Comparison

HerdrChat vs Collie Remote

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

Head to head
About

HerdrChat

Features
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Your coding agents, away from your desk. HerdrChat is an SSH chat client for Claude Code, Codex and OMP sessions running on a computer you own. Check progress, read conversations and answer an agent without navigating a desktop terminal on a small screen. STAY ON TOP OF YOUR WORK See which conversations need your input, which agents are working and which are idle. Replies read like a document, with code and formatting, and each run of tool activity folds into one line ("Ran 3 commands Ā· edited 1 file") you can open. The chat header shows the model and effort level. Reply from the chat composer or use supported numbered choices when an agent asks for approval. Pin the chats you care about to the top, and mute notifications for the ones you don't. SLASH COMMANDS Type / to send Claude Code commands such as /model, /effort, /compact and /context. When a command opens a picker, it appears on your phone: choose a model or effort level and apply it for this session only or as your default. KNOW WHEN AN AGENT NEEDS YOU Turn on notifications and your computer tells you when an agent is waiting for you or has finished, with the chat's name and what the agent said. Tap one to open that chat. SEND A PICTURE Attach screenshots or photos to a message. They are copied to your computer over the same SSH connection and handed to the agent with your prompt. MADE FOR iPHONE AND iPAD On iPhone, move between your chats, hosts and settings. On iPad, keep the conversation list beside the selected chat, with a settings layout designed for the larger screen. Light and dark appearances are included. YOUR MACHINE, YOUR CONNECTION Connect over SSH using your own password or private key. Host-key fingerprints are pinned, and a changed host key stops the connection until you explicitly review it. Tailscale is recommended for reaching your computer privately. Credentials are kept in the device Keychain. Conversation caches stay on your device and can be cleared in Settings. HerdrChat has no account system, developer-operated chat server, advertising or analytics SDK. If you turn on notifications, they pass through a small HerdrChat relay that forwards them to Apple and keeps nothing. TRY THE BUILT-IN DEMO A short welcome on first launch walks through what your computer needs. The local Demo host is available without an account, server or purchase. Explore sample conversations, answer an approval prompt and send a sample message. Demo replies are simulated; nothing is sent to a computer or AI service. WHAT YOU NEED FOR REAL USE A computer you administer, reachable over SSH, with herdr and Claude Code, Codex or OMP installed and configured. Agent accounts and any provider charges are separate and are not supplied by HerdrChat. The agents and their commands run on your computer, not on your iPhone or iPad. HerdrChat does not include an AI subscription. Open source under Apache-2.0: github.com/cobanov/herdrchat

About

Collie Remote

Features
Read full description

Collie Remote is the companion app for Collie, the coding agent that runs on your own computer. Collie writes a reproduction, runs it, and only calls a job done when an assertion it executed has passed. This app lets you watch that happen, and start it, from wherever you are. • See what your machine is working on — the reproduction, the edits, the verdict. • Start a run from your phone; the work happens on your computer. • Redirect a run that is going the wrong way instead of waiting for it to finish. • Tell the computer what to do in plain words — open an app, lock the screen, play something. • Read the code it changed, so you can judge the change rather than take it on trust. • Send a photo of the thing that is broken. HOW IT CONNECTS There is no Collie account and no Collie cloud. The app talks to Collie running on your own machine — either directly over your network, or through an end-to-end encrypted relay when you are away from it. Pairing is one scan plus a number you confirm on the computer itself, so nothing gets in without someone at the keyboard agreeing. You need Collie on your Mac or PC first: https://collie.run Open source: https://github.com/colliehq/collie

Screenshots

HerdrChat4 screens
Collie Remote3 screens

Verdict

The call

HerdrChat and Collie Remote are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
HerdrChat versus Collie Remote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHerdrChatCollie Remote
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size48 MB2 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperAHMET MERT COBANOGLUDaming Wu

In-app purchases

None

HerdrChat

No in-app purchases

None

Collie Remote

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HerdrChat free?
HerdrChat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Collie Remote free?
Collie Remote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HerdrChat or Collie Remote have ads?
Neither HerdrChat nor Collie Remote shows ads.

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