A comparison for non-technical friends who wonder whether they should use Claude Code in the Terminal or in the Claude Desktop app.
Claude has spent the last few weeks turning its desktop app into something that competes head-on with what used to be a terminal-only product. There's now an embedded Terminal in the app's Code section, computer use is built in, and you can hand off long-running work to a cloud sandbox.
TL;DR
Use the desktop app. Same price, same Claude, same access to your files and tools — but with visual diffs, click-to-approve, an embedded preview, and zero command-line knowledge required. The Terminal is the power-user tool; for almost any "non-technical" workflow, nothing it does is hidden from the desktop app.
01
How much friction is there before you're actually using it?
| Terminal (CLI) | Desktop App | |
|---|---|---|
| Install | Paste a command into Terminal | Download installer, double-click |
| Comfort needed | Must know how to open Terminal and navigate folders | Works like any normal app (Chrome, Spotify) |
| Picking a project | Type folder paths | Click to pick a folder |
| Cost | Same: included in Pro and Max plans | Same: included in Pro and Max plans |
02
The actual editing loop: read files, make changes, run things, see what happened.
| Terminal (CLI) | Desktop App | |
|---|---|---|
| Reads & edits files in your project | Yes | Yes |
| Visual side-by-side diff before approving changes | Text-only | Visual diff |
| Runs shell commands (build, test, etc.) | In your Terminal | In an embedded terminal |
| Drag-and-drop a file or screenshot | Awkward | Yes |
| Live preview of a web app you're building | You open the browser yourself | Embedded preview pane |
| Multiple sessions running in parallel | Possible but fiddly | Sidebar of tasks, each on its own branch |
| Resume a previous session | Via command | Click in history |
03
Slack, Drive, GitHub, Figma, Linear — the MCP and connector ecosystem.
| Terminal (CLI) | Desktop App | |
|---|---|---|
| MCP servers / connectors (Slack, Gmail, Linear, Figma, Supabase…) | Configured by editing JSON files | Click to connect, like authorizing an app |
| GitHub PRs (create, review, check CI) | Via the gh command |
Same, plus visual PR / CI status |
| Skills, slash commands, subagents | All supported | All supported, easier to browse |
| Hooks & custom skills | Edit small config files | Edit small config files (same) |
04
The pieces that prompted this whole comparison — the April 2026 redesign.
| Terminal (CLI) | Desktop App | |
|---|---|---|
| Embedded Terminal in the "Code" section | n/a — it is the terminal | Yes |
| Embedded browser preview | Opens your real browser | Built-in pane |
| Computer use (Claude clicks & types on your desktop) | Possible but not the natural home | Toggle, with per-app permissions |
| Cloud / remote sessions (offload long tasks to a sandbox) | No | Yes |
| Trigger tasks from your phone | iOS Claude app can hand off | Built-in "Dispatch" |
05
How much can Claude do without asking you first?
| Terminal (CLI) | Desktop App | |
|---|---|---|
| Ask-before-running mode | Yes | Yes |
| Plan-only / read-only modes | Yes | Yes |
| Per-app approval for computer use | Limited | Approve each app individually |
| Sandboxed shell commands | Yes | Yes |
06
The honest, opinionated split.
Pick the Desktop App if…
Stick with the Terminal if…
And the underrated detail: your settings, project memory (CLAUDE.md), skills, and connected tools sync across both. You can start in the desktop app, hand a session off to the Terminal, then come back — nothing is locked into one or the other.