Comparison

Network Hamster vs CellGlide

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

Head to head
About

Network Hamster

Diagnose internet issues with a real-time visual indicator and detailed diagnostics. Understand your network's performance, identify bottlenecks like bufferbloat, and generate shareable reports to prove problems to your ISP.

Highlights
  • One-tap network diagnosis
  • Bufferbloat grading and fixes
  • Live ping, jitter, packet loss monitoring
  • Speed test with history
  • Router vs. internet fault isolation
  • Advanced tools like MTR and Ping Lab
  • Shareable diagnostic reports
Features
Read full description

Your internet is acting up. Is it your Wi-Fi? Your router? Your ISP? Network Hamster tells you — in plain English. A helmeted hamster pedals a bicycle in real time, matched to your actual latency. Fast connection, fast pedaling. Congested network, and he grinds to a crawl. It's the most honest status indicator you'll ever install. Behind the mascot is a genuinely serious diagnostic toolkit. ONE-TAP DIAGNOSIS Tap Diagnose and get eight checks in under a minute: interface, captive portal, your router versus the internet, NAT topology, DNS, web response time, and latency under load. Then a verdict in words you can act on — "Local network is healthy, high latency is upstream. Your router is not the problem." BUFFERBLOAT GRADING The reason your video calls stutter when someone downloads something. Network Hamster measures how much your latency balloons under load and grades it A+ through F, then tells you exactly how to fix it. FIND OUT WHERE YOU STAND • Live ping, jitter, packet loss, and p95 latency across six rotating servers • Speed test with download, upload, and bufferbloat, plus saved history • Router vs. internet isolation — know instantly whose fault it is • CGNAT, double NAT, and symmetric NAT detection • DNS benchmarking against Cloudflare, Google, and Quad9 ADVANCED TOOLS • Monitor Mode — ping every second for hours, graph the whole session, get alerted the moment your connection drops, and export CSV • MTR traceroute with per-hop whois, reverse DNS, and a map of where your packets actually travel • Ping Lab — test with different packet sizes to expose MTU and queueing problems • Buffer Probe — detects undersized modem buffers that quietly cost you the bandwidth you pay for • Wireless Health — tells you whether jitter is born on your Wi-Fi or upstream • Wi-Fi Guard — catches repeated forced disconnects • Inbound Watch — spots unusual traffic arriving at your device • Cellular coverage mapping and DNS record lookup PROVE IT TO YOUR ISP Every diagnosis exports as a shareable report: latency per server, packet loss, traceroute, bufferbloat grade, and a timestamped event log. Stop arguing from memory. Paste the evidence. BUILT HONESTLY Some things iOS simply does not allow — Wi-Fi signal strength, raw packet capture, cell tower identity. Network Hamster never fakes them. Where a limit exists, the app says so and does the most useful thing that is actually possible. No account. No tracking. No data collection. Just a hamster who is very concerned about your ping.

About

CellGlide

Share your iPhone's cellular connection with your Mac via USB. Monitor live speeds, data usage by service, and network details. Offers DNS customization and diagnostic tools for your cellular connection.

Highlights
  • USB tethering to Mac
  • Live speed and data usage dashboard
  • Service and protocol traffic breakdown
  • Customizable DNS settings
  • Network diagnostics and speed tests
  • Usage history by session, day, or month
Read full description

Your computer, online anywhere. Hotel Wi-Fi won’t connect? Broadband down at home? On a call at a café? Connect your iPhone to your computer with a cable, open CellGlide and tap Start sharing, and your computer keeps working on your phone’s connection. Unplug and the computer goes back to its own network. Works with Mac, Linux and OpenWrt routers • Mac and Linux computers: install the CellGlide app and it connects when you plug in • OpenWrt routers: plug your iPhone into the router and the devices you choose go online through it, even when the home broadband is down Why you can rely on it • Plug in and go: with CellGlide on your computer it connects when you plug in, no setup each time • See how it’s doing: live speeds, network quality, latency and loss, and a heads-up when something breaks • Recovers on its own: retries when the phone’s connection drops; send diagnostics in one tap if you need help • Leaves your settings alone: never changes Wi-Fi or other saved network settings Clear on your iPhone too • Dynamic Island countdown and live speeds, plus a black focus page that saves power • This month’s data, allowance reminders and Data saver to protect your plan • Network quality, speed tests and recent results to compare places and networks • Encrypted DNS (DNS over HTTPS, DNS over TLS) and DNS acceleration Going online through your iPhone uses your cellular plan; follow your carrier’s terms. Requires CellGlide on your computer or router, free at cellglide.com; the Mac app needs macOS 13 or later.

Screenshots

Network Hamster4 screens
CellGlide4 screens

Verdict

The call

Network Hamster and CellGlide are too close to call on the numbers: across 9 compared parameters — price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Network Hamster against 5.0 for CellGlide. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 2 and 3 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Network Hamster ships an update every 3 days, CellGlide every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
Network Hamster versus CellGlide: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterNetwork HamsterCellGlide
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (2 ratings)5.0 (3 ratings)
Positive reviews—100.0% of reviews
Number of ratings23 — better
Update frequencyEvery 3 daysEvery 2 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone
Requires iOS17.017.0
Further details — not scored
Size2 MB11 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHarborViewIT, LLCXi Wang

Customer experience

Network Hamster

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

CellGlide

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Network Hamster

No in-app purchases

None

CellGlide

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Network Hamster free?
Network Hamster is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is CellGlide free?
CellGlide is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Network Hamster or CellGlide?
Network Hamster and CellGlide are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 2 and 3 ratings respectively.
Do Network Hamster or CellGlide have ads?
Neither Network Hamster nor CellGlide shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Network Hamster or CellGlide?
Network Hamster ships an update every 3 days, and CellGlide every 2 days. Most recently, Network Hamster was updated on October 24, 2026 and CellGlide on October 29, 2026.

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