Comparison

Pulse for Mac vs Core Pulse

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

Head to head
About

Pulse for Mac

Features
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Monitor your Mac's system performance in real-time from your iPhone. Pulse for Mac displays CPU usage, GPU usage, temperatures, memory pressure, battery level, and fan speed — all streamed live over your local Wi-Fi network. Features: • Real-time CPU & GPU usage with temperature • Memory usage and pressure indicator • Battery level and charging status • Fan speed monitoring • Auto-discovery via Bonjour • Portrait and landscape layouts • Keep Screen On option for desk display Requirements: • MacPulse Server running on your Mac (free download at GitHub) • iPhone and Mac on the same Wi-Fi network

About

Core Pulse

Features
Read full description

CorePulse shows your iPhone as a live system console. Real readings. A cyber HUD. Nothing invented. Open the app and the screen comes online: uptime ticking every second, cores lit by count, battery and thermal state drawn as instruments. It is your phone, presented like a diagnostic terminal. MONITOR See what iOS actually reports. • Device model, model identifier, and iOS version • Active processor cores, shown as a count • Physical memory • Storage used, free, and total • Battery level and charging state • Thermal state: Nominal, Fair, Serious, or Critical • System uptime, low power mode, and the current link type CorePulse does not invent CPU load, system memory use, or temperature. If a value cannot be read, it stays unavailable. THREE VIEWS DATA is the full readout. CONSOLE is a full-screen instrument, built around live uptime. FIELD is a lamp display. Its color follows the thermal state, and one row shows how many cores are active. The other lamps are decoration, and they are labeled as such. SESSIONS Start a session before a game, a charge, a video, or anything else. End it when you come back. CorePulse compares the two readings: duration, battery, thermal state, storage, and uptime. History stays on this iPhone. WIDGETS Place a Small or Medium widget on the Home Screen. Each one shows battery, thermal state, free storage, and active cores, with the time of the last update. Widgets refresh on a schedule. They are not a live feed. PRIVATE BY DESIGN No account. No cloud. No tracking. No upload of device data. Everything stays on this device.

Screenshots

Pulse for Mac1 screens
Core Pulse4 screens

Verdict

The call

Pulse for Mac and Core Pulse are too close to call on the numbers: across 5 compared parameters — price, ads, in-app purchases and device support among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

Scored on Price Ā· Rating Ā· Positive reviews Ā· Number of ratings Ā· Update frequency Ā· Ads Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Monetization Ā· Best chart rank Ā· Devices Ā· Requires iOS

CostPrice Ā· In-app purchases Ā· Ads Ā· Monetization

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

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Pulse for Mac versus Core Pulse: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPulse for MacCore Pulse
PriceFreeFree
Update frequencyDaily—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size0 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperInGyu Rhokohei yamane

In-app purchases

None

Pulse for Mac

No in-app purchases

None

Core Pulse

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pulse for Mac free?
Pulse for Mac is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Core Pulse free?
Core Pulse is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do Pulse for Mac or Core Pulse have ads?
Neither Pulse for Mac nor Core Pulse shows ads.

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