Bolt IoT vs Private Kit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bolt IoT
Easily connect and manage your IoT devices. View data graphs, control actuators, and receive alerts. The app provides an intuitive step-by-step Wi-Fi setup for your devices.
- Connect Bolt IoT devices to WiFi
- Manage and control devices
- View device data graphs
- Receive push notifications for alerts
- Intuitive Wi-Fi setup process
- Control actuators like motors and lights
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Install our Bolt IoT app to easily connect your Bolt IoT devices to a WiFi network and manage your devices. You will be able to view your device data graphs, control your devices, as well as get push notifications when there are alerts triggered! The app guides you step by step with the Wi-Fi setup process in a very intuitive way and the process is complete once the Blue and Green LED on the device is stable. What is Bolt IoT? Bolt IoT is an integrated IoT platform that offers you with a WiFi Chip to connect your actuators and sensors to the Internet. You can configure such a system over the Bolt Cloud to receive, store and visualise the data over graphs. You can also connect actuators such as motors, light bulb and control them over the Internet. We also offer APIs to fetch data and control the devices from any platform. The Bolt APIs work with popular programming languages like Python, PHP etc. You can even run ML algorithms with just a few clicks. Additional Resources: - Start building and managing your IoT products at https://cloud.boltiot.com - Access our forum at https://forum.boltiot.com
Private Kit
This app allows you to log your GPS trails directly on your phone. All data is stored locally and remains private until you choose to export it. It efficiently stores location history with minimal space usage.
- Privacy-first location logging
- Local data storage
- Manual data export
- Efficient data storage
- Location import/export
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PrivateKit MIT is a ‘privacy-first’ app that allows you to log your GPS trails on your own phone. The information is stored locally and never shared with anyone (not even with us or MIT) until you explicitly decide to manually export the data. The location log generated by Private Kit cannot be accessed from outside the user’s device. Location information can be imported and exported by the user and used in other projects and applications. Private Kit’s trail generator logs your device’s location once every five minutes and stores 28 days of data in under 100KB of space – less space than a single picture. But what is truly exciting about Private Kit is its privacy protection. The app needs access to your location and motion tracking sensors to work.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Private Kit at 3.7 against Bolt IoT's 2.8. Private Kit also leads on ads (none vs shown) and update cadence (every 4 days vs every 5 weeks). Bolt IoT's advantage is review sentiment (43% vs 32%). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Private Kit holds the better App Store score, 3.7 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Private Kit has 121 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 43% of Bolt IoT's written reviews are positive against 32% of Private Kit's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Bolt IoT ships an update every 5 weeks, Private Kit every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bolt IoT | Private Kit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.8 (4 ratings) | 3.7 (121 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 42.9% of reviews — better | 32.2% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 4 | 121 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 12.0 | 9.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 16 MB | 32 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Bolt IoT | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Customer experience
Bolt IoT
Private Kit
Bugs and requests
Bolt IoT
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Private Kit
Reported bugs
29 issues- App crashes when trying to view movements on map
- Map crashes/closes app before loading
- App crashes when trying to open map
- App crashes when trying to view overlaps
- Map shows zoomed out view and crashes
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- App crashes when visualizing data streams
- App doesn't show location
- App doesn't log trips consistently
- Map doesn't update routes
- Import/Export/News icons are hidden or inaccessible
- Three vertical dots (menu) are off-screen
- GUI displays incorrectly on smaller screens
- News button does not work
- Import button shows 'Rolling out soon'
- Export button text is cut off
- Description box covers half the screen
- Latest update broken for some users
- Latest update forgot previous weeks log
- Update from two days ago prevents tapping start logging button
- GPS data not accurate, shows incorrect locations
- Map overlay shows incorrect wandering
- Cannot access three buttons (import, export, news) due to screen size
- The 'for more information' box hides import/export/news buttons
- Location logging clusters locations in one spot
- Location data placed at locations never visited
- Map is zoomed out by default
- Cannot get import/export/news icons
- Cannot access three vertical dots upper right hand corner
- App not optimized for iPhone SE screen size
Requested features
16 requests- Better howto and help information
- More rigorous and robust app development
- Simple notebook feature for user contacts
- Clearer explanation of map features (green targets, red pins)
- Option to add locations when without phone
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- Explanation of what a 'Hit' looks like
- Make data-sharing opt-out instead of opt-in
- Consider implementation on existing platforms like Facebook
- Explanation for the number in the circle on the map
- How to input a positive test result
- Default map view should be zoomed to data limits
- Make GUI elements fully accessible on smaller screens
- Explanation of import/export/news buttons
- More detailed documentation for data import/export
- Option to add manual entries for contacts
- Clearer explanation of data sources and trusted authorities
In-app purchases
Bolt IoT
No in-app purchases
Private Kit
No in-app purchases
