Comparison

Thingy vs DFU Plus

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Thingy

Interact with a multi-sensor IoT device to capture and view environmental data, motion, and audio. Control the device's LED, speaker, and trigger events through a user-friendly interface without needing programming skills.

Highlights
  • View temperature, humidity, air quality, and pressure
  • Compass, step counter, and tap detection
  • Accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data
  • Control RGB LED color, brightness, and mode
  • Stream audio to and from the device
  • Trigger programmable events
  • Update device firmware
Features
Read full description

The Thingy app is designed to work with the Nordic Thingy:52™ devices. Nordic Thingy:52 is a compact, power-optimized, multi-sensor device built around the nRF52832 Bluetooth® 5 SoC from Nordic Semiconductor. Capture, view, and interact with the sensor data acquired from your Thingy, with no programming skills required. Use this app to connect your iPhone or iPad with Thingy and gain access to the following functionalities: - View the current temperature, humidity, air quality, and atmospheric pressure. - Use it as a compass, step counter, or detect taps on any of its axis. - Check the orientation of your Thingy and get live accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer data at a high rate. - Measure the gravity vector. - Trigger programmable events by pressing the button on top of the device. - Control the color, brightness, and mode of the RGB LED. - Stream PCM audio to its speaker, or play predefined notification sounds when events occur. - Stream audio from Thingy to a mobile device using the built-in microphone. - Play programmable tunes in frequency mode. - Using the free Thingy app, update the firmware on your Thingy as soon as new firmware versions are released. For firmware and mobile developers: Thingy can be flashed with your custom firmware, just like any other development kit from Nordic Semiconductor. The Thingy firmware package contains comprehensive documentation, so you can easily customize it to your own needs. Additionally, We provide a CocoaPod in Swift 5 for iOS 9.0 and above, This library is built exclusively for Thingy to ensure that installation and integration in your project are as smooth as possible! Learn more about Thingy at http://www.nordicsemi.com/thingy

About

DFU Plus

Features
Read full description

This application is mainly designed for Bluetooth hardware devices developed by Freqchina. It is a tool application made for device upgrading. With this application, you can upgrade Bluetooth devices remotely or locally, and it also supports signal value filtering and name filtering. For more information, please contact: shenzhen@freqchina.com.

Screenshots

Thingy4 screens
DFU Plus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Thingy at every 3 months against DFU Plus's every 6 months. On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Thingy ships an update every 3 months, DFU Plus every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 2, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 9 level
Thingy versus DFU Plus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterThingyDFU Plus
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews0.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings2 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPod
Requires iOS12.0 — better13.0
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB9 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNordic Semiconductor ASAShenzhen Lanke Xuntong Technology Co., Ltd.

In-app purchases

None

Thingy

No in-app purchases

None

DFU Plus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Thingy free?
Thingy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is DFU Plus free?
DFU Plus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Thingy or DFU Plus have ads?
Neither Thingy nor DFU Plus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Thingy or DFU Plus?
Thingy ships an update every 3 months, and DFU Plus every 6 months. Most recently, Thingy was updated on October 6, 2026 and DFU Plus on October 2, 2026.

Other comparisons