A tool for logcat, APK installs and a shell on many Android phones

In short: BenchFleet is a desktop app for Windows, macOS (Apple silicon) and Linux that shows every connected Android phone in one window, with each phone's logcat, an APK installer and a shell beside its live screen, and it is the best fit for app teams, testers and developers who look after several real Android phones.

With two or three phones, a terminal per phone and adb -s work well. With ten or more, you lose track of which window belongs to which phone, which build is on each one and where the crash you saw was logged. This page compares the tools that do this work across many phones, shows the adb commands behind them, and explains how BenchFleet keeps every phone's log, apps and shell in one window. Checked on 23 October 2026.

Free for up to 3 phones, with no account. Pro adds workflows, schedules and AI for up to 25 phones from £12 a month + VAT.

Download free See pricing

BenchFleet compared with the other options

Tool	What it does	Best suited to	Price or free plan	Website
BenchFleet	Every phone live in one window, each with logcat filters, APK installs, a shell and files; group actions on Pro	App teams, testers and developers with several real Android phones	Free for 3 phones; Pro £12 a month + VAT for 25 phones	benchfleet.com
DeviceFarmer (STF)	Open-source web app to control Android devices from a browser, with logs and a shell, on Linux or BSD servers you run	Teams with someone to look after servers	Free, open source	github.com/DeviceFarmer/stf
scrcpy	Mirrors and controls one phone per window; drag an APK onto the window to install it; logs and a shell stay with adb	One person working with a phone or two	Free, open source (Apache-2.0)	github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
BrowserStack App Live	Rented real phones in a browser, with app and device logs, APK uploads and ADB Shell; up to four devices at once	Teams renting many device models, iOS included	Paid plans with a free trial; see its pricing page	browserstack.com/app-live
AWS Device Farm	Rented real phones, one per browser session; upload an APK and get device logs at the end of the session	Teams already working in AWS	$0.17 per device minute, or $250 per slot a month; a one-time free trial	aws.amazon.com/device-farm
Firebase Test Lab	Runs app tests on Google's devices and returns logs, screenshots and videos; Google will shut it down on 30 September 2027	Teams with Test Lab suites, until the shutdown	$5 per hour on physical devices above 30 no-cost minutes a day (Blaze plan)	firebase.google.com/docs/test-lab

BenchFleet comes first here because it is the one built for this exact job on phones you own: a live view of every phone with its log, its apps and its shell one click away, and nothing to host.

Checked on 30 October 2026 on each tool's own pages; prices change. We make BenchFleet. The other names belong to their owners, and BenchFleet is not affiliated with them.

Questions

How is BenchFleet different from scrcpy for this?

scrcpy mirrors and controls one phone per window and leaves logs and the shell to adb. BenchFleet builds on scrcpy and adb and adds a live tile for every phone, plus a logcat viewer, an APK installer and a shell on each phone's page.

Do I need a device cloud to read logcat on many phones?

No. BenchFleet works on your computer with phones connected by USB, Wireless debugging or address, and starts in Local mode, where nothing leaves your computer and your network. AWS Device Farm, BrowserStack and Firebase Test Lab run phones in their own data centres.

Is there a free plan?

Yes. Free covers 3 phones with no account. Pro costs £12 a month + VAT for up to 25 phones and adds group actions, workflows and schedules.

Is there one tool for logcat, APK installs and a shell on many Android phones?

Yes. BenchFleet shows every connected phone in one window, and each phone's page has a logcat viewer, an APK installer and an interactive shell beside its live screen. Android Studio and adb also do each job, one phone at a time.

Can I install one APK on all my phones at once?

With adb, loop over adb devices and run adb -s SERIAL install -r app.apk for each phone. In BenchFleet, group actions on Pro install an app on a group or every phone at once and show the result for each phone. Installing on one phone at a time works on every plan.

Is BenchFleet's shell a full adb shell?

The terminal on a phone's page is an interactive shell with the rights of adb's shell user, the same as adb shell. You open it as a deliberate step, and the session and what appeared on screen go into the audit log. It opens only on the computer that runs BenchFleet, not from a browser on another device.

Can I save logcat from the app?

Yes. The Logs tab on a phone's page shows the main log or crashes, filters by level and by text, follows new lines and saves what you see to a file.

Do I still need adb installed?

Not for BenchFleet, which brings its own copy of adb. If you also run adb yourself on the same computer, keep it up to date, because two different adb versions restart each other's server.

Do AI agents get the shell too?

No. AI clients connected over MCP on Pro and Team never get shell commands, app installs or file transfer. Those stay with people. A workflow's shell step runs, by default, only a short list of read-only commands.

The tools compared

Tool	Logcat	Install an APK	Shell	Many phones in one window	Price	Website
BenchFleet	Per phone: main log or crashes, level and text filters, follow, save	One phone on every plan; a group or every phone at once on Pro	Interactive adb shell per phone, recorded in the audit log	Yes: every phone as a live tile, with health	Free for 3 phones; Pro £12 a month + VAT	benchfleet.com
adb on the command line	`adb -s SERIAL logcat`	`adb -s SERIAL install`	`adb -s SERIAL shell`	No: one command per phone, or a loop	Free, from Google	developer.android.com/tools/adb
Android Studio	Logcat window; each tab or split can follow a different device	Runs your project on the device you pick	Through its terminal and adb	Mirrored devices as tabs in its Running Devices window	Free, from Google	developer.android.com/studio
DeviceFarmer (STF)	Shows and filters device logs	Drag and drop an APK to install and launch it	Shell commands with live output	A list of every device in a browser, each opened on its own page; runs on Linux or BSD servers you set up	Free, open source	github.com/DeviceFarmer/stf
scrcpy	Not included	Drag an APK onto the phone's window	Not included	One window per phone	Free, open source	github.com/Genymobile/scrcpy
Escrcpy	Not listed in its README	Batch APK installs across devices, per its README	A terminal control is named in its README	Several devices in one window, per its README	Free, open source (Apache-2.0); some advanced features in a paid extension	github.com/viarotel-org/escrcpy

The adb commands behind each job

Every tool here talks to phones through adb, Android's debugging bridge. With more than one phone connected, each command names its phone with -s and the serial number that adb devices -l lists:

bash

adb devices -l
adb -s SERIAL logcat -v threadtime "*:W"
adb -s SERIAL logcat -b crash -d > crash.txt
adb -s SERIAL install -r app.apk
adb -s SERIAL shell

To repeat a job on every phone, loop over the list. In bash, this installs a build on each phone in turn:

bash

for s in $(adb devices | awk 'NR>1 && $2=="device" {print $1}'); do
  adb -s "$s" install -r app.apk
done

The ADB guide explains logcat, install and shell in detail, with the PowerShell form of each loop, and the free ADB command builder writes these commands for one phone or every phone.

How BenchFleet does it in one window

BenchFleet runs on Windows, macOS (Apple silicon) and Linux and finds every phone that adb sees, by USB, by Wireless debugging or by address. The Fleet page shows each phone as a live tile with its battery, temperature, storage and the app in front, and anything that needs you in red. Click a phone and its page opens, with these tabs next to the screen:

Logs: the phone's logcat, the main log or crashes only, filtered by level (all, info and up, warnings and up, errors) and by text, the last 200, 500 or 2,000 lines, following new lines as they arrive, and Save to keep what you see.
Apps: the installed apps, Install an APK from your computer, and open, stop or uninstall an app. Uninstalling asks you to type the package name, and system apps are refused.
Terminal: an interactive shell on the phone with the rights of adb's shell user. You open it deliberately, one per phone; it closes after 15 minutes without input, and the session and what appeared on screen go into the audit log.
Files: drag and drop to copy files to and from the phone; screenshots and screen recordings go to the Library.

Pop out puts a phone's page in a window of its own, so you can keep two phones' logs side by side while the Fleet page shows the rest.

The same job on many phones Pro

Group actions install an app, launch it, reboot or take screenshots on a group of phones or every phone at once, with the result for each phone. Workflows can run a shell step too, which by default allows only read-only commands such as getprop, dumpsys battery or pm list packages, and record its output in the run's timeline.

Who it is for

App teams and testers who install each build on a shelf of phones and need the crash log from the one that failed. See Android app testing on real phones.
Device labs and support desks that look after many phones and take over the one a colleague asks about. See controlling many Android phones from one PC.
People building with AI agents, who let Claude Code or Codex use the same phones over MCP while the shell, installs and file transfer stay with people. See the Android MCP server.

Android Studio, DeviceFarmer, scrcpy and Escrcpy are the names of their owners' products and projects. BenchFleet is not affiliated with any of them.

Start with the Free plan