Astropad has been in the iPad-as-display space for years. Luna Display was their hardware dongle product; Workbench is what comes next. It's a pure software solution built on Astropad's Liquid technology, with a global relay network instead of a USB-C or HDMI plug. It requires macOS 15 and iOS 26 or later.

Mirage is built on Twill, a source-available streaming protocol. It streams over your local network without routing through external servers. Both apps aim to put your Mac on your iPad, but they take different approaches to get there.

How They Connect

This is the biggest architectural split between the two apps.

Workbench routes all traffic through Astropad's relay servers, spread across 11 regions. Every frame your Mac sends goes to a relay, then down to your iPad. The upside is reliability: relays punch through corporate firewalls and strict NAT configurations without any setup on your end. If you're behind a restrictive network, Workbench will probably just work. The downside is that your data makes an extra hop, and you're trusting Astropad's infrastructure as a middleman, even with end-to-end encryption.

Mirage streams over your local network without routing through external servers. With Pro, you also get Proximity Connect, which streams between your Mac and iPad without needing a shared Wi-Fi network at all. For remote access, Mirage supports Tailscale and OpenVPN, which does require some setup on your end.

Apple Pencil

Both apps support Apple Pencil, but in very different ways.

Workbench treats the Pencil as a cursor input device. You can tap, drag, and navigate your Mac with it, and it supports Retina-accurate positioning. But it doesn't forward pressure sensitivity, tilt angle, or orientation data to the host Mac. If you're using Photoshop or Procreate through Workbench, your Pencil acts like a very precise mouse.

Mirage forwards the full tablet data stream. Pressure, tilt, azimuth, and orientation all pass through to the host, so apps that support tablet input receive the complete set of Pencil capabilities. Your iPad becomes an actual drawing tablet, not just a touchscreen remote.

What Workbench Does Well

Workbench's relay architecture is genuinely useful for people who need to connect through restrictive networks without configuring VPN software. The Liquid protocol also uses a multi-codec system that adapts per-frame based on network conditions, which is a smart approach to variable bandwidth. Astropad has been building streaming technology for a long time, and that experience shows in Workbench's network adaptability.

It also supports headless Macs and doesn't require matching iCloud accounts between devices. Both of those are practical features for multi-user setups or Mac minis running in closets.

Encryption

Both apps encrypt the connection end-to-end. Workbench uses AES-256. Mirage Pro uses AES-256-GCM. Both are strong, well-established ciphers. The difference is more about where your data goes: Mirage streams directly over your network, so encrypted data never touches a third-party server. With Workbench, the relay servers handle encrypted traffic they can't read, but the data does pass through infrastructure you don't control.

Display Quality and Refresh Rate

Mirage supports 120Hz ProMotion on iPad Pro, so scrolling and animations run at the full refresh rate of the display. Mirage Pro also streams in 10-bit Display P3 color, which matters for photography, video grading, and design work where gradient banding is visible in 8-bit.

Workbench advertises "perceptually lossless visuals" at Retina resolution. There's no mention of ProMotion or 120Hz support, and no indication of 10-bit color depth.

Individual window streaming

Workbench streams your full desktop. That's it. You get the whole screen whether you want it or not.

Mirage can stream individual app windows. On your iPad, this means you can have just Xcode or just Figma on screen without seeing the rest of your desktop. With Pro, you can stream up to 8 windows at once. Mirage also has a native visionOS app if you use Vision Pro.

Waking and Unlocking

Mirage can wake a sleeping Mac and unlock it from the login screen. If you've got a Mac mini tucked behind a monitor or in another room, you can bring it online from your iPad without walking over to it.

Workbench doesn't offer remote wake or unlock.

Pricing

Workbench is free for 20 minutes per day. After that, unlimited access costs $10/month or $50/year.

Mirage's free tier has no time limit. You get 720p at 60Hz, one window, and LAN-only connections. That's enough to evaluate the app properly and use it for basic tasks indefinitely. Mirage Pro unlocks full resolution, 120Hz, 10-bit color, encryption, VPN access, and multi-window streaming for $4.99/month, $39/year, or $119 for a lifetime purchase.

Twenty minutes a day is tight. It's enough to check something quickly, but not enough to sit down and get work done.

Feature Comparison