Comparison

mDNSShark vs NetInspector

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

Head to head
About

mDNSShark

Explore your local Wi-Fi network with ease. This app discovers printers, media servers, and IoT devices by tapping into network protocols. It offers a simple, private way to understand what's connected and how services communicate, with no external servers or data collection.

Highlights
  • Local network scanning
  • mDNS, DNS-SD, SSDP protocol support
  • Device and service discovery
  • Private and no data collection
  • Open-source development
  • User-friendly interface
Features
Read full description

mDNSShark is an open-source iPhone app that shows what is on your local network. It uses Multicast DNS (mDNS), DNS-SD, and SSDP to find printers, media servers, IoT gadgets, and other services on your Wi-Fi, with no setup. WHAT YOU GET - Device discovery: Bonjour/mDNS, SSDP, and optional subnet scans, with manufacturer lookups. - Security assessment: flags risky exposed services and checks device manufacturers against CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog and the NVD. - Packet capture: see which hosts your phone talks to (DNS, SNI, ports) and export to pcap for Wireshark. - TLS Inspection (optional subscription): decrypt and read your own device's HTTPS traffic using a certificate you install and trust. PRIVACY Scans and analysis run on your phone. Your device list and scan results are never uploaded. There is no telemetry, no analytics, and no trackers. Two things leave your device, and both are visible to you: DNS lookups go to the resolver you choose (Google Public DNS by default), and the Refresh CISA Data button you tap yourself downloads CISA's public catalog and asks the NVD about device vendors seen on your network. The only permission the app needs is local network access. SUBSCRIPTION TLS Inspection Monthly is an auto-renewing monthly subscription. The price and any free trial are shown in the app before you subscribe. Payment is charged to your Apple Account at confirmation of purchase, or when a free trial ends. The subscription renews automatically unless you cancel at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel any time in Settings > Apple Account > Subscriptions. Discovery, scans, and the Security tab are free. OPEN SOURCE mDNSShark is built by engineers who like transparent, lightweight tools, and it is open to anyone curious about local networks. Report bugs, suggest features, or contribute code in our public repository: https://github.com/Shapehaven-Innovations/mDNSShark Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://shapehaveninnovations.com/privacy.html

About

NetInspector

Features
Read full description

NetInspector shows you what is answering on your Wi-Fi, and remembers it, so you can see what changed. Tap Scan and every device that responds appears on an interactive 3D map: your router at the centre, the Internet above it, and everything else grouped around it by what it looks like — computers, phones, smart-home gadgets, cameras, printers and TVs. Every one shows its address at a glance. Tap for details, pinch to zoom, drag to turn the map around. WHAT YOU SEE • The name a device reports, from Bonjour or reverse DNS • Its IP address, and the open ports it answers on • How fast it replied • A best guess at what kind of device it is • Exactly when it was last seen, to the second WHAT CHANGED NetInspector keeps every scan and compares each one with the one before, so you can see when an address started answering, stopped answering, changed the name it reports, or opened and closed ports. New and changed entries are highlighted on the map, and ones you have not seen for a while drift towards its edge. The Addresses tab is the longer view: every address that has ever answered on this network, when it was first and last seen, and how many scans it appeared in — which is how you tell a fixture from a visitor. WHAT iOS DOES NOT ALLOW, AND WHY IT MATTERS Apple does not give apps on iPhone or iPad access to hardware (MAC) addresses. No app can read them, and NetInspector will not pretend otherwise. That has two consequences worth knowing before you buy into anything: • There is no manufacturer column. Manufacturer is looked up from the hardware address, so without it there is nothing to look up. • Devices are identified by IP address alone. If your router gives a device a new address, it appears as a new entry; if it reuses an old address for something else, that looks like the same entry. The app says so on screen rather than quietly guessing. If you want a device followed across address changes, that needs a Mac. The macOS version of NetInspector reads hardware addresses and tracks devices properly. FINDS DEVICES OTHERS MISS Discovery combines ping, TCP connection checks and Bonjour, so devices that ignore ping still show up. You choose which ports to check and how many addresses to test at once. PRIVATE BY DESIGN Everything stays on your device. No account, no analytics, no advertising, and nothing is sent to us or to anyone else. Erase your history whenever you like.

Screenshots

mDNSShark4 screens
NetInspector3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: NetInspector at 3 against mDNSShark's 1. NetInspector also leads on iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.2). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

mDNSShark ships an update every 11 days, NetInspector weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 18, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 7 level
mDNSShark versus NetInspector: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametermDNSSharkNetInspector
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings) — better—
Number of ratings1 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 11 daysWeekly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, Mac — better
Requires iOS18.216.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size3 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperShapeHaven Innovations LLCTraLand.com

In-app purchases

None

mDNSShark

No in-app purchases

None

NetInspector

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is mDNSShark free?
mDNSShark is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is NetInspector free?
NetInspector is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do mDNSShark or NetInspector have ads?
Neither mDNSShark nor NetInspector shows ads.
Which is updated more often, mDNSShark or NetInspector?
mDNSShark ships an update every 11 days, and NetInspector weekly. Most recently, mDNSShark was updated on October 18, 2026 and NetInspector on October 9, 2026.

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