Comparison

HAMRS Pro vs Meshbell

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

Head to head
About

HAMRS Pro

This is a portable logging application designed for amateur radio enthusiasts participating in outdoor activities. It simplifies the process of recording contacts during events like POTA and SOTA.

Highlights
  • Portable logging
  • POTA support
  • SOTA support
  • Field Day logging
  • Simple interface
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

A simple amateur radio logger designed specifically for portable activities, like Parks on the Air (POTA), Summits on the Air (SOTA) Field Days, etc.

About

Meshbell

Features
Read full description

Meshbell is a neighborhood emergency-alert app built for the moment the network fails. Floods, fires, and outages take cell towers and home internet with them — exactly when a neighborhood most needs to talk to itself. Meshbell doesn't depend on either. WORKS WHEN THE NETWORK DOESN'T Meshbell carries small, signed emergency bulletins over a local long-range radio mesh (LoRa). A warning can enter the mesh anywhere and hop radio-to-radio across the neighborhood — no tower, no router, no account. Your phone receives it and checks it, offline. VERIFIED, NOT VIRAL Most apps show you a claim and let the styling imply it is true. Meshbell keeps two facts separate and visible: who is speaking, and whether it could be checked. An unconfirmed neighbor report is shown as exactly that. Only a message that clears a real cryptographic bar can ever carry an instruction — and even a relayed official alert is not treated as official unless it proves it. This is built into the app, not a policy it remembers to follow. FOLLOW THE PLACES YOU CARE ABOUT Add your home, or a family member's street. Meshbell tells you about hazards that touch a place you watch, on your lock screen if they are serious enough — and stays quiet about the rest. Official warnings come from the National Weather Service, and a neighborhood bridge can add FEMA IPAWS in the United States or MeteoAlarm across Europe, in the issuing service's own words. REACH NEIGHBORS WITHOUT A RADIO One prepared neighbor can bootstrap the block. Set up a small Wi-Fi bridge on a Raspberry Pi (the installer ships inside the app), and anyone nearby with just a browser can read the mesh — nothing to install, and a neighbor's signed report is still checked on their own device. BUILT FOR THE WORST HOUR No cell, no Wi-Fi, an old phone, a nearly dead battery — Meshbell still works, and it tells you plainly what it can and cannot do. When data is stale, it says so, with its age, rather than showing a confident blank. A PUBLIC GOOD, NOT A PRODUCT Meshbell is built as a nonprofit, in the spirit of Watch Duty: the core alerting is free and always will be. We will never sell your emergency or turn your neighborhood into a mailing list. Your keys and your watched places stay on your device. Meshbell is an early release and is not a substitute for official emergency services or alerts. Keep your existing emergency notifications turned on.

Screenshots

HAMRS Pro3 screens
Meshbell4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: Meshbell at Free against HAMRS Pro's $1.99. Meshbell also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 3 weeks). HAMRS Pro's advantage is chart position (#99 vs unranked) and iOS requirement (14.0 vs 17.0). On 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

Meshbell is free to download; HAMRS Pro costs $1.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HAMRS Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, Meshbell daily. The most recent releases landed on October 27, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
HAMRS Pro versus Meshbell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHAMRS ProMeshbell
Price$1.99Free — better
Rating3.4 (16 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews53.8% of reviews—
Number of ratings16 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksDaily — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationPaid—
Best chart rank#99 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS14.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size138 MB8 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperCabin Interactive, LLCcraig merry

In-app purchases

None

HAMRS Pro

No in-app purchases

None

Meshbell

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HAMRS Pro free?
HAMRS Pro costs $1.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is Meshbell free?
Meshbell is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HAMRS Pro or Meshbell have ads?
Neither HAMRS Pro nor Meshbell shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HAMRS Pro or Meshbell?
HAMRS Pro ships an update every 3 weeks, and Meshbell daily. Most recently, HAMRS Pro was updated on October 27, 2026 and Meshbell on October 9, 2026.

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