PiHelper vs IoT Plug and Play
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PiHelper
Easily connect to and manage your Raspberry Pi or Linux machine remotely. Monitor system resources, control GPIO pins, and access an SSH terminal. Browse and manage files with SFTP and perform server actions like rebooting.
- Real-time system monitoring (CPU, memory, disk, temp)
- Interactive GPIO control
- Full SSH terminal experience
- SFTP file browser with upload/download
- Remote reboot and halt server
- Custom command execution
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Get started with PiHelper: https://medium.com/swlh/using-pihelper-to-monitor-and-manage-raspberry-pis-9a24065febed PiHelper lets you connect and manage your Raspberry Pi or Linux machine easily. - Monitor CPU, memory, disk usage, processes and/or temperature statics in realtime. - GPIO Colorful pinout. Tap to change GPIO mode and output. - SSH Terminal Realtime shell with full xterm experience. - SFTP / File browser Browse files and directories. Easy upload, download, rename and delete. - Single tap to reboot / halt server. Custom commands are also supported. - Multi-language support: -- English -- 中文 -- 日本語 -- Русский (Thanks to Sergey Britov) -- Deutsche (Thanks to Daniel Wolf) -- Français (Thanks to Dorian Eydoux) -- Lietuvis (Thanks to Ernestas Kardzys) Report issue: - Email: pihelper@outlook.com - Twitter: @shaqian629 Notes: - Public/Private key authentication only supports RSA keys. - To use the GPIO tool with RPi 4, please upgrade wiringPi to 2.52+: cd /tmp wget https://project-downloads.drogon.net/wiringpi-latest.deb sudo dpkg -i wiringpi-latest.deb Reference: http://wiringpi.com/wiringpi-updated-to-2-52-for-the-raspberry-pi-4b/
IoT Plug and Play
Transform your phone into an Internet of Things (IoT) device. Connect to Azure IoT cloud to send device telemetry, receive commands, and manage device twins. Upload media directly to Azure storage.
- Connect to Azure IoT cloud
- Send device telemetry (accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer)
- Send and receive commands
- Manage device twin updates
- Upload media to Azure storage
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Turn your phone into an Internet of Things (IoT) device and discover the simplicity of IoT Plug and Play by Microsoft Azure. This app supports connecting your device to the Azure IoT cloud, where you can: ▶ Send telemetry from your device like accelerometer, gyroscope, and magnetometer to Azure IoT. ▶ Send and receive commands and device twin updates from Azure IoT. ▶ Upload media to Azure storage. This app requires an active Azure IoT Central application or Azure IoT Hub. Learn more at https://aka.ms/iot-paad
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: IoT Plug and Play at 5.0 against PiHelper's 4.1. IoT Plug and Play also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 5 months). PiHelper's advantage is review sentiment (64% vs 43%) and ratings volume (247 vs 22). On price, ads 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. PiHelper sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. IoT Plug and Play asks for nothing beyond the download.
IoT Plug and Play holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: PiHelper has 247 ratings behind it against 22, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 64% of PiHelper's written reviews are positive against 43% of IoT Plug and Play's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
PiHelper ships an update every 5 months, IoT Plug and Play every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 2, 2026 and June 6, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PiHelper | IoT Plug and Play |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.1 (247 ratings) | 5.0 (22 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 64.3% of reviews — better | 42.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 247 — better | 22 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 months | Every 2 months — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 8.0 — better | 12.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 24 MB | 19 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | 茜 沙 | Microsoft Corporation |
Customer experience
PiHelper
IoT Plug and Play
Bugs and requests
PiHelper
Reported bugs
5 issues- Inability to connect to Raspberry Pis
- Clipboard data being accessed
- Terminal crashes and text wrapping issues
- Inaccurate CPU and GPU usage reporting
- Incompatibility with newer SSH ciphers
Requested features
5 requests- Support for Raspberry Pi 5
- Temperature monitoring in Fahrenheit
- Ability to clear RSA keys
- Network and disk usage monitoring
- Offline notification alerts
IoT Plug and Play
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
PiHelper
- Remove Ads$0.99
IoT Plug and Play
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is PiHelper free?
Is IoT Plug and Play free?
Which has better reviews, PiHelper or IoT Plug and Play?
Do PiHelper or IoT Plug and Play have ads?
Which is updated more often, PiHelper or IoT Plug and Play?
Other comparisons
