Shellbee vs BLE2MQTT

Your Zigbee network, in your pocket and on your iPad. Shellbee is a native app for Zigbee2MQTT. It connects straight to your bridge and gives you a fast, Apple-native way to watch, control and configure every device, with no cloud in between. REQUIRES A ZIGBEE2MQTT SERVER Shellbee is a client app. You need your own running Zigbee2MQTT instance and an access token. Local and remote setups both work. SEE EVERYTHING AT A GLANCE • A Home screen built from cards you choose and order: Bridge Health, Network, Link Quality, Batteries, Vendors and Activity. • Needs attention shows offline devices, low batteries and weak signal before you go looking. • A live Network Map of your whole mesh, with scan progress, filters and quick look (iPad). • An Activity Center that shows what your devices are doing as it happens. CONTROL AND CONFIGURE • Controls are generated from each device's Zigbee2MQTT exposes: lights, switches, covers, fans, locks, climate and sensors. • Every setting is grouped the same way on every device, using Zigbee2MQTT's own names. • Groups and scenes: browse, edit members, rename, drag devices in. • Favorites, filters and one search across devices, groups and the device library. • Bridge settings for MQTT, serial, network, OTA, logging, availability, Home Assistant and more. PAIR AND UPDATE WITH CONFIDENCE • Permit join and a step-by-step pairing guide with live progress. • Firmware updates with progress in Live Activities on your Lock Screen and Dynamic Island. • Offline device documentation for how to pair and what each device can do. MORE THAN ONE BRIDGE Connect several bridges at once and see them side by side. Each has its own colour and initial, and single-bridge users see nothing extra. MADE FOR IPHONE AND IPAD • Full iPad workspace with a sidebar, details side by side and extra windows. • Six colour themes: Standard, Honey, Meadow, Harbor, Lavender and Ember. • Real-time WebSocket connection over ws:// or wss://, with Bonjour discovery for .local hosts. • Built in SwiftUI with Live Activities, so it feels fast and native, not like a wrapped web page. PRIVATE BY DESIGN • Talks only to the bridge you choose. No ads, no tracking, no analytics and no developer server. • Access tokens are stored in the iOS Keychain. • Crash reporting is optional and off by default. Nothing is sent unless you say so, and reports never include your bridge address, token or device names. OPEN SOURCE Shellbee is licensed under AGPL v3, with the source on GitHub.

Bluetooth Broadcast → MQTT, Easily Build a Soft Gateway This app turns your iOS device into a powerful Bluetooth gateway and debugging tool. It automatically captures broadcast data from surrounding Bluetooth devices, parses it according to custom or known protocols, and publishes the data via MQTT to your server or cloud platform. Core Features Broadcast Capture – Scan and receive broadcast packets from all detectable Bluetooth devices (e.g., beacons, sensors, IoT devices). MQTT Forwarding – Publish raw or parsed data to any MQTT Broker (supports TLS authentication and username/password). Protocol Parsing – Built-in common Bluetooth broadcast protocols (HW80x Heart Rate Armband, ZY Series Wristbands etc.) for automatic parsing and structured output. Debugging Tool – View raw broadcast data in real time (Hex/ASCII), with filtering, packet capture, and log export – ideal for Bluetooth device development and debugging. Soft Gateway Mode – Run continuously in the background (with proper authorization) to forward captured data to the cloud – no additional hardware gateway required. Use Cases Collect and upload Bluetooth device data in smart homes or industrial IoT. Verify and debug broadcast protocols during Bluetooth device development. Quickly prototype and test the Bluetooth → MQTT data link. Privacy & Permissions Bluetooth permission is needed for device scanning. Network permission is required for connecting to an MQTT Broker. No personally identifiable information is collected. All data is controlled by the user, stored and forwarded to the user’s own destination. Requirements iOS 13+ or iPadOS 13+ Device with Bluetooth 4.0+ You must configure your own MQTT Broker address and subscription rules Whether you are an IoT developer, a hobbyist, or a system integrator, this app allows you to achieve cloud connectivity for Bluetooth data at the lowest cost.