Core Beacons vs nRF Edge Impulse
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Core Beacons
This tool allows developers to scan and analyze Bluetooth LE device advertisements on iOS. It displays general CoreBluetooth information and detailed parsing for various beacon formats, including sensor data. Explore your Bluetooth environment and understand how your device presents it to applications.
- Scan Bluetooth LE advertisements
- Display CoreBluetooth information
- Parse Ruuvi sensor tags
- Parse Eddystone UID, URL, and TLM frames
- Parse Mijia temperature/humidity beacons
- Parse AltBeacon formats
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Core Beacons is a development tool for iOS. Core Beacons lists the advertisements of Bluetooth LE devices in range, as made available to applications by the CoreBluetooth API. Core Beacons lets you explore your "Bluetooth environment" and shows how your iOS device presents this environment to applications. Core Beacons displays general CoreBluetooth information and, if advertised by a device, service and/or manufacturer-specific data. Detailed parsing support is available for • ruuvi sensor tags: • Format 3 (raw data v1) • Format 4 (sensor data encoded in Eddystone URL) • Format 5 (raw data v2) • Eddystone: UID, URL (incl. Physical Web) & TLM frame types • mijia temperature & relative humidity sensor beacons (as far as this protocol is documented) • AltBeacon Core Beacons may be most useful when working with "beacon" type BLE devices.
nRF Edge Impulse
Train and deploy embedded machine learning models on a Nordic Thingy:53 device. Upload sensor data to the cloud for training and deploy models back to the device via Bluetooth LE. Supports various onboard sensors for data collection and inference.
- Train and deploy embedded ML models
- Utilizes Edge Impulse Studio
- Supports Nordic Thingy:53
- Upload raw sensor data
- Deploy models via Bluetooth LE
- Collect data from multiple sensors
- Label data for training/testing
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nRF Edge Impulse app is developed in collaboration with Edge Impulse to train and deploy embedded machine learning models on the Nordic Thingy:53 using Edge Impulse Studio. Every Nordic Thingy:53 comes pre-installed with firmware compatible with the nRF Edge Impulse mobile app. The app allows you to upload raw sensor data via your mobile device to the cloud-based Edge Impulse Studio and deploy fully trained ML models to the Nordic Thingy:53 over Bluetooth® Low Energy (LE). The app allows you to choose between existing projects in Edge Impulse studio data or creating a new project and can collect sensor data from the following set of sensors on the Nordic Thingy:53: - Accelerometer - Microphone - Magnetometer - Light - Temperature, Pressure, Humidity and Air quality - Inertial (Accelerometer and Magnetometer) - Light and Environment - Light and Inertial - Environment and Inertial - Light and Environment and Inertial The collected sensor data can be labeled as training or testing data and may be inferenced directly in the app with machine learning model deployed to the Nordic Thingy:53. A free Edge Impulse account, which may created from the app or at www.edgeimpulse.com, is required to connect nRF Edge Impulse with Edge Impulse studio.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Core Beacons at 100% against nRF Edge Impulse's 0%. Core Beacons also leads on iOS requirement (9.3 vs 16.0). nRF Edge Impulse's advantage is rating (5.0 vs 4.7). On price, ratings volume, update cadence and ads 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.
nRF Edge Impulse holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 3 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 100% of Core Beacons's written reviews are positive against 0% of nRF Edge Impulse's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Core Beacons ships an update every 2 months, nRF Edge Impulse every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on September 19, 2026 and September 21, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Core Beacons | nRF Edge Impulse |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (3 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 0.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 3 | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 3 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Mac |
| Requires iOS | 9.3 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | fluthaus | Nordic Semiconductor ASA |
Customer experience
Core Beacons
nRF Edge Impulse
In-app purchases
Core Beacons
No in-app purchases
nRF Edge Impulse
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Core Beacons free?
Is nRF Edge Impulse free?
Which has better reviews, Core Beacons or nRF Edge Impulse?
Do Core Beacons or nRF Edge Impulse have ads?
Which is updated more often, Core Beacons or nRF Edge Impulse?
Other comparisons
