Bat Detector vs BirdNET Live
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bat Detector
Listen to and record the ultrasonic sounds of bats using your iPhone or iPad. This app reveals bat acoustics through heterodyne detection and 16x time expansion, making their calls audible and musical. It also offers full-spectrum recordings triggered by bat sounds.
- Heterodyne bat detection without manual tuning
- 16x time expansion for audible bat sounds
- Full-spectrum recordings triggered by bat sounds
- Real-time sound demodulation
- Preserves harmonic relationships in bat calls
- Supports European and global microbats
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Simply connect an inexpensive ultrasonic USB microphone to your iPhone or iPad and open your ears up to the extraordinary world of bat acoustics. Build a dedicated USB microphone for under £10 : https://shorturl.at/e2A3U - : or buy one pre-assembled and tested for about £65 that also operates as a standalone bat detector https://www.apodemus.eu/nl/Apodemus-Pipistrelle-Mini/00126 All European bats and most of the world's "microbats" navigate, hunt and communicate using ultrasonic sounds, too high-pitched for human hearing. Bat Detector reveals those sounds to human ears, and has two different methods to make ultrasonic bat sounds audible. HETERODYNE BAT DETECTION WITHOUT MANUAL TUNING Firstly, Bat Detector supports the classic technique of heterodyne bat detection. Heterodyning is a simple process that operates in true real-time, demodulating the bat sounds with a carrier signal just like an old transistor radio. Most heterodyne bat detectors require you to manually tune into different species, but Bat Detector operates without any manual tuning, instead it tunes into the strongest bat signal it can hear. The heterodyne process then turns any bats sounds it hears into percussive cracks, pops and slaps, or in the specific case of leaf-nosed bats such as Horseshoe species, strange alien warbles. These are often thought of as "bat sounds" - they are not. They are sounds synthesised by bat detectors using bat sounds as a source - rhe harmonic content of heterodyned sounds is distorted and mangled, and these sounds bear literally no relationship to the sounds the bats actually made. However, operating in true real-time means that the rhythm of the bats calls is preserved, and heterodyned bat sounds - despite sounding nothing like bats - are diagnostic and distinctive, so heterodyning remains an invaluable tool for all bat workers and enthusiasts. EXPERIENCE TRUE BAT SOUNDS FOR THE FIRST TIME WITH 16x TIME EXPANSION Time Expansion was previously a very high-end, expensive option. Time Expansion in Bat Detector operates in quasi real-time, capturing small snippets of bat sound and playing them back at 1/16 speed. 16 is a number chosen for two good reasons. Firstly it brings the bat sounds down to an easy range for human hearing, the sounds generated by Bat Detector range from between 1kHz to just under 7kHz. 16x Time Expansion preserves the harmonic relationships between the bat sounds, so it is a MUSICAL transformation. The bat sounds are not only slowed down but are transposed down by exactly 4 octaves. This means if a bat calls a C#, you will hear a C#, but 4 octaves lower. You will be surprised how beautiful and musical bat sounds are when time-expanded. When used in conjunction with heterodyning, and with the accurate frequency read out on the display, bat species identification is made much easier and more reliable. FULL-SPECTRUM 384kHz RECORDINGS TRIGGERED BY BAT SOUNDS When "RECORD" is engaged Bat Detector will trigger a 5 second full-spectrum recording at 384kHz whenever it hears a bat, or at least something that it *thinks* sounds like a bat. These are not the recordings of the sounds you hear coming from the detector, but are the sounds going INTO the detector - the true ultrasonic sounds that the bats made, too high for humans to hear. You will need specialist software to examine these files after you export them from your device to a computer. DEMO MODE FOR EDUCATION AND TRAINING If you want to experience bat sounds during the daytime, in a classroom environment, or when there aren't any bats around, just turn on Demo Mode in the Bat Detector section of the settings App, and Bat Detector will loop through a collection of bat recordings from Wiltshire, England. Alternatively, if you have recordings of your own that you wish to use, create a folder called Demo in Files->Bat Detector and Bat Detector will use these in Demo mode rather than its built-in recordings.
BirdNET Live
Identify bird species by their songs and calls directly on your device, even offline. This app provides real-time spectrograms, species detections, and tools for structured bioacoustic research and surveys. Manage your sound library and contribute to scientific understanding.
- Offline sound identification
- Real-time spectrogram
- Species detection
- Structured survey modes
- Audio file analysis
- Sound library management
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BirdNET Live runs our most sophisticated sound ID model directly on your device — no internet connection required. Watch a live scrolling spectrogram, view species detections in real time, and manage your growing library of animal sounds right from your phone. BirdNET Live supports bioacoustic research and structured acoustic surveys across multiple workflows: - Live Mode — Real-time species detections with a live spectrogram - Point Counts — Structured timed sessions with live detections - Surveys — Record longer transects while tracking detections along your route - File Analysis — Analyze audio files from local storage - Batch Analysis — Process multiple audio files in bulk - ARU Mode — Schedule longer acoustic recording deployments BirdNET Live is designed for researchers and citizen scientists alike and offers extensive configuration and detection review options. This app is a joint effort by the Cornell K. Lisa Yang Center for Conservation Bioacoustics and Chemnitz University of Technology, in partnership with the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin. Development of this app is supported by the Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt. For more information, consult our online user guide: https://birdnet-team.github.io/birdnet-live-app/user/
Screenshots
Verdict
Bat Detector and BirdNET Live both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of BirdNET Live's written reviews are positive against 40% of Bat Detector's. BirdNET Live also leads on update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and ratings volume (6 vs 2). On price, rating, 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.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Bat Detector against 5.0 for BirdNET Live. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 6 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 40% of Bat Detector's written reviews are positive against 100% of BirdNET Live's.
Bat Detector ships an update monthly, BirdNET Live weekly. The most recent releases landed on September 15, 2026 and September 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bat Detector | BirdNET Live |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (2 ratings) | 5.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 40.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 2 | 6 — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 136 MB | 346 MB |
| Age rating | 9+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Phil Atkin | Stefan Kahl |
Customer experience
Bat Detector
BirdNET Live
In-app purchases
Bat Detector
No in-app purchases
BirdNET Live
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Bat Detector free?
Is BirdNET Live free?
Which has better reviews, Bat Detector or BirdNET Live?
Do Bat Detector or BirdNET Live have ads?
Which is updated more often, Bat Detector or BirdNET Live?
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