Comparison

LightBlue® vs Dabble

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

Head to head
About

LightBlue®

This app allows users to interact with Bluetooth Low Energy devices. It supports scanning for, connecting to, and analyzing BLE peripherals, as well as simulating your own BLE devices. It's a comprehensive tool for developers and enthusiasts working with BLE technology.

Highlights
  • Scan and discover BLE peripherals
  • Connect and view device profiles
  • Read and write characteristics
  • Subscribe to notifications
  • Create and advertise virtual BLE devices
  • Clone peripheral profiles
  • Log and share BLE events
Features
Read full description

LightBlue® by Punch Through® Your ultimate BLE debugging and development toolkit. Trusted by BLE developers and engineers since 2012 to scan, inspect, and troubleshoot Bluetooth Low Energy devices with precision. Scan For Peripherals  Discover, connect, and interact with nearby BLE devices. Quickly view advertising peripherals, sort by signal strength (RSSI), and connect with a single tap. Once connected, explore the device's advertisement data, services, and characteristics. Isolate SDK Issues  Simplify debugging by pinpointing issues in your BLE SDKs. LightBlue lets you isolate your app's business logic and focus on core tasks like connecting, scanning, reading, writing, and receiving notifications, built on years of BLE development experience and platform best practices. Mimic Your Devices  Prototype your application by creating virtual BLE peripherals. Build a profile from scratch or clone an advertising peripheral to mimic your product's functionality, even before your own firmware is ready. Key features: - Scan and discover BLE peripherals nearby - Browse services and characteristics in detail - Read, write, and subscribe to notifications and indications - Send data from notifications to AWS IoT or Adafruit IO via Cloud Connect - Write to characteristics in Hex, Octal, Binary, Decimal, or ASCII - Clone peripheral profiles or build your own from scratch - Advertise as a custom peripheral to simulate your device - Thoroughly log and share BLE events - Available on iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Android LightBlue started in 2012 as an internal tool. Punch Through built it to test and debug BLE devices while working on client projects. It worked well, so we shared it with the community. We've kept it free ever since. Today, LightBlue is used by solo developers and engineering teams alike, including inside some of the world's most respected tech and device companies.

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.

Screenshots

LightBlue®4 screens
Dabble4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: LightBlue® at every 3 weeks against Dabble's every 6 months. LightBlue® also leads on rating (4.3 vs 3.9) and ratings volume (942 vs 128). Dabble's advantage is monetization model (free vs ad-supported) and review sentiment (75% vs 66%). On price, ads, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

LightBlue® holds the better App Store score, 4.3 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: LightBlue® has 942 ratings behind it against 128, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of LightBlue®'s written reviews are positive against 75% of Dabble's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

LightBlue® ships an update every 3 weeks, Dabble every 6 months. The most recent releases landed on September 30, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
LightBlue® versus Dabble: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLightBlue®Dabble
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.3 (942 ratings) — better3.9 (128 ratings)
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews75.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings942 — better128
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeks — betterEvery 6 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.411.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB18 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPunch ThroughSTEMpedia

Customer experience

LightBlue®

All ratings942 ratings
Positive83.3%
Neutral3.8%
Negative12.8%
Written reviews292 reviews
Positive66.1%
Neutral6.2%
Negative27.7%

Dabble

All ratings128 ratings
Positive71.9%
Neutral7.8%
Negative20.3%
Written reviews56 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral5.4%
Negative19.6%

User reviews

LightBlue®

From 942 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Found lost devices
  • 🔍 Helpful for locating Bluetooth devices
  • 👍 Works great
  • 👍 Lifesaver
  • 👍 Fantastic app

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Doesn't work with dead devices
  • 🐛 Unreliable connection
  • 🐛 Confusing to use
  • 🐛 Doesn't work with all devices

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

Bugs and requests

LightBlue®

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Crashes after updates
  • Fails to connect Apple Pencil
  • Doesn't detect all nearby devices

Requested features

3 requests
  • Ability to manually name devices
  • More precise location tracking
  • Integration with Siri/Shortcuts

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

In-app purchases

None

LightBlue®

No in-app purchases

None

Dabble

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LightBlue® free?
LightBlue® is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Dabble free?
Dabble is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, LightBlue® or Dabble?
LightBlue® is rated higher. LightBlue® averages 4.3 out of 5 from 942 ratings, while Dabble averages 3.9 from 128 ratings.
Do LightBlue® or Dabble have ads?
Neither LightBlue® nor Dabble shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LightBlue® or Dabble?
LightBlue® ships an update every 3 weeks, and Dabble every 6 months. Most recently, LightBlue® was updated on September 30, 2026 and Dabble on September 23, 2026.

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