free for personal use) running one of your agents: opencode, Claude Code through the open-source claude-bridge, or Oh My Pi through the open-source omp-bridge. Set-up is three verified steps, and a built-in demo lets you try every screen before you wire anything. THE TURN, LIVE ON YOUR LOCK SCREEN • A Live Activity per conversation: what it is doing, for how long, and how many tools it has run. • An approval request alerts you; a finished turn lingers with its outcome. Tap to land in the exact chat. • Updates arrive by push while the app is suspended. A NATIVE TRANSCRIPT, NOT A TERMINAL • Streaming text written at the model's own speed, with thinking and tool runs folded into readable groups. • Diffs, commands and their real output inline; syntax-highlighted code with byte-exact copy. • Allow once, always, or deny — without leaving the chat. Agent questions become tappable cards. • Queue the next message while a turn runs, edit it before it goes, or stop the turn on the server. • Every picture the agent hands you, in a gallery you can zoom, save or share. EVERY MACHINE ON ONE BOARD • All your servers' conversations in one list, live status first, grouped by project. • Read the repository before you trust the change: branch, staged, changed, untracked, and the diff of any file. • Subagents dock inside the turn that spawned them; a compaction is drawn as a seam with what it kept. • Slash commands from the server's own catalog, per-message model and reasoning effort, forking. KNOW WHAT IT COSTS • Every conversation priced, every month totalled across machines — by model, project and tool. • Plan limits and quotas for Claude, Grok, Ollama Cloud, DeepSeek and more, on Home and in a widget. YOURS, END TO END • Point-to-point over your tailnet. No relay servers, no account, no analytics, nobody reading your code. • Programmatic UIKit, Swift 6, Liquid Glass on iOS 26. Dark mode, Dynamic Type, haptics. • Open source under GPL-3.0 — the app, the engine, and both bridges. FREE, WITH AN HONEST PRO The free app is the complete core: one server, full chat, approvals, attachments, models, forking, and Live Activities. Tailscode Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription: multiple saved servers, concurrent Live Activities, and a supporter badge. Tailscode is independent open-source software: not affiliated with or endorsed by Anthropic, Tailscale Inc., the opencode project or Oh My Pi. Privacy policy: https://midgarcorp.cc/tailscode/privacy Source code: https://github.com/guitaripod/Tailscode

About

herdrup

This app allows you to remotely manage and interact with AI coding agents running on your computer. Receive urgent notifications when agents require input, approve or reject actions, and send messages directly from your phone.

Highlights
  • View agent status at a glance
  • Interact with live terminal sessions
  • Receive push notifications for agent actions
  • Send messages and files to agents
  • Start new agents remotely
  • SSH connection for secure local network access
Features
Read full description

Herdrup is the phone client for herdr, the open-source tool that runs your AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, and around 18 more) in terminal sessions on your own machine. Those agents work for hours, then stop to ask: may I run this? which option? overwrite this file? Herdrup lets you answer, from your phone. It's a calm status board. When nothing needs you, the screen is quiet and you close it again. When an agent is waiting, it turns urgent, and you're one tap from the real terminal. WHAT YOU CAN DO • See every agent at a glance, grouped by what needs you, what's working, and what's idle • Jump into the live terminal: scroll the history, send keys, approve or reject the question it's blocked on • Get a push the moment an agent needs you, dies, or finishes. Nothing else • Message your agents with Gram: send a note, a file, or a short-lived API key, and delete it when you're done • Start a new agent: pick a folder, an agent, and a task HOW IT WORKS You run herdr on your own computer and it manages the agents in panes. Herdrup connects to it over SSH on your own network. No cloud in the middle, nothing public. Herdr is open source (github.com/jerryfane/herdr). Bring your own agents.

Screenshots

Tailscode4 screens
herdrup4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: herdrup at none against Tailscode's 4. Tailscode's advantage is update cadence (every 2 days vs every 5 days). On price, rating, ratings volume and ads 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. Tailscode sells 4 one-off in-app purchases. herdrup asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Tailscode against 5.0 for herdrup. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Tailscode ships an update every 2 days, herdrup every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on October 11, 2026 and October 13, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
Tailscode versus herdrup: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterTailscodeherdrup
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 days — betterEvery 5 days
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS18.017.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size40 MB20 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperMidgar OyJerry Fanelli

Customer experience

Tailscode

All ratings2 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

herdrup

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

4 purchases

Tailscode

One-time4
  • Small Tip$2.99
  • Generous Tip$9.99
  • Tailscode Pro$14.99
Show 1 more
  • Lavish Tip$19.99
None

herdrup

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Tailscode free?
Tailscode is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is herdrup free?
herdrup is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Tailscode or herdrup?
Tailscode and herdrup are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Tailscode or herdrup have ads?
Neither Tailscode nor herdrup shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Tailscode or herdrup?
Tailscode ships an update every 2 days, and herdrup every 5 days. Most recently, Tailscode was updated on October 11, 2026 and herdrup on October 13, 2026.

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