Comparing Clash Clients and Choosing One

The only client among the eight that covers all four major desktop and mobile platforms, and the only one with an official App Store listing on iOS. Beyond importing a subscription, picking a node, and turning on the proxy, there's nothing else you need to understand—proxy groups and rule details are tucked into a secondary screen, so you won't be greeted by a wall of settings on first launch. Desktop and mobile share the same interface layout, so learning it once means you're set on every device.

The trade-off: deep customization falls short of Verge Rev and Nyanpasu—there's no config-script injection, so rule tweaks require editing the config file directly. For most users who just need a stable connection with rule-based routing, that trade-off is well worth it. The official site is clashplus.io; grab the iOS version by searching the App Store directly or following the link from the download page.

The most feature-complete option on desktop: TUN mode for system-wide traffic, two config-enhancement methods (Merge and Script), visual editing for proxy groups and rules, and a system-proxy guard. Pretty much anything the core can do has a matching option in the interface. Community tutorials are plentiful, so answers to most problems are just a search away—our own troubleshooting notes lean on it as the reference example too.

The cost is interface density: first launch shows quite a few toggles and options, and TUN mode on Windows involves installing a service, which can occasionally run into permission or port issues that need a quick fix from a guide. Spend half an hour understanding the settings and you'll get the most flexible desktop setup around; if you just want something working fast, read our setup guide first before diving in.

Covers all three major desktop OSes plus Android—the straightforward answer if you want "one PC, one phone, same way of doing things." The interface is kept simple, with common actions (importing a subscription, switching nodes, toggling proxy mode) all handled on a single screen. It runs on the mihomo core, matching Verge Rev's compatibility with current subscription formats.

Compared with Verge Rev, it drops config-enhancement scripts and other deep-customization options in exchange for a flatter learning curve; compared with Clash Plus, it adds Linux but drops iOS. If your device lineup includes a Linux desktop plus an Android phone, FlClash is the single client with the most overlap.

Positioned close to Verge Rev but leaning more toward tinkering: it lets you switch cores from within the app, supports config-script extensions, and offers deep UI theme customization. For Windows users who enjoy treating the tool itself as something to explore, it offers about as much room to play as any of the eight.

In turn, it assumes you understand how cores, configs, and subscriptions relate to each other—jumping straight in as a beginner means you can easily get lost in the options. A sensible path: start with Clash Plus or Verge Rev to build a working mental model, then move here once you have a concrete customization need, like comparing how different cores behave with the same subscription.

Once the de facto standard client for Windows, and the reason most existing tutorials and screenshots online still feature it—that's really its only remaining edge today, since old guides will still match the interface. The project is discontinued, meaning no more feature updates or bug fixes; the core is stuck on original Clash, which no longer plays well with newer protocols or some subscription fields.

We keep an archived entry on our download page for anyone reproducing an old setup or migrating a legacy config. New installs shouldn't pick this one; existing users hitting subscription-parsing errors should check the core version gap first—switching to Verge Rev or Clash Plus usually resolves it right away.

The Android client that most closely mirrors the mihomo core's native behavior: whatever's in your config file is exactly what shows up in the app, with no extra layer of abstraction. It supports the full Meta field set and offers a config-override mechanism, giving it a higher ceiling than other Android options for anyone who needs precise control over routing on their phone.

It assumes you can read YAML configs, and the interface uses the core's own field names directly, which can feel raw to newcomers. If you just want your subscription to work normally on your phone, Clash Plus or FlClash's Android version will feel smoother; reach for this one once you need to tune DNS or write override rules.

The lightest option in the Android lineup: small install size, low background usage, and a minimal interface—once you import a subscription there's barely anything left to configure. As an independent implementation, it's compatible with common subscription formats, but its configuration ceiling is clearly lower than the mihomo-based clients—complex proxy groups and fine-grained routing rules aren't what it's built for.

It suits two kinds of users: older or lower-spec phones where battery and memory matter, and anyone whose needs boil down to "turn on, connect, use" with no interest in configuration details. If your needs go beyond that, FlClash or Clash Meta for Android on the same platform is a better fit.

A classic macOS menu-bar app: no Dock icon, no main window—switching nodes and modes happens entirely from the menu-bar dropdown, embodying the idea that a proxy tool should stay out of sight. It's built on a Meta-family core, giving it better compatibility with current subscription formats than the original ClashX.

The project is discontinued, so compatibility issues from future macOS updates won't get fixed, and changes to the network-extension authorization flow could eventually break older versions. We keep an archived entry; new Mac setups should go straight for Clash Plus or Verge Rev, while existing users can keep using it until they hit an actual problem, then migrate.