Comparison

LightBlue® vs Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

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

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

Easily access, monitor, and control your Arduino IoT Cloud projects from your mobile device. Manage various aspects of your connected devices remotely, from home automation to industrial processes.

Highlights
  • Remote monitoring and control
  • Access IoT Cloud dashboards
  • Variety of widgets (switches, sliders, gauges)
  • Real-time data visualization
  • Home automation control
  • Industrial process monitoring
Features
Read full description

A powerful companion for the Arduino IoT Cloud – simply access, monitor and control your dashboards with a few screen taps. Arduino IoT Cloud Remote can be very useful in a variety of use cases where you need to monitor or control regardless of the time or place: - In the field: you can read the data from your soil sensors or start your irrigation system directly from anywhere. - In the factory: constant visibility of the state of your manufacturing process status, with the ability to control your automation remotely. - In the home: simply monitor your home automation systems, check your previous or actual energy consumption from the convenience of your sofa. Create your dashboards on https://app.arduino.cc from your computer or tablet and control them with IoT Cloud Remote from your iPhone. When creating your dashboards on the Arduino IoT Cloud you can link your widgets to multiple IoT projects for maximum flexibility. Featuring a broad set of versatile and simple widgets, including: - Switch - Push-button - Slider - Stepper - Messenger - Color - Dimmed light - Colored light - Value - Status - Gauge - Percentage - LED - Map - Chart - Time picker - Scheduler - Value Dropdown - Value Selector - Sticky Note - Image - Advanced Chart - Advanced Map - Image Map - Link

Screenshots

LightBlue®4 screens
Arduino IoT Cloud Remote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: LightBlue® at 66% against Arduino IoT Cloud Remote's 43%. Arduino IoT Cloud Remote's advantage is rating (4.6 vs 4.4) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). 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

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

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote holds the better App Store score, 4.6 against 4.4. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 942 and 434 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 66% of LightBlue®'s written reviews are positive against 43% of Arduino IoT Cloud Remote's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Both ship on a similar rhythm, roughly every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
LightBlue® versus Arduino IoT Cloud Remote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLightBlue®Arduino IoT Cloud Remote
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (942 ratings)4.6 (434 ratings) — better
Positive reviews66.1% of reviews — better43.1% of reviews
Number of ratings942 — better434
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 3 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationAd-supportedFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, MaciPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS16.415.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size22 MB91 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPunch ThroughArduino LLC

Customer experience

LightBlue®

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

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

All ratings433 ratings
Positive88.9%
Neutral4.6%
Negative6.5%
Written reviews58 reviews
Positive43.1%
Neutral10.3%
Negative46.6%

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

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

From 434 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Easy to use interface
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive cloud facility
  • 💡 Innovative IoT cloud solution
  • 🎯 Good for beginners and learning projects
  • ✅ Stable once properly configured

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and stability issues
  • ⚠️ Cumbersome and unintuitive setup process
  • 💰 Expensive subscription requirements
  • 🔌 Poor connectivity and connection drops
  • ⏱️ Slow loading times and performance lag

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

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

Reported bugs

14 issues
  • Dashboard loading spinner hangs indefinitely
  • App crashes when opening dashboards with graphs
  • Dashboard fails to load after app backgrounding
  • Account registration and email verification failures
  • Vague error messages during signup
Show 9 more
  • Status button non-functional on iOS
  • Double authentication not working
  • Values not updating in real-time on mobile
  • Blank screen appears randomly
  • Chart scrolling issues
  • Boards intermittently disappear from network
  • Digital pin compatibility issues with ESP-32
  • Requires constant re-login
  • UTC timezone not customizable

Requested features

12 requests
  • iOS widgets support
  • Dashboard editing capability in mobile app
  • Dark mode support
  • iPad/tablet layout optimization
  • Custom dashboard cover images
Show 7 more
  • Apple Shortcuts and Home app integration
  • Siri voice command compatibility
  • GitHub login option
  • Background data refresh for iPhone
  • Wider selection of preset dashboard icons
  • GPS functionality
  • More widget variety

In-app purchases

None

LightBlue®

No in-app purchases

None

Arduino IoT Cloud Remote

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is LightBlue® free?
LightBlue® is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Arduino IoT Cloud Remote free?
Arduino IoT Cloud Remote is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, LightBlue® or Arduino IoT Cloud Remote?
Arduino IoT Cloud Remote is rated higher. LightBlue® averages 4.4 out of 5 from 942 ratings, while Arduino IoT Cloud Remote averages 4.6 from 434 ratings.
Do LightBlue® or Arduino IoT Cloud Remote have ads?
Neither LightBlue® nor Arduino IoT Cloud Remote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, LightBlue® or Arduino IoT Cloud Remote?
LightBlue® ships an update every 3 weeks, and Arduino IoT Cloud Remote every 3 weeks. Most recently, LightBlue® was updated on October 21, 2026 and Arduino IoT Cloud Remote on October 24, 2026.

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