Comparison

Dabble vs Blynk IoT

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

Head to head
About

Dabble

Control and communicate with hardware like Arduino and ESP32 using your smartphone's sensors and Bluetooth. This app transforms your phone into a virtual controller, offering modules for LED control, terminal commands, gamepad functionality, and access to phone sensors.

Highlights
  • LED Brightness Control
  • Terminal for text and voice commands
  • Gamepad control (analog, digital, accelerometer)
  • Pin State Monitor
  • Phone Sensor access (GPS, mic, accelerometer, etc.)
  • Scratch & Arduino compatible projects
Features
Read full description

Dabble is a versatile project interaction & Bluetooth controller app for Arduino, ESP32 & evive that replaces a wide variety of electronic components and exploits the inbuilt features and sensors of your Smartphone like the GPS, mic & accelerometer thus transforming into a virtual treasury of infinite shields & more. It lets you control & communicate with hardware via Bluetooth. It also provides you with dedicated projects compatible with Scratch & Arduino to help you learn by doing. What Dabble has in store: Currently Available Modules: • LED Brightness Control: Control brightness of LEDs and digital/analog pins. • Terminal: Send and receive textual and voice commands over Bluetooth. • Gamepad: Control devices/robot in analog (Joystick), digital, and accelerometer mode. • Pin State Monitor: Remotely monitor the live status of devices and debug them. • Phone Sensor: Access different sensors of your Smartphone such as the accelerometer, gyroscope, proximity sensor, magnetometer, light meter, sound meter, GPS, temperature sensor, and barometer to make projects and conduct experiments. Coming Soon: • Motor Control (Coming Soon): Control actuators such as the DC motor and servo motor. • Inputs (Coming Soon): Provide analog and digital inputs via buttons, knobs, and switches. • Camera (Coming Soon): Use the camera of your Smartphone for taking photos, record videos, colour picking, and face recognition (coming soon). • IoT (Coming Soon): Log data, publish it on cloud, and access data from API. • Oscilloscope (Coming Soon): Visualize and analyse the input and output signals given to the device using the oscilloscope module. • Music (Coming Soon): Receive commands from the device and play tones, songs, or other recorded audio files on your Smartphone. • Projects (Coming Soon): Make dedicated projects to experience different concepts of the real world first-hand like home automation, line-follower, and robotic arm. Boards Compatible with Dabble: • evive • Arduino Uno • Arduino Mega • Arduino Nano • ESP32 Bluetooth Modules Compatible with Dabble: • HM-10 BT 4.0 BLE (or AT-09) Want to know more about Dabble? Visit:  https://thestempedia.com/product/dabble/ Module Documentation: https://thestempedia.com/docs/dabble/ Getting Started with Dabble: https://thestempedia.com/docs/dabble/getting-started-with-dabble/ Projects that you can make: https://thestempedia.com/product/dabble-app/ Permissions required for: Bluetooth: to provide connectivity. Microphone: to send voice commands and use the sound meter. Location: to use Location sensor and BLE.

About

Blynk IoT

Build custom IoT apps without coding using a drag-and-drop interface. Manage devices, users, and data remotely with a powerful web console and scalable cloud infrastructure. Supports over 400 hardware boards and various connection options.

Highlights
  • Drag-n-drop IoT app builder
  • Device and user management
  • OTA firmware updates
  • Secure cloud infrastructure
  • Hardware compatibility (400+ boards)
  • Real-time alerts and automations
Read full description

Trusted by over 1 million IoT developers worldwide, Blynk lets you build and customize beautiful, feature-rich apps without writing a single line of code. Blynk solves IoT complexity at every stage with easy workflows for end-user device activation, WiFi provisioning, seamless OTA firmware updates, enterprise-grade security, and much more! ⊲ Not Just an App... Blynk is an award-winning low-code IoT platform that supports IoT at any scale—from personal prototypes to millions of connected devices in production environments. 2024 Leader: IoT Platforms (G2) 2024 High Performer: IoT Management (G2) 2024 Momentum Leader: IoT Development Tools (G2) Designed, developed, tested, and continuously maintained, Blynk provides the building blocks of a fully integrated cloud IoT platform software solution—loved by customers and their end-users around the world! ⊲ Here’s What You Get When You Sign Up: Blynk.Apps: Drag-n-drop IoT app builder to build and brand feature-rich mobile apps in minutes and instantly manage devices, users, and data remotely. Blynk.Console: A powerful web portal to manage devices, users, and organizations, perform OTA firmware updates, and handle other important business functions. Blynk.Cloud: Cloud infrastructure needed to securely host, scale, and monitor your IoT solutions. Receive, store, and process data in real-time or at intervals. Connect to your other systems via APIs. Private server options are available. ⊲ Secure, Scalable Enterprise-Grade Infrastructure Processing over 180 billion hardware messages monthly, Blynk provides secure, end-to-end encryption between the cloud, apps, and devices with 24/7 incident monitoring, ensuring you don’t have to worry about security. ⊲ Robust Hardware Compatibility Supporting over 400 hardware development boards—including ESP32, Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Seeed, Particle, SparkFun, Blues, Adafruit, Texas Instruments, and more—Blynk makes it easy to connect your devices to the cloud using WiFi, Ethernet, Cellular (GSM, 2G, 3G, 4G, LTE), LoRaWAN, HTTPs, or MQTT. ⊲ Flexible Connection Options Blynk Library: Pre-configured C++ library for low-latency, bi-directional communication. Blynk.Edgent: Advanced features with less code for data exchange, WiFi provisioning, OTA firmware updates, and API access to apps and cloud. Blynk.NCP: High-quality network co-processor integration for dual MCU architecture. HTTP(s) API: Standard protocol to securely communicate and transfer data. MQTT API: Secure, versatile two-way communication for building MQTT dashboards or panels. ⊲ What an IoT Developer Can Do with Blynk: • Easy Device Activation • Device WiFi Provisioning • Sensor Data Visualization • Shared Access to Devices • Data Analytics • Remote Device Control • Asset Tracking • Firmware Over-the-Air (OTA) Updates • Multi-Device Management with a Single App • Real-Time Alerts: Send and receive push and email notifications. • Automations: Create scenarios for one or multiple devices based on various triggers. • Manage Multi-Level Organizations and Access to Devices • Voice Assistant Integration: Interact with devices using Amazon Alexa and Google Home. To use the Blynk IoT app, you must agree to our Terms of Use - https://blynk.io/tos

Screenshots

Dabble4 screens
Blynk IoT4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Blynk IoT at 4.5 against Dabble's 3.9. Blynk IoT also leads on update cadence (monthly vs every 6 months) and ratings volume (823 vs 128). Dabble's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 7) and review sentiment (65% vs 42%). On price 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Blynk IoT sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $6.99 per month. Dabble asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Blynk IoT holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Blynk IoT has 823 ratings behind it against 128, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 65% of Dabble's written reviews are positive against 42% of Blynk IoT's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Dabble ships an update every 6 months, Blynk IoT monthly. The most recent releases landed on October 8, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard8 real differences · 2 level
Dabble versus Blynk IoT: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDabbleBlynk IoT
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (128 ratings)4.5 (823 ratings) — better
Positive reviews64.8% of reviews — better42.0% of reviews
Number of ratings128823 — better
Update frequencyEvery 6 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone
Requires iOS11.0 — better18.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB86 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSTEMpediaBlynk Technologies

Customer experience

Dabble

All ratings128 ratings
Positive71.9%
Neutral7.8%
Negative20.3%
Written reviews122 reviews
Positive64.8%
Neutral4.9%
Negative30.3%

Blynk IoT

All ratings823 ratings
Positive88.5%
Neutral3.2%
Negative8.4%
Written reviews174 reviews
Positive42.0%
Neutral5.7%
Negative52.3%

User reviews

Dabble

From 128 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use for beginners
  • 🚀 Works well with ESP32 and Arduino
  • 💰 Free and fully functional
  • 💡 Great for robotics projects
  • 📱 Useful phone sensors

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Gamepad issues on iOS
  • 🐛 Not all functions available on iPhone
  • 🐛 GPS data transfer unreliable
  • 🐛 Phone sensor data flaky
  • 🐛 UI issues on older versions

Blynk IoT

From 823 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🚀 Powerful IoT platform
  • 🚀 Efficient for rapid prototyping
  • 👍 Great for hobbyists and businesses
  • 👍 Stable and reliable

Room to improve

  • 💰 Expensive subscription model
  • 🐛 Unstable, crashes frequently
  • 🤔 Confusing for beginners
  • 🤔 Lacks flexibility compared to legacy version
  • 🤔 Limited free features

Bugs and requests

Dabble

Reported bugs

15 issues
  • Gamepad doesn't work on iOS
  • Joystick values are blank on iOS
  • Buttons do not show for gamepad
  • Controller function broken on iPhones without a home button
  • Gamepad won't turn, only shows left/right controls, format off
Show 10 more
  • Gamepad doesn't load properly, shows only two arrows
  • Game pad section is useless after iOS 16 update, doesn't show entire gamepad
  • Lag and robot continues to move
  • Joystick resets values when action button is pressed
  • GPS data transfer not reliable
  • Phone sensor data is flaky
  • UI completely messed up due to no updates
  • Auto connect problem (BLE services in reverse order)
  • Doesn't connect to Nintendo Switch Lite, no SYNC button
  • Gamepad doesn't display on iPhone 8, works on iPad

Requested features

7 requests
  • More buttons on gamepad or custom gamepad creation
  • Additional controller types (joystick, button rows)
  • Ability to map terminal commands to virtual actions/notifications
  • Offline automation and scripts for iOS
  • Xbox controller support
Show 2 more
  • Motor control on iPhone
  • Pro version with more options

Blynk IoT

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Connectivity issues with devices
  • Widgets not working as expected
  • Account deletion without warning
  • Incompatibility with older hardware

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Bluetooth support
  • Better documentation and tutorials
  • Restore legacy app functionality
  • Affordable pricing for hobbyists

In-app purchases

None

Dabble

No in-app purchases

7 purchases

Blynk IoT

Subscriptions7
  • Blynk MAKER - Monthly$6.991 Month
  • Blynk Starter - Monthly$29.001 Month
  • Blynk PRO (40 users) Monthly$48.991 Month
Show 4 more
  • Blynk MAKER - Yearly$59.991 Year
  • Blynk PRO (100 users) Monthly$98.991 Month
  • Blynk PRO (50 users) Monthly$99.001 Month
  • Blynk PRO (500 users) Monthly$299.991 Month

Questions

Is Dabble free?
Dabble is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Blynk IoT free?
Blynk IoT is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Dabble or Blynk IoT?
Blynk IoT is rated higher. Dabble averages 3.9 out of 5 from 128 ratings, while Blynk IoT averages 4.5 from 823 ratings.
Do Dabble or Blynk IoT have ads?
Neither Dabble nor Blynk IoT shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Dabble or Blynk IoT?
Dabble ships an update every 6 months, and Blynk IoT monthly. Most recently, Dabble was updated on October 8, 2026 and Blynk IoT on October 9, 2026.

Other comparisons