Touch Portal vs Bitfocus Companion for OBS: Phone or Tablet Control Deck, or Modular Show-Control Server?

The direct answer

Choose Touch Portal when the operator is you, OBS is nearly the only thing being controlled, and a spare phone or tablet is the surface you want. Choose Bitfocus Companion when the control layer must reach beyond OBS, serve more than one operator, run on a machine other than the streaming PC, or be handed to someone else. Both control OBS through the same OBS WebSocket server, so the question is not whether either can switch a scene. It is which surface, which host model and which reach you need.

The biggest caveat is Touch Portal's free tier. The vendor's page lists plug-ins, Values, Events, more than two pages, larger grids and "Remote control OBS" under the Pro upgrade, and it is unclear from the documentation how much OBS control the free version includes. Confirm that in your own install before relying on it. Companion's caveat is different: it is free, but it is a system you administer, with ports, a host and an update cadence to manage.

This is documentation-based analysis as of 2026-10-06, not a hands-on test. It is also a different decision from the one in an earlier article on this site, Bitfocus Companion vs OBS Hotkeys for Live Control. That article asks whether you need a control system at all. This one assumes you have decided you do and asks which kind.

What the current documentation establishes

Touch Portal is a desktop application plus a mobile app. According to the vendor FAQ, the desktop app is used to edit the setup and holds the server that receives communication from the mobile device. The phone or tablet connects over the local network, or by USB cable on Windows with Android. The default Wi-Fi port is 12135 and the USB port is 13145, and both can be changed in the desktop settings. As of 2026-10-06 the vendor page lists desktop v4.6 Build 2, Android v4.5 Build 2 and iOS v4.5 Build 1.

Companion describes itself as free and open source, and its user guide says it can control over 800 types of devices. The README says "700+". The two official pages disagree, so this article says only that the catalogue runs to several hundred connections. GitHub release data shows v5.0.0 on 2026-07-12 and v5.0.7 on 2026-10-01 as the latest release. The main branch already reads 5.1.0 in development.

Companion runs as a server with a browser-based admin interface. The documented Docker ports are 8000 for the admin UI and web API, 16622 for Satellite over TCP and 16623 for Satellite over WebSocket. Surfaces attach by USB, by the Satellite app, or through a browser.

On the OBS side, obs-websocket has been built into OBS Studio since version 28.0.0, defaults to port 4455 and recommends a password. Its README lists both Touch Portal and the Bitfocus Companion module as client software, and names remote control from a phone or tablet on the same local network as a use case. The latest OBS Studio release on GitHub is 32.2.2, published 2026-08-14.

Everything above is vendor or project documentation. These are claims about what the software does, not measurements of how it behaves on a congested venue network. No independent latency or reliability data was found for either tool.

Evaluation criteria

Eight criteria frame the comparison. Each can be answered from public documentation, and each maps to a failure that matters mid-show.

• Control surface fit: a phone or tablet deck, a browser grid, or physical keys. The surface decides who can operate the show and how fast.
• OBS depth and state feedback: the breadth of actions and whether button state reflects what OBS is actually doing. A mute button that does not show muted invites mistakes.
• Reach beyond OBS: whether the same buttons can drive a switcher, camera, mixer or playback tool, so one operator does not juggle several apps.
• Cost and licensing: what is free, what is paid once, and what the licence follows. Surprise purchases are a poor thing to discover on show day.
• Network and setup burden: ports, subnets, firewall rules and Wi-Fi quality. Network faults are the most common way a control surface goes dead.
• Host platform and device support: which operating systems can run the host, and which phones or tablets can act as the surface.
• Security and blast radius: what an unwanted visitor on the network could reach, and which defaults are conservative.
• Maintenance and rehearsal burden: update cadence, plug-in or module currency, backups and the cost of retesting after every change.

Head-to-head against the criteria

Control surface fit. Touch Portal is built around the phone or tablet. Its mobile app is the surface, and the desktop app is where you edit. Changing a page on the desktop does not change what the mobile device shows at that moment. Companion maps physical devices such as Stream Deck-style keypads, knobs and sliders to a button grid, and since version 4.3 other surfaces arrive as separate surface modules. For phones and tablets, the documented route is a browser. Web buttons show all buttons across all pages on one screen and suit a tablet browser, but the guide says that view does not appear to Companion as a Surface, so it cannot follow page changes set up on buttons. The Emulator is a browser grid that behaves like a Stream Deck, can be created more than once so different people see different pages, and all viewers of one emulator share a page. No native Companion mobile app was found in the documentation read.

OBS depth and feedback. Touch Portal's OBS reference lists actions for streaming and recording state, scenes, preview scenes, sources, filters, volume and mute, media sources, Studio Mode, transitions, the replay buffer, the virtual camera, hotkeys, raw requests and vendor requests. It lists events that return state to buttons, including streaming, recording, scene selection, mute state and OBS statistics. Companion's OBS module help covers a comparable range of actions, plus feedbacks such as streaming active, recording paused, source muted and stream congestion level, and variables such as dropped frames, CPU usage and free disk space. It also offers a custom command that sends any obs-websocket request without a dedicated action. Coverage looks similar on paper. Companion's variable and expression system is the more elaborate of the two, and 5.0 added loops, conditionals and results stored in variables.

Two documented cautions apply. Touch Portal's raw scene actions need exact scene names or "nothing will happen", and it only loads scene collections belonging to the current OBS profile. The vendor also says Touch Portal sometimes triggers actions too fast for software such as OBS, and suggests a timer action between steps.

Reach beyond OBS. Touch Portal's built-in services include OBS, Streamlabs Desktop, XSplit, Twitch, Philips Hue, key press and mouse simulation, HTTP requests and operating-system functions. Beyond that, it relies on plug-ins, scripts and protocols such as HTTP, WebSockets and OSC. Companion's catalogue covers mixers, switchers, lighting and streaming gear, and its remote-control options include HTTP, OSC, TCP/UDP, WebSocket, ArtNet/DMX, Ember+ and RossTalk. The Touch Portal home page names plug-ins for Atem, PTZ Optics and vMix. They are third-party, they need Pro, and their depth and maintenance were not checked here.

Scenarios and recommendations

Solo streamer, one PC, spare Android phone, OBS only. Touch Portal is the shorter path. The documented route is a Windows host with the phone on the same Wi-Fi subnet or on a USB cable, using documented scene, mute and record actions and events. Budget for the Pro upgrade if you want more than two pages, and keep OBS hotkeys for stop, start and mute as a fallback.

Church or community AV with a volunteer operator, OBS, a PTZ camera and a Blackmagic switcher. Companion fits better. The module catalogue, named devices, an admin password, page permissions and a wired always-on host, whether a PC, Raspberry Pi or Docker, suit a rig that changes hands. Touch Portal lists Atem and PTZ Optics plug-ins, but they are third-party and Pro-gated, and this article did not verify them.

Two-person show: a producer on a tablet and a host with a Stream Deck. Companion supports several surfaces at once, separate emulators for different pages, and Satellite for a deck attached to another machine. Touch Portal can show a different page on each of several phones only with the Multiple Devices upgrade, and each device's store account needs it.

Mac-based streamer. Touch Portal supports macOS 10.13.6 and later with separate Apple-silicon and Intel installers. Companion 5.0 and later requires macOS 13.5 or newer. On an older Mac, Companion 5 is out. Whether older Companion versions remain workable was not verified.

iPhone-only creator who also owns an Android tablet. Touch Portal licences are tied to the store account and are not transferable between Google Play and the Apple App Store, so mixed devices can mean paying twice. Companion has no store licence, but its phone and tablet route is a browser, not a native app.

Travelling creator with a Linux laptop. Touch Portal's Linux host is labelled open beta and targets an Ubuntu AppImage. Companion lists Linux x64 and arm64 desktop and headless builds, with udev rules needed for USB surfaces.

Failure cases, tradeoffs and a rehearsal checklist

For both tools, the network is the likeliest point of failure. Touch Portal's FAQ lists devices on different subnets, IPv6 networks that do not work properly, a Windows network classed as Public, firewall or anti-virus blocks, and router client isolation. It also describes a connect and disconnect loop when switching between USB and Wi-Fi. Companion's guide says to use wired networking whenever possible, because some devices dislike the disconnects Wi-Fi can cause, and to use static IPs or DHCP reservations for controlled devices.

Licence confusion is a Touch Portal-specific risk. If the store account does not match, the desktop app can show the free version, and the FAQ has troubleshooting steps. Update churn is the Companion-specific risk. Seven point releases followed 5.0.0 in about twelve weeks, mostly bug fixes according to the release notes. The 5.0 release also required macOS 13.5, removed the dedicated Elgato plugin server, and switched off shell command execution and network module installation by default. Workflows that relied on those need attention after upgrading.

Security needs plain wording. Companion's guide says never to expose the admin interface to the internet, because doing so gives anyone who finds it a remote shell to the machine. Its admin password, PIN lockout, page permissions and remote-access toggles are described as measures that help stop casual browsers, not as making an installation secure. Touch Portal's security model for its network port was not described in the pages read. In both cases the OBS WebSocket password should stay on, and the earlier hotkeys article covers that boundary and the controller-disappears fallback in more detail.

Before any show, rehearse the following on the real network and real devices.

• Confirm the host and the control surface are on the same subnet, with a wired host where possible.
• Confirm the firewall prompt was accepted and the network profile is Private on Windows.
• Confirm the OBS WebSocket server is enabled with a password and that the tool connects with it.
• Press every button once and check its state feedback matches OBS, including mute and recording.
• Check macros that chain several OBS actions and add a delay between steps if any are skipped.
• Verify the licence or paid features are active on the exact device and store account in use.
• Back up the configuration, then retest after any update to the tool or OBS.
• Confirm you can still start, stop and mute using OBS hotkeys alone.

Cost, ecosystem and alternatives

As shown on the Touch Portal page on 2026-10-06, the base app is free, with two pages and a 4x2 grid. The Pro upgrade is indicated at $13.99 as a one-time payment, and the Multiple Devices upgrade at $6.99 one-time. The vendor says prices vary by country and store and that the in-app purchase shows the correct price. Pro lists unlimited pages, grids up to 110 buttons, animated GIFs, Values, Events, plug-ins and "Remote control OBS". Small graphics add-ons are sold separately. Licences follow the store account and do not transfer between Android and iOS.

Companion is free, with donations accepted through Open Collective. The project's package metadata declares an MIT licence, but a licence file was not located, so treat the licence text as unverified and read the repository before redistributing anything. Companion's costs are indirect: a host that stays on, a surface, and any Stream Deck hardware if you want physical keys. A browser on a tablet costs nothing extra.

Some comparison pages get this wrong. One widely read listicle gives Touch Portal paid plans from $6.99 a month. The vendor page shows one-time purchases, and that listicle's metadata shows it was published in 2024 despite a 2026 title. Another listicle is published by a competing product that ranks itself first. Treat both as secondary, and prefer the vendor pages.

Credible alternatives sit outside this pairing. OBS's own hotkeys remove the extra layer entirely and are the right choice when you need only a few reliable actions. Elgato's own Stream Deck software is the other obvious option, but its pricing and compatibility were not verified here. If you already own Stream Deck hardware and want more than OBS, Companion can drive it, and the guide says to close the Elgato app or use the Companion plugin from the Elgato store. Skip both tools if the show is a handful of scene changes by one operator at a desk.

Verdict

Touch Portal is the better fit for a single operator who wants a phone or tablet deck and controls mostly OBS, provided the Pro purchase is acceptable and the free-tier OBS limits have been confirmed on your own install. Companion is the better fit once the show involves other equipment, a second operator, a shared handoff, or a host that is not the streaming PC. Both are credible, and each wins on a different criterion.

The three questions that decide it: is OBS the only target and are you the only operator? Do you need other gear or a separate page for someone else? Can you commit to wired networking, static addresses, firewall rules and retesting after updates? Yes to the first points to Touch Portal. Yes to the second points to Companion. A no to the third argues for the smaller boundary and OBS hotkeys as the fallback. Running both on different pages is possible in principle, since both are OBS WebSocket clients, but it adds two control layers to maintain and no source documents the combination.

What would change this verdict: hands-on latency and reconnect testing on Wi-Fi and USB, confirmation of the free tier's OBS limits, a verified Companion licence file, and a change in either vendor's pricing or platform status. The OBS module help on the main branch describes a version 4 requiring Companion 5.0, while the latest tagged module release found was v3.15.3 from January 2026. Which module version a Companion 5.0.7 user receives is unverified.