MQTTAnalyzer vs Shellbee
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
MQTTAnalyzer
Monitor and debug MQTT brokers on your Apple devices. Visualize data with hierarchical views, JSON highlighting, and charts. Publish messages, manage multiple brokers, and sync settings across devices. Free and open source.
- MQTT 3.1.1 and 5.0 support
- JSON highlighting and pretty-printing
- Time series charts for numeric values
- Connect to multiple brokers
- Full-text search
- Publish messages
- iCloud sync
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Monitor and debug your MQTT broker from iPhone, iPad, or Mac. MQTTAnalyzer is the essential tool for smart home enthusiasts, IoT developers, and anyone working with MQTT-based systems. Free, open source, and no ads. CONNECT WITH CONFIDENCE • MQTT 3.1.1 and MQTT 5.0 support • MQTT and WebSocket connections • SSL/TLS with ALPN and server CA certificate validation • Username/password and client certificate authentication • Support for self-signed certificates • Predefined settings for AWS IoT • Connection diagnostics to identify issues quickly VISUALIZE YOUR DATA • Hierarchical topic tree view • JSON highlighting and pretty-printing • Time series charts for numeric values • ANSI color code rendering • Image viewer with pinch-to-zoom (PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, and more) • Hex viewer for binary payloads STAY ORGANIZED • Connect to multiple brokers simultaneously • Subscribe to multiple topics per broker • Full-text search across topics and messages • Unread message indicators • Statistics panel with message counts • Large payload support (10MB+) with export PUBLISH AND CONTROL • Publish messages with QoS and retain flag • JSON message builder with form interface • Delete retained messages from broker • Siri shortcuts for quick actions SYNC ACROSS DEVICES • iCloud sync for settings and certificates • Native experience on iPhone, iPad, and Mac Have feedback or feature requests? Visit our GitHub page — MQTTAnalyzer is open source and community-driven.
Shellbee
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Shellbee is a native iPhone companion for Zigbee2MQTT. It connects directly to your bridge over WebSocket and gives you an Apple-native interface for monitoring, controlling, and configuring your Zigbee network. REQUIRES A ZIGBEE2MQTT SERVER Shellbee is a client app. You need a running Zigbee2MQTT instance and an access token. Local and remote deployments are both supported. FEATURES - Real-time connection to your bridge over ws:// or wss:// - Bonjour discovery for local .local hosts - Live device state for lights, switches, covers, fans, locks, climate devices, and sensors - Native controls generated from Zigbee2MQTT exposes - Group and scene management - Permit join, pairing flow, and device onboarding - Bridge settings for MQTT, serial, network, OTA, logging, availability, Home Assistant, and more - Secure token storage in Keychain BUILT FOR iOS Shellbee is SwiftUI from top to bottom, using the latest Observation APIs and ActivityKit. It's designed to feel fast and native, not like a wrapped web view. OPEN SOURCE Shellbee is licensed under AGPL v3. Source available on GitHub.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is device support: MQTTAnalyzer at 3 against Shellbee's 1. On price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases 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.
Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on September 21, 2026 and September 26, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | MQTTAnalyzer | Shellbee |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (22 ratings) — better | — |
| Positive reviews | 77.8% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 22 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Every 5 days |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Mac — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.5 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 12 MB | 61 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Philipp Arndt | Kenneth Berg |
In-app purchases
MQTTAnalyzer
No in-app purchases
Shellbee
No in-app purchases









