Cadence vs One (getone.one) two inboxes for your coding agents

Side by side

What they share

If you have used one, the other will feel familiar. Both apps:

• show a dot per agent on the edge of the screen: blue working, amber needs you, green done;
• collect questions and finished work in one Inbox, answered with number keys, with J/K to move and a two-second undo;
• send a spoken or typed request to the right agent, or start a new one, when you double-tap ⌥;
• attach part of your screen to a request;
• run other CLIs in herdr, the free, open-source terminal runtime for coding agents;
• have an iPhone app in TestFlight and a way to see agents on Linux servers.

Your coding agents run on your own subscriptions in both. The differences are in everything around them.

Where they differ

Price and account

Cadence is free, with no account and no subscription. One needs a sign-in with Apple or Google. Its free plan includes 25 requests a day to One's AI, which handles voice, routing, titles and recaps. Pro, at $12.99 a month, lists unlimited usage, and a limited Lifetime license costs $229, rising to $299.

Where your words and screenshots go

In One, each request sends your words, a screenshot and your agents' recent terminal output through One's server to AI providers. Its privacy policy names OpenAI, Anthropic and OpenRouter, and several speech-to-text services. One says it keeps no server-side archive of audio, screenshots or terminal text.

In Cadence, speech recognition runs on your Mac and audio is never uploaded. Talk routing, titles, recaps and the Director call Claude through the claude CLI you are already signed in to, so the request goes from your Mac to Anthropic under your own login. Cadence sends anonymous usage counts you can turn off; One's privacy policy says its app analytics go to PostHog with no opt-out in the app.

The flip side: Cadence's AI features need Claude Code installed and signed in. If you only use Codex and pay for ChatGPT, One can run its routing on that subscription instead.

Claude Code and the other CLIs

Cadence can host Claude Code itself. In Cadence chat mode, permission requests are real Allow/Deny cards, you see the cost, and each agent gets its own git worktree with Diff and History tabs. One runs Claude Code in herdr like any other CLI. Cadence also supports Cursor, Copilot, Gemini and Aider, which One's site does not list.

Dictation and the Director

Cadence's same key does a second job: hold ⌥ to dictate into any app, transcribed on your Mac. It also has the Director, a Claude session that can see every agent, answer "is anything stuck?", and start, message or stop agents when you ask.

Intel Macs, phones and servers

Here One does more. It runs on Intel Macs; Cadence is Apple Silicon only. Its phone app also runs on iPad, and any phone can use its browser remote. Its server connector keeps agents on up to eight Linux servers reachable when your Mac is off. Cadence reaches servers over SSH from your Mac, so its server agents reach your phone through your Mac.

Which one to pick

One is the better pick if

• you use an Intel Mac;
• you want to check agents from an Android phone, an iPad or a browser;
• your agents run on servers and you want them reachable while your Mac sleeps;
• you use Codex and ChatGPT, not Claude Code, and want the routing to run on that subscription.

Cadence is the better pick if

• you want no account, no subscription and no daily request limit;
• you want your voice transcribed on your Mac and your agents' output kept off third-party servers;
• you use Claude Code and want real Allow/Deny cards, cost and worktree diffs;
• you run Cursor, Copilot, Gemini or Aider next to Claude Code and Codex;
• you also want dictation into every app.

Trying Cadence next to One

Both apps use a double-tap of ⌥, so quit One while you try Cadence, or change Cadence's key in Settings → Hotkey → Push-to-Talk Key (for example to ⌃ or ⌘⌥). Then:

1. Download Cadence and open it. There is nothing to sign in to.
2. Make sure the claude CLI is installed and signed in; Cadence uses that login.
3. Open ⋯ → New agent… on the toolbar, pick a CLI and a folder, and start an agent. If herdr is missing, the view shows the install command.

Common questions