Herdie vs Knockbox
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
Herdie
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Herdie brings your Herdr sessions to iPhone and iPad. Connect directly to your Mac or Linux host over SSH, check what your agents are doing, and send the next command. Your remote session keeps running when you leave the app. A terminal built for your phone Read terminal output behind floating controls, open the keyboard when you need it, or use the writing sheet for longer messages. Switch between running agents without leaving your session. Your hosts, one place Save SSH connections and reconnect with a tap. Use password authentication, an OpenSSH private key, or SSH none authentication for compatible hosts such as Tailscale SSH. Herdie asks you to verify new host keys and flags changes. Direct connections Terminal traffic travels directly between your device and your host. Passwords and private keys are stored in iOS Keychain. There is no Herdie account, terminal relay, or analytics SDK. Make it yours Choose a terminal theme and font size, customize the keyboard shortcuts, and use light or dark appearance. Herdie is free and open source. It requires a reachable SSH host with Herdr installed. It does not include a hosted computer or an AI subscription.
Knockbox
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Knock once, and your phone buzzes. Knockbox turns one HTTP request into a push notification on your iPhone. Anything that can send a request can reach you: a deploy script, a cron job, a monitoring check, a CI pipeline, or a coding agent that has just finished a long task. If it needs your go-ahead before continuing, it can wait for your answer. curl -d "Build finished" https://your-server/api/v1/send/YOUR_TOKEN THE SERVER IS YOURS Knockbox is the client for a server you control. The server is open source and runs on a VPS, a NAS, or a Raspberry Pi at home. It holds its own Apple push key, so a notification goes from your machine to Apple and then to your phone, without passing through anyone in between. If you would rather not run anything, open knockbox.miramiao.com on your iPhone and you are connected โ no sign-up, no password. WHAT A MESSAGE CAN CARRY โข A Markdown body with headings, lists, links and syntax-highlighted code. โข Images, shown in the notification and kept with the message. โข Long text. The body is fetched as the notification lands rather than packed into it, so there is no length limit to work around. โข A title, a channel, and an interruption level: quiet, normal, or time sensitive when it has to break through Focus. REPLIES โข The sender can attach a set of options, or allow a free-text answer. โข Answer from the message itself. Your server posts the reply back to the address the sender gave, signed, and the sender takes it from there. โข The sender can set a deadline. After it passes the message reads "Reply window closed" and the server stops accepting โ you are never left thinking an answer went through. โข A message is answered once, and the answer is the same across your devices. CHANNELS โข One token per channel, so a noisy monitor and a personal reminder stay apart. โข Muting a channel truly stops it: the mute lives on the server, so nothing is sent at all. โข Search your history, mark as read, delete a message, or clear a channel. Deletions are real, on the device and on the server. MORE THAN ONE DEVICE Pair a second iPhone or iPad from a device that is already connected. Both receive everything and share read state. TRY IT WITHOUT A SERVER Demo mode fills the app with example messages and sends a sample notification, so you can see how it works before setting anything up. FREE, AND THAT IS ALL No ads, no analytics, no account with us, no in-app purchase, no subscription. The app is free and the server is open source. Server source code: https://github.com/aichy126/knockbox Public server: https://knockbox.miramiao.com How to send: https://knockbox.miramiao.com/docs Questions: info@miramiao.com
Screenshots
Verdict
Herdie and Knockbox are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters โ price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them โ neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Herdie | Knockbox |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | โ | Daily |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 5 MB | 7 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lucas Scariot | ่ ่ |
In-app purchases
Herdie
No in-app purchases
Knockbox
No in-app purchases









