Answer
Which amp sims actually run on an iPhone or iPad?
Far fewer than you would expect. Most of the best-known names are desktop plug-ins that need a computer and a DAW, or they are hardware boxes whose app is only a remote control for the box. The amp sims that genuinely run on the device itself are a short list, and this is it.
If you have searched for this you have probably already hit the problem: you read a review of something that sounds extraordinary, you go to buy it, and the fine print says Mac and PC. Or it turns out the thing being reviewed is a £1,500 metal box and the app is just its remote control.
So here is the actual landscape, which splits three ways.
The three kinds of thing being compared
Desktop plug-ins. These run inside a DAW on a Mac or a PC. They are where most of the development money in this category has gone, and the reason is simple: a laptop has CPU to burn and no battery anxiety. They do not run on an iPhone or an iPad at all.
Hardware. A dedicated box with its own processor. The companion app on your phone is a librarian and a remote — it does not make any sound on its own, and if you leave the box at home the app does nothing.
Things that run on the device. The actual answer to the question. The whole rig is computed by the phone or tablet in your hands.
The table
Read from each vendor’s own listing on 1 November 2026.
| Product | What it is | Runs on iPhone / iPad? |
|---|---|---|
| Neural DSP plug-ins | Desktop plug-in | No. Their only iOS app is Cortex Cloud, which manages their hardware |
| Quad Cortex / Nano Cortex | Hardware | No — the app manages the box |
| Kemper | Hardware | No — the app manages the box |
| Helix Native | Desktop plug-in | No. AAX, AU and VST3 on Mac and PC |
| AmpliTube | App | iPhone. The current listing reads “Only for iPhone” |
| AmpliTube TONEX | App | Yes, both. Free, and runs as an AUv3 plug-in inside GarageBand and other hosts |
| BIAS FX 2 Mobile | App | Yes, both. Positive Grid’s own help pages say iOS only |
| GarageBand | App | Yes, both. Free, and it has amps in it already |
| RigShed | App | Yes — iPhone, iPad and Mac, and as an AUv3 plug-in |
Why aren’t the famous ones on iPad?
Two reasons, and only one of them is technical.
The technical one is real but shrinking. An amp sim has to compute every sample before the next one is due, and on a phone it has to do that on a battery without the fans a laptop has. That used to rule the format out. It no longer does — Apple’s silicon closed most of that gap — but a decade of development decisions were made while it was still true, and software follows the money that was spent on it.
The other reason is commercial. The desktop plug-in market has a working business: people already own DAWs and already buy plug-ins. Shipping the same product on iOS means a separate build, a separate store, separate support and a separate price expectation, for an audience that has historically paid less. If your product already sells on desktop, the case for the port is weak.
Which is why the answer to “what runs on an iPad” is not “the same list, smaller”. It is a different list.
What actually matters when you pick one
Three things, in this order, and none of them is the amp count.
Can you get a guitar into it? This is the one that catches people out. A guitar’s output is tiny and unbalanced; a phone’s headset input is designed for a microphone. You need an audio interface. No app of any kind gets round this, ours included.
What is it like to use with a guitar in your hands? You will be editing with one hand, standing up, looking at a screen from about a metre away. A layout designed for a mouse does not survive that. This is the thing reviews almost never test and the thing you will feel within a week.
Does it run as a plug-in? If you want to record into an app on the same device, the amp sim has to be an AUv3 plug-in, not only a standalone app. Several of the apps above do both; it is worth checking before you commit, because a standalone-only app means bouncing audio around to record it.
Where RigShed sits in this
Honestly: it is in the third category, and the third category is where it is interesting, not the first.
RigShed computes the whole rig on the device — iPhone, iPad or Mac, same app and the same rigs across all three — and runs as an AUv3 plug-in. The thing it does that nothing above does is let you describe the sound in a sentence and have the rig built for you, pedal by pedal, with a line explaining each choice. Eight amps fitted against measured references, 41 pedals, five cabs with the microphone placement exposed.
That is not a claim that it sounds better than anything on this page. It is a claim about a different way in, for a player who knows what they want to hear and does not yet know what to call it.
Check before you buy
App Store listings change, and the ones above were read on a single day. The links in the table go to the primary source for each, so you can see the current answer rather than take ours. If you find one has moved, we would rather know: [email protected].