PacketPuffin vs Meshbell
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
PacketPuffin
This app offers a private and user-friendly internet speed test, providing detailed insights into download/upload speeds, ping, and jitter. It also includes advanced network tools for deeper analysis of your connection health and performance.
- Private speed testing
- Download and upload speed measurement
- Ping and jitter analysis
- Router and internet latency checks
- DNS lookup speed
- Packet loss detection
- Wi-Fi scanner
- DNS benchmark
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PacketPuffin is a fast, beautiful internet speed test that respects your privacy. No accounts. No tracking. No ads. Your results stay on your device. Tap once and see exactly what your connection is doing — download and upload speeds, ping, and jitter — with a clear read on whether it's fast enough for 4K streaming, video calls, and gaming. WHY PACKETPUFFIN - Truly private — no sign-up, no analytics, no data collection. Results are stored only on your device, and you can delete them anytime. - Honest results — real measurements built to handle everything from slow cellular to multi-gigabit Wi-Fi. - Beautiful and simple — a clean, modern design that makes your network easy to understand. MORE THAN JUST SPEED Every test also checks the health of your connection: - Router latency — how fast your own router responds - Internet latency — round-trip time to the wider internet - DNS lookup — how quickly names resolve - Packet loss — the dropped packets behind stutters and lag NETWORK TOOLS (PacketPuffin Pro) Go deeper with tools usually reserved for desktop apps: - Wi-Fi Scanner — see every device on your network, with names and makers, so you can spot anything that shouldn't be there - DNS Benchmark — find the fastest DNS resolver for where you are - Ping & Bufferbloat tests — measure latency under load, the thing that actually ruins calls and games - Full history and trends — track your speed over time and catch problems before they cost you PRIVATE BY DESIGN Most speed tests upload your results to a server and build a profile around your IP address. PacketPuffin doesn't. Your results are never uploaded — each test is written to your device and nowhere else, and you can delete them anytime. Tests work by exchanging meaningless random data with PacketPuffin's own test endpoints, which count the bytes and throw them away. No account, no analytics, no profile. PACKETPUFFIN PRO — PRICING - Pro Monthly — $1.99 per month - Pro Annual — $14.99 per year - Pro Lifetime — $39.99, a one-time purchase (not a subscription) Subscriptions renew automatically at the price above unless cancelled at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Manage or cancel anytime in your Apple Account settings. Payment is handled by Apple — the app never sees your payment details. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/ Privacy Policy: https://dklaver15.github.io/packetpuffin-privacy/
Meshbell
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Meshbell is a neighborhood emergency-alert app built for the moment the network fails. Floods, fires, and outages take cell towers and home internet with them — exactly when a neighborhood most needs to talk to itself. Meshbell doesn't depend on either. WORKS WHEN THE NETWORK DOESN'T Meshbell carries small, signed emergency bulletins over a local long-range radio mesh (LoRa). A warning can enter the mesh anywhere and hop radio-to-radio across the neighborhood — no tower, no router, no account. Your phone receives it and checks it, offline. VERIFIED, NOT VIRAL Most apps show you a claim and let the styling imply it is true. Meshbell keeps two facts separate and visible: who is speaking, and whether it could be checked. An unconfirmed neighbor report is shown as exactly that. Only a message that clears a real cryptographic bar can ever carry an instruction — and even a relayed official alert is not treated as official unless it proves it. This is built into the app, not a policy it remembers to follow. FOLLOW THE PLACES YOU CARE ABOUT Add your home, or a family member's street. Meshbell tells you about hazards that touch a place you watch, on your lock screen if they are serious enough — and stays quiet about the rest. Official warnings come from the National Weather Service, and a neighborhood bridge can add FEMA IPAWS in the United States or MeteoAlarm across Europe, in the issuing service's own words. REACH NEIGHBORS WITHOUT A RADIO One prepared neighbor can bootstrap the block. Set up a small Wi-Fi bridge on a Raspberry Pi (the installer ships inside the app), and anyone nearby with just a browser can read the mesh — nothing to install, and a neighbor's signed report is still checked on their own device. BUILT FOR THE WORST HOUR No cell, no Wi-Fi, an old phone, a nearly dead battery — Meshbell still works, and it tells you plainly what it can and cannot do. When data is stale, it says so, with its age, rather than showing a confident blank. A PUBLIC GOOD, NOT A PRODUCT Meshbell is built as a nonprofit, in the spirit of Watch Duty: the core alerting is free and always will be. We will never sell your emergency or turn your neighborhood into a mailing list. Your keys and your watched places stay on your device. Meshbell is an early release and is not a substitute for official emergency services or alerts. Keep your existing emergency notifications turned on.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Meshbell at none against PacketPuffin's 3. Meshbell also leads on update cadence (daily vs every 5 days). On price, ads, device support and iOS requirement 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. PacketPuffin sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $1.99 per month. Meshbell asks for nothing beyond the download.
PacketPuffin ships an update every 5 days, Meshbell daily. The most recent releases landed on October 3, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PacketPuffin | Meshbell |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | — |
| Number of ratings | 1 — better | — |
| Update frequency | Every 5 days | Daily — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 2 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Daniel Klaver | craig merry |
In-app purchases
PacketPuffin
- Monthly$1.991 Month
- Annual$14.991 Year
- Lifetime$39.99
Meshbell
No in-app purchases









