Apple makes Wi-Fi heatmaps strangely hard. Third-party iOS apps can’t read RSSI of the connected access point — that’s an Apple restriction — so a “heatmap” on iOS is necessarily a latency heatmap rather than a signal-dBm heatmap. The good news: latency is what actually matters for the user experience. dBm is a number the radio reports about itself; ms-of-ping is what causes Netflix to buffer.
Here’s the field as of 2026.
WiFi Buddy
Survey method: AR walk-and-paint with ARKit world tracking. Tap a starting point on the floor plan, walk the space, watch samples paint themselves in real time.
Insights: A graded report. Coverage breakdown, dead-zone clustering, jitter analysis, router-direction hint, tailored fix list. This is the differentiator.
Other features: 8-layer device scanner (Bonjour + SSDP + ARP + OUI + UPnP friendly-name fetch), multi-stream Cloudflare speed test with ISP / colo context, live network topology card, Klaus offline assistant.
Privacy: No accounts, no servers, no analytics. The Cloudflare speed test is the only thing that ever leaves your device.
Pricing: Free Speed / Signal / Devices tabs forever. Pro is $3.99/mo or $34.99/yr with a 3-day free trial.
Best for: Homeowners who want both a survey and a “what’s on my Wi-Fi” tool in one app, and who care about privacy.
NetSpot iOS
NetSpot has been the OG of consumer Wi-Fi surveys since 2010, but its iOS app is not its main offering — the desktop app for macOS and Windows is. The iOS version is essentially a lightweight spot-check tool. If you have a Mac, NetSpot’s desktop app remains the deepest consumer-grade RF surveying tool in the category.
Best for: Pro IT users who already use NetSpot on the desktop and want a companion app on their phone.
WiFiman (Ubiquiti)
WiFiman is Ubiquiti’s free Wi-Fi utility. The speed test is fast and well-designed, the spot-check signal UI is good, and there’s a heatmap feature behind a paid upgrade — but the heatmap is manual-placement (load a floor plan image, tap each spot) rather than AR walk-and-paint.
Best for: Ubiquiti UniFi households, or anyone who just wants a clean free speed-test app.
Fing
Fing’s focus is device discovery and intrusion alerts, not heatmaps. They don’t actually offer a heatmap feature in their consumer app. We’re including them here because people Google “Fing” looking for the broader “what’s on my Wi-Fi” tool.
Apple’s Wi-Fi Diagnostics (macOS only, mention)
Worth knowing: Apple ships Wi-Fi Diagnostics on macOS (hidden under Option-clicking the Wi-Fi menu). Useful for spot-check diagnostics on a Mac. There is no equivalent on iOS — Apple has been notably restrictive about what Wi-Fi diagnostics tools can do on iPhone.
Honorable mentions
- iWifi Scanner / iNet Network Scanner / SimpleScan — basic device scanners. Useful as second-opinion tools but not full heatmap apps.
- Speedtest by Ookla — best-known speed test. No heatmap, no device scanner, but the Speedtest server network is the largest in the world.
- Cloudflare speed test (web) —
speed.cloudflare.comin Safari is a perfectly good free speed test. It’s the same engine WiFi Buddy’s Speed tab uses.
Picking one
If you only need one tool: WiFi Buddy gives you the survey, the device scanner, the speed test, and the offline assistant in one $3.99/mo app, with a real free tier covering 90% of casual use.
If you’re already deep in the Ubiquiti ecosystem: keep WiFiman, add WiFi Buddy when you need a real survey. Most homes end up with both.
If you do this professionally: NetSpot’s desktop app remains the deepest tool. WiFi Buddy on your phone is a great companion for quick checks during pre-survey scoping.
