Comparison

Network Tools/Toolkit vs Beacon

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

Head to head
About

Network Tools/Toolkit

Features
Read full description

Discover a powerful, ad-free network diagnostics toolkit with essential features like Network Information, Ping, Traceroute, and DNS lookup. Designed for both professionals and enthusiasts, this app offers a suite of essential tools to help you diagnose and troubleshoot network issues with ease. Key Features: • Network Information: Get detailed insights into your network’s configuration and status. • Ping: Test the reachability of hosts and measure round-trip time for messages. • Traceroute: Trace the path packets take to reach their destination and identify any bottlenecks. • Port Scan: Check your firewall configuration and identify issues. • DNS Lookup: Resolve domain names to IP addresses and gather DNS records. • IPv4 Calculators: Perform subnetting calculations and conversions to optimize and understand your network setup. The app is completely free to use, with no ads or analytics, ensuring a seamless and private experience. Whether you’re a network administrator, IT professional, or just curious about your network, this app provides the tools you need to get things done and stay in control without it annoying you with cookie banners, tracking, or ads when you need it most.

About

Beacon

Features
Read full description

Beacon is a fast, opinionated Wi-Fi analyzer for iPhone, Apple Watch, and Lock Screen. It scans your local network, lists every device, runs the tools network people actually use, and translates the jargon for you in plain English using AI. It is built around three rules: 1. Stay on the phone. Scans, ports, latencies, MAC addresses — none of it ever leaves your device. There are no analytics, no telemetry, no accounts. 2. Show, don't gate. Every tool, every screen, every device is one tap away. No "Pro" tier. No subscription. No locked features. 3. Translate the jargon. The on-device AI explainer (Apple Foundation Models) tells you what an open port is, why a hop is slow, or whether a new device is something to worry about. In one or two sentences. No emojis. WHAT'S INSIDE • Home — live speed, signal, latency, and device count, with an AI summary that reads your network the way a friend who knows networks would. • Devices — every device on your LAN, grouped by role. Fingerprint chips show the device kind plus a manufacturer initial. Pull-to-rescan; new devices show up as a top group, not a badge. • Device detail — identity, response-time graph, open ports with descriptions. The AI calls out which ports are normal for that device kind and which are worth a second look. • Speed test — single-purpose, animated 270° gauge. Result quartet of download, upload, latency, jitter. AI verdict instead of a raw percentile. • Tools — Ping, Traceroute, Port scanner, DNS lookup, Whois, DNS leak test, TLS / cert inspector, Public IP info. Each is its own screen, never a tab inside a tab. • Traceroute — geo-mapped hops with ASN and country. AI summary calls out the slow link by hop number. • History — a timeline of every scan, day-grouped. New and departed devices flagged inline. Compare any two scans side by side. • Apple Watch — devices count is the hero. Network identity, signal, current speed. Tap to open the iPhone app. • Lock Screen widgets — inline, circular, and rectangular. Add one or all three. Tap-through opens the relevant tab. • Home Screen widget — the full hero stat with a coral background. • Privacy — read the actual privacy statement, not a link to legalese, the first time you open Settings. WHAT'S NOT INSIDE No accounts. No subscriptions. No ads. No tracking SDKs. No "free trial". No ML model trained on your data. No background uploads. No share-with-friends nag. Pay once - use forever. REQUIREMENTS iOS 26 or later. Apple Intelligence is required for on-device AI explainers; Beacon falls back to plainspoken static text if it's off. Location permission is required by iOS to read your Wi-Fi network name (SSID); Beacon never records or shares your location.

Screenshots

Network Tools/Toolkit4 screens
Beacon4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Network Tools/Toolkit at 18.2 against Beacon's 26.0. 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.

Scorecard1 real difference · 5 level
Network Tools/Toolkit versus Beacon: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNetwork Tools/ToolkitBeacon
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyEvery 2 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, Apple Watch
Requires iOS18.2 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB4 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLukas FullingDavid Weisz

In-app purchases

None

Network Tools/Toolkit

No in-app purchases

None

Beacon

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Network Tools/Toolkit free?
Network Tools/Toolkit is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Beacon free?
Beacon is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Network Tools/Toolkit or Beacon have ads?
Neither Network Tools/Toolkit nor Beacon shows ads.

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