Network Tools/Toolkit vs Beacon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Network Tools/Toolkit
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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.
Beacon
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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
Verdict
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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
| Parameter | Network Tools/Toolkit | Beacon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Every 2 days | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, Apple Watch |
| Requires iOS | 18.2 — better | 26.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 4 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Lukas Fulling | David Weisz |
In-app purchases
Network Tools/Toolkit
No in-app purchases
Beacon
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Network Tools/Toolkit free?
Is Beacon free?
Do Network Tools/Toolkit or Beacon have ads?
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