When to choose Happy
- You want to chat with and steer the whole session from your phone, not only answer approvals.
- You use an iPhone, or want app-store installs.
- You want open-source code and a free hosted sync server.
Compare · Happy
Happy (Happy Coder) is an open-source mobile, web and desktop companion for coding sessions. Its CLI wraps the agent (happy claude, happy codex) so you can follow and steer the whole conversation, get permission notifications and use voice from your phone. It is a session companion rather than a general approval queue.
Facts about Happy come from its own public pages, accessed (sources below). "Not established" means those sources did not show it, not that it is missing.
| Aspect | Happy | handup |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Remote control of coding sessions: conversation, permission notifications, session history and voice. | A standalone approval inbox: agents and scripts ask before risky steps, and you approve, deny with a note, or answer. It never runs agents and never runs anything on its own. |
| Agents | Claude Code and Codex are documented; the App Store notes also mention OpenClaw. Generic MCP or CI approvals: not established. | Claude Code and Codex through permission hooks plus MCP. Cursor, omp and any MCP client through MCP tools the agent calls (omp also has an optional tool-gating bridge). Shell scripts and CI through the CLI. |
| Where you decide | iOS and iPad, Android, macOS app and web app. | Terminal inbox, Linux, macOS and Windows desktop app and Android app (sideloaded APK). A browser inbox for iPhone and other devices ships after v0.1.1. No native iPhone app. |
| Price | Free download and free hosted server. An in-app subscription is $19.99/month; voice includes one free hour, then needs a subscription or your own ElevenLabs key. | $30 USD one-time personal license, plus tax where applicable, after a 14-day trial. One person, their own machines. No team licensing. |
| Hosting | Hosted encrypted sync, or run the open-source server yourself. | A daemon on your machines; your phone connects over Tailscale or a self-hosted end-to-end encrypted relay (Linux binary included in releases). The managed relay is not for sale. |
| Source code | MIT-licensed app and server. | Private. Downloads are public compiled binaries. |
| Privacy | End-to-end encrypted sync of messages and code; session, device and message IDs, timestamps and push tokens are not encrypted. Optional voice sends audio and session context to ElevenLabs. App analytics (PostHog) with opt-out. | Requests, previews and decisions are stored on your machines; the apps have no telemetry or analytics. License activation and rechecks contact gethandup.dev, and optional push notifications include request titles by default. |
Free for 14 days, no signup. Setup guides per agent.
All accessed . Prices are as displayed then; taxes, hosting and underlying AI subscriptions can be extra. Vendor security statements are their claims, not audits.