nRF Toolbox vs BLE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
nRF Toolbox
This utility app connects to various Bluetooth Low Energy accessories. It demonstrates multiple BLE profiles, including health and fitness sensors, allowing users to monitor data from devices like heart rate monitors and glucose monitors.
- Bluetooth Low Energy connectivity
- Demonstrates BLE profiles
- Heart Rate Monitor support
- Glucose Monitor support
- Cycling Speed and Cadence
- Running Speed and Cadence
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nRF Toolbox works with a wide range of Bluetooth Low Energy accessories. It contains applications demonstrating BLE profiles: Cycling Speed and Cadence, Running Speed and Cadence, Heart Rate Monitor, Blood Pressure Monitor, Health Thermometer, Glucose Monitor, Continuous Glucose Monitor, Monitoring & Diagnostic and more. The source code of this application is available on GitHub: https://github.com/nordicsemi/iOS-nRF-Toolbox
BLE
This utility tool assists developers in creating and maintaining Bluetooth Low Energy products. It enables connection establishment, monitoring, and configuration for RF testing of BLE devices. Log files can be shared for further analysis.
- Connect to BLE devices
- Monitor connections
- Configure connection parameters
- Start/stop test mode
- Share log files
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This tool is intended to support developers in their work to develop and maintain Bluetooth Low Energy products. BleRf Test can measure the quality of an RF link in both direction for any product implementing the BLE service for RF test. Features: - establish a connection to a BLE device - monitor said connection - share log files with other smartphone apps This app is only intended to support the development of BLE devices.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is update cadence: nRF Toolbox at every 5 weeks against BLE's every 64 months. nRF Toolbox also leads on ratings volume (8 vs 1). BLE's advantage is rating (3.0 vs 2.6) and iOS requirement (15.0 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
BLE holds the better App Store score, 3.0 against 2.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: nRF Toolbox has 8 ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
nRF Toolbox ships an update every 5 weeks, BLE every 64 months. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and September 17, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | nRF Toolbox | BLE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.6 (8 ratings) | 3.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 22.2% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 8 — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks — better | Every 64 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 9 MB | 80 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Nordic Semiconductor ASA | Arendi AG |
Customer experience
nRF Toolbox
BLE
In-app purchases
nRF Toolbox
No in-app purchases
BLE
No in-app purchases
