NetBlade for iPhone and iPad finds the devices on your network, queries routers and switches over SNMP, reads the inventory of Windows and Linux PCs and puts a network toolbox in your pocket. This guide follows the app's tabs in the order you meet them, and for each feature says what it does, how to use it and where iOS draws a line.
No feature matches.
Three things to know before the first scan.
NetBlade is on the App Store and is the same app for iPhone and iPad. It needs iOS 17 or later. It is free, has no ads, and speaks 43 languages: it follows the language set in iOS.
iOS asks every app for permission to talk to devices on the local network, and it asks only once. On first launch the «Welcome to NetBlade» screen explains what the permission is for before the system prompt appears: without it the scan finds nothing.
When you open the LAN tab the first scan starts by itself, and the device list fills in as answers arrive. To read the Wi‑Fi network name (SSID) iOS also asks for location permission, only while using the app; if you decline, the network is recognised by its subnet.
The tab where almost everything starts: who is on the network, how it is wired, and what is known about each device.
Finds the devices on the subnet the phone is connected to and shows, for each one, name, IP, latency, vendor and model when known, its role (Gateway or This device) and open ports as pills coloured by risk. Names come from several sources (reverse DNS, Bonjour, NetBIOS, UPnP, SNMP) and the most reliable one wins. The NEW badge marks devices that were missing from the previous scan.
192.168.0.0/24) and «Retry MAC (SNMP)».The LAN tab's title is the saved network's name, or the subnet if you have not saved it; below it you see SSID, subnet and a coloured bar with the mix of device types. The «SNMP» chip is green if something answered and amber if not: tapping it while amber opens the network settings, where you enter the community.
The same scan drawn as a structure. On a home network it is a star around the router; with managed switches that answer SNMP (LLDP and bridging tables) it becomes a tree showing what is plugged into which port. Corrections you make by hand take precedence over what SNMP says.
A sheet with everything known about the network you are on: address, subnet, gateway, DNS in use, link type and interface; for Wi‑Fi the SSID, BSSID and security; for the Internet status, public IP, reverse name, ISP, location and time zone.
Everything about one device: IP, MAC, vendor, model, operating system, hostname, latency, role, first seen and last seen. Here you can give it a name, a tag, notes and an icon, and query it in several ways; «Remove personalization» goes back to the scan data.
Saving the network gives it a name, stores the SNMP credentials and, once only, its location for the networks map. From then on every scan reads the router's ARP table, so MACs and vendors arrive, and the network timeline records what changes. SNMP is read-only: nothing is changed on the router.
public); for v3 the user, authentication (MD5 or SHA) and privacy (DES or AES).A port scanner with service descriptions and risk levels.
Probes a host and lists its open ports with service, description and risk level (info, low, medium, high). After the TCP pass it also sends real UDP probes to services such as DNS, NTP, TFTP, mDNS, NetBIOS and SNMP. Next to each port, «Search CVE» opens a search on the National Vulnerability Database website.
22,80,443 or 1-1024).Tools are grouped into Featured, Test a device, Security, Inspect a domain, Local network & router, Wireless & discovery and Utilities. Tap a tool's star to put it in «Favorites» at the top of the list and in the favourites menu of the LAN and Ports tabs. Almost every tool has Share in the top bar: the result as text, plus a CSV file and, for ping, monitors and speed test, the chart as an image.
Connects to a server, switch or router and runs commands. Hosts can be saved, with the optional password in the Keychain; there are read-only command shortcuts for Linux and for switches and routers, and the «Complete» button works as the Tab key. The host key is pinned on first connection and a different key is refused.
top, vi or less do not work, because iOS offers no full interactive terminal.Browses a remote machine over SFTP, FTP or FTPS (explicit or implicit) and moves files both ways: upload, download, rename, delete, create folders. An FTPS server's certificate is pinned on first connection.
A traceroute where every public hop is geolocated and drawn as a numbered pin on a world map. Private hops, which have no location, stay in the list below the map.
Pings a host until you stop it, draws every reply on a chart and counts replies and lost packets. The result can be shared together with the chart image.
Shows the path to a host one hop at a time, with the router that answers at each step.
One ping per second to a host, with the last 60 samples as bars (losses in red) and minimum, average, maximum, jitter and loss. Useful to see whether a connection is unstable while you watch it.
Watches several hosts at once: each row says whether the host is up or down and its last response time, refreshed at regular intervals.
Measures latency, download and upload and shows them on a speedometer as they are measured. Every result goes into «History» with the network and provider. The test server is Cloudflare's.
A score out of 100 for the network you are on, with a «What costs points» list and the fix for each item. It looks at router security (factory logins, admin page without a password, UPnP), your public IP's exposure on the Internet (ports and known vulnerabilities, according to Shodan InternetDB) and path integrity, meaning whether DNS answers honestly.
Answers the question «is this network safe?», built for hotel, airport and café Wi‑Fi. It checks for a captive portal, the connected Wi‑Fi's encryption, whether the gateway is reachable, DNS integrity, public IP and provider, and Internet exposure, then gives an overall verdict with the details.
Looks for signs of ARP spoofing, meaning one MAC answering for several IP addresses, by comparing the phone's neighbour table with the router's table read over SNMP, and warns you if you are on an open or WEP Wi‑Fi network. Nothing is sent to the hosts.
Two checks on your router. The first lists active UPnP mappings, meaning ports some device has opened to the Internet. The second, «Probe default logins», tries a short list of factory credentials on the admin page, and runs only after you explicitly confirm.
Looks for AirTags, SmartTags and Tiles travelling with you and warns you if one stays close for a long time. Keep the app open and move around: movement is what tells a tracker following you from one that just happens to be there.
Resolves a name to addresses and an address to a name. With «Record type» it queries MX, TXT, NS, SOA and CAA directly, as well as A and AAAA.
Shows the registration and ownership data of a domain or an IP address.
Inspects the TLS certificate of a site or service: certificate chain, expiry and negotiated protocol.
Checks a domain's email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and lists its subdomains found in Certificate Transparency logs.
Sums up gateway, subnet, the phone's IP and DNS in use, and «Open web interface» takes you to the router's admin page, with the advice to change the factory credentials.
Reads the ARP table of a router or switch over SNMP and recovers the IP and MAC pairs that iOS hides from apps. It is the most direct way to know who is really on the network.
Shows your public IP, provider and Internet connection status, together with the local side. The location shown is where the address is registered, not where you are.
Shows the radio technology in use, the data path and the cellular traffic since the phone last started.
From an IP and a prefix it works out network, broadcast, host range and the other subnet values. All of it is calculated on the phone.
Switches a computer on remotely by sending it the magic packet. You can wake one by entering its MAC, or use «Wake all» for the wake list you built from the device pages. The screen tells you which routes the packet was sent on.
Queries a device over SNMP v1, v2c or v3: system information, interfaces with live traffic, VLANs, storage, CPU, printers (toner and pages) and ARP table. On iPhone SNMP is free, because it is how MACs and vendors reach the app.
Lists nearby Bluetooth LE devices with name and signal in dBm.
Shows the services advertised over mDNS on the network: SSH, SMB, HTTP, IPP printers, AFP, AirPlay, Chromecast and more.
Computes MD5, SHA and CRC of a text and tries to recognise the type of a pasted hash. Everything happens on the phone.
Measures a password's strength (bits of entropy and estimated time to crack it) and with «Check Have I Been Pwned» checks whether it appears in a known breach. Only part of the hash leaves the phone, never the password.
From a device's page it reads a PC's inventory without installing anything on it. For Windows, over WinRM: system and uptime, hardware, services, updates, local accounts, startup items, network adapters, disks, installed software and the «Defenses» (antivirus, firewall per profile, BitLocker per volume, TPM). For Linux, over SSH: distribution and kernel, CPU and memory, disks, services and listening ports, users, containers, packages and updates, firewall, SELinux and AppArmor.
Enable-PSRemoting -Force. With a local account in a workgroup you also need the command the app shows under «How to get more data», with a button to copy it.For the programs in a Windows inventory that NetBlade recognises exactly, it asks the National Vulnerability Database for the CVEs of that precise version and shows them worst first, with CVSS score and link. The summary also appears in the device's «Posture» and in saved networks. Answers are kept for a week.
Saved networks, their timeline, saved scans and the networks map.
At the top of the tab is the network you are connected to, with «Save» if you have not saved it yet or a check mark if it is already saved.
Each saved network opens a page with its «Network timeline», name and notes, SSID, BSSID, date and which credentials are set. From here «Credentials» opens a single editor for SNMP, Windows (WinRM) and Linux (SSH), and «Forget this network» deletes it together with all its credentials. On the LAN tab, the «Saved networks» icon shows the same networks as cards, with last scan, SNMP status, inventoried PCs, vulnerabilities and the devices.
For each saved network it records what changed between one scan and the next: devices that are new, came back or left. From PC inventories it adds antivirus, firewall or encryption turned off, reduced protections, enabled accounts, new startup programs, new administrators, new ports, disks nearly full and pending updates. Events are grouped by day and can be cleared. On iPhone this is what takes the place of alerts.
The scans you saved from the LAN tab, each with its device list. From the menu you can «Export CSV», «Export JSON» or «Export PDF report».
Saved networks with a location appear as pins on a map; the screen also tells you how many it could not place. The location is taken once, when you save the network.
App preferences, subscription, lock, backup and data.
Shows your subscription status: if Pro is active you find «Manage subscription», otherwise «See NetBlade Pro» opens the plans.
The app's language follows the one chosen in iOS Settings, where you can change it for NetBlade alone. Under «Appearance» choose the theme (System, Light, Dark) and the accent colour.
They tune the scans: for the LAN «Probe timeout», «Parallelism», «Resolve host names (reverse DNS)» and «Look up vendor from MAC»; for ports «Connect timeout» and the default range (Common, 1–1024 or all).
Protects NetBlade with Face ID, Touch ID or the device passcode. The app locks again every time it goes to the background.
«Export» creates a file with networks and timeline, devices with their names, scans, speed tests and settings; «Restore» imports it again, adding whatever is missing. «Automatic backup» writes a copy to a folder you choose, for example on iCloud Drive, daily, every 3 days or weekly, keeping as many copies as you decide; the copy is written when you open and when you leave the app.
«Clear saved data» and «Delete everything» erase the app's data from the device.
From here you can report a problem, rate NetBlade, read the open source licences, the privacy policy and the notice on lawful use of the tools.
NetBlade also works from the Home Screen, without opening the app first.
The small «Scan LAN» widget opens the app on the LAN tab and starts a scan. The medium «Network» widget shows address, subnet, gateway, DNS and public IP, refreshed about every half hour.
Touching and holding the NetBlade icon shows the last four saved SSH and file transfer hosts: tapping one opens the tool already connecting.
NetBlade for iPhone is not a copy of the Android version: where iOS cannot do something, the app says so on the screen where it would be, with no switches that do nothing and no invented numbers.
On iOS the system ARP table is closed to apps, so MACs and vendors come from the router or switches over SNMP. That is why SNMP is free on iPhone, while on Android it is an extra: without it the free app would have no vendors and no map.
There is no Wi‑Fi tab as on Android, no Wi‑Fi history and no room survey: iOS offers no API to scan nearby access points, and an app only knows the network it is connected to. This is a decision, not a feature on the way.
On iOS there is no background monitoring, no alerts, no quiet hours, and no scheduled speed tests or inventories. iOS decides by itself when to wake an app, maybe every hour, maybe once a day, and does not say whether it did: a notification that may arrive hours late is not a smaller version of the feature, it is something else that looks enough like it to be believed. The same question, what changed on my network, is answered by each saved network's timeline when you open the app. The iPhone app is a tool you open, not a guard you leave running.
iOS has no SMB client, so Windows PC inventory goes through WinRM only: no shared folders or user profiles, and program versions come from the registry instead of the program file.
The SSH terminal runs one command at a time rather than a full-screen terminal; read-only shortcuts and completion make up for it.
Mobile network without serving cell, signal or neighbouring cells; «This network» without Wi‑Fi signal, channel and speed; security checks without evil twin detection or nearby networks, and a network score that leaves out Wi‑Fi encryption and WPS. Every screen says what is missing and why.
On Android NetBlade is free with ads; on iPhone and iPad there are no ads and the advanced features are in NetBlade Pro. Purchases do not carry over between platforms: each store handles its own.
NetBlade is free and has no ads; NetBlade Pro adds the features for people who look after networks and PCs.
LAN scan and network map, device details, port scanner, SNMP and Devices from the router, Ping, Traceroute, Traceroute map, DNS, WHOIS, TLS certificate, Router, Internet, Mobile network, Subnet calculator, Wake‑on‑LAN, Speed test with history, Network score, Tracker scan, Bluetooth LE, Bonjour, Hashes, Password, one saved network with its timeline, saved scans, sharing tool results, App Lock and the widgets.
Windows inventory, Linux inventory, Vulnerability check, Export and PDF reports of saved scans, LAN threat scan, Router security, Hostile network check, Domain recon, SSH terminal, File transfer, Latency monitor, Host monitor, Unlimited saved networks and history, Backup and restore. Tapping a Pro feature shows a card naming the feature and leading to the plans.
NetBlade Pro is a monthly or yearly subscription: USD 1.99 a month or USD 8.99 a year, or the equivalent in your currency. If your Apple account is eligible, it starts with a 3-day free trial. It renews automatically until you cancel.
NetBlade has no server: what it finds stays on your device.
Scans, devices, saved networks and timeline are kept on the device, in the app's local database. Your phone's iCloud backup includes them, as it does for other apps. The subscription, too, is verified on the device by the App Store, without going through any NetBlade server.
Windows, SSH and FTP passwords and SNMP credentials are kept in the iOS Keychain, on this device only. They never go into the backup file and are not sent anywhere else.
NetBlade contacts outside services only when you use the feature that needs them: Cloudflare for the speed test, ipinfo.io for Internet and the public IP, ipwho.is for the traceroute map, Shodan InternetDB for your public IP's exposure in Network score and Hostile network check, crt.sh for Domain recon, Have I Been Pwned for the password check (only part of the hash leaves), the National Vulnerability Database for the vulnerability check (only if you turn it on, and only program names and versions), a Google check address to detect captive portals, and WHOIS servers for WHOIS lookups.
The app contains no ads and no analytics or tracking tools, and the developer receives none of your data.
With «App Lock» NetBlade asks for Face ID, Touch ID or the passcode every time it opens, and locks again when it goes to the background.