To get you started, we’ve picked our top three favorite WiFi channel scanners for iOS that you can download right now directly from the App Store. Each WiFi channel scanner for iOS listed below is intuitive and beginner-friendly yet capable of delivering accurate results.
Determining the best wireless channel to use isn’t difficult, but it does require some understanding of how WiFi networks work.
Virtually all consumer routers today broadcast on the 2.4 GHz band. Newer routers sometimes also broadcast on the 5 GHz in addition to the 2.4 GHz band, but you don’t really need to worry about that because the 5 GHz band is rarely responsible for a WiFi network performing poorly.
In North American, the 2.4 GHz band extends from 2,401 MHz to 2,473 MHz, and its divided into 11 channels, spaced 5 MHz apart from each other. Because each channel is 20 MHz wide, adjacent channels overlap with one another.
Overlapping leads to signal interference, so avoiding it is critically important. That’s why it’s recommended to only use channels 1, 6, and 11 since there’s enough separation between these three channels to guarantee no interference in any circumstances.
But which of these three channels is the best one? The answer is simple: the one that’s used the last, and that’s something any iPhone WiFi channel scanner can tell you. Once you know what the least used channel is, the only thing remaining is to learn how to change your WiFi channel.
You need to use a WiFi channel scanner because that’s the only way how to find out which WiFi channels are used by all nearby networks without a laptop. With the right iOS WiFi channel scanner, collecting this important information becomes a matter of a few simple taps.
The gathered information can then be used for WiFi channel planning when deploying a new network or optimizing an existing one. The goal of WiFi channel planning is to avoid co-channel interference, which occurs when too many networks are broadcasting on overlapping channels.
The App Store is home to many WiFi channel scanners for iPhone and iPad, but they all share one important limitation: they can’t analyze live WiFi data of any other network besides the one you’re currently connected to.
Still, there’s a lot that a capable iPad or iPhone WiFi channel scanner can tell you, including your internet speed, network name, signal strength, channel, router MAC address, security settings, and more. Here are the three best WiFi channel scanners for iOS.
If you don’t want to spend money on the WiPry 2500x dual-band spectrum analyzer, you can still use NetSpot to measure your WiFi speed and see basic information about your WiFi network. NetSpot can display detailed information about WiFi access points, including their names, band, channel, signal level, and so on.
NetSpot for iPhone now offers an essential option of measuring the Internet speed of the network you are connected to. You can quickly measure the download speed and the ping value and if needed compare these values to your previous test results for a more profound analysis. You don't need the WiPry 2500x device to perform the Internet speed test!
You can filter available networks by various criteria to quickly find the network you’re looking for and fix issues with WiFi channel overlap, signal interference, or security settings. NetSpot runs on all iPads and iPhones with iOS 11.0 or later, and it’s available in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Just because Network Analyzer doesn’t have nearly as inviting user interface as NetSpot shouldn’t automatically disqualify it from your consideration. This free WiFi channel scanner app for iPhone and iPad offers a lot of essential functionality in a compact package, making it a great addition to your iOS app collection.
You can use it to detect network devices, see their IP addresses, perform round trip delay tests, and, of course, gather as much information about your WiFi network as you would ever need. Less experienced users may be somewhat overwhelmed by the high information density, but that’s exactly what professional network administrators, who are the target audience of Network Analyzer, ask for.
If you would like to unlock even more features than the free version of Network Analyzer has to offer, then you can purchase Network Analyzer Pro for $3.99.
The Pro version can test both download and upload speed, scan the most common ports or user-specified port ranges, perform DNS lookups, and more.
Don’t let the Matrix-inspired user interface of this WiFi channel scanner for iPad and iPhone fool you into thinking that it’s some kind of hacking tool meant to crack WiFi passwords and steal sensitive information because that couldn’t be further from the truth.
In reality, Scany describes itself as the Swiss army knife of WiFi channel scanners, and this description is fitting. You can use it to detect all network devices (including hidden ones), find network path bottlenecks, scan predefined and custom ports, look up IP address information, and more.
Scany costs $5.99, and there’s no free version available. The app runs on iOS 10.0 or later, and it has been translated into English, Dutch, French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.
There are two ways how to scan for WiFi channels on iPhone or iPad.
The first method relies on the AirPort Utility, which is a simple WiFi management tool created by Apple to help users manage their AirPort base stations:
The second method uses a third-party iPhone WiFi channel scanner like NetSpot
, which is far more user-friendly and feature-packed than the AirPort utility, giving you a comprehensive picture of your WiFi environment:As you can see learning how to find best WiFi channel with NetSpot is easy, but you need the WiPry 2500x by Oscium spectrum analyzer to use all features NetSpot has to offer.
It’s worth noting that NetSpot is also widely considered to be the best WiFi channel scanner for Android, Mac WiFi channel scanner, and WiFi channel scanner Windows.
Yes, there are multiple third-party WiFi analyzer apps for iPhone that can provide you with all the information you need to optimize your wireless network, including NetSpot. There’s also Apple’s AirPort Utility app.
To analyze WiFi channels on your iPhone, you need to:
To find the best WiFi channel on your iPhone, you need to first discover which channels are in use by nearby WiFi networks and then determine which of the three non-overlapping channels (1, 6, and 11) is used the least.
The best WiFi channel analyzers for iOS are:
These apps work great as WiFi channels scanners on iPads and iPhones, and you can download them all from the App Store.