Comparison
These tools do different jobs, and the free tiers are where that bites. NetSpot's free edition cannot plan a network — their own version comparison puts Planning and Survey in PRO, leaving the free download as a scanner, with no export and a non-commercial licence. Ours plans five access points on one floor for nothing. Across the 19 rows below we take 9, NetSpot takes 5, and 5 are even — including the one that matters most to them, which is that they measure and we only predict.
Every claim read from netspotapp.com and their own version comparison, last verified 2026-09-11.
NetSpot measures
You walk the building with a laptop and it records the signal that is actually there, multipath, furniture, interference and all. Nothing predictive comes close to that — but it needs the network to exist first, and on the desktop it needs a PRO licence.
WiFi Heatmap predicts
You draw the walls by material and it solves the coverage before anything is bought or drilled. Accurate to roughly ±6–10 dB for a typical home or small office — enough to decide placement, not enough to replace a survey.
The two are sequential, not competing: predict, install, then survey what got built. What makes the comparison worth writing down is the free tiers. Most people who search for a free NetSpot alternative want the first half of that sequence — and the free NetSpot download is the only one of the two that cannot do it.
9 rows favour us, 5 favour NetSpot, 5 are a genuine tie. The tally is counted from the table, not written by hand.
This is the row people get wrong, ourselves included until we checked. NetSpot’s free desktop edition is a scanner, not a planner.
| Dimension | WiFi Heatmap | NetSpot | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Predictive planning, free If you came here to plan a network before buying the hardware, the free NetSpot download cannot do it at all. | Yes — full COST-231 engine, 5 access points, 1 floor | No. Planning mode is PRO and Enterprise only | WiFi Heatmap |
| Survey of an existing network, free Neither free tier walks a building. Theirs is a scanner; ours is a planner. | Not offered at any tier — this is a predictive tool | No. Survey mode is also PRO and Enterprise only | Even |
| Export, free | Watermarked PNG | No export in the free edition | WiFi Heatmap |
| Commercial use, free If you are billing anyone, the free NetSpot licence does not cover you. | Permitted | Non-commercial use only | WiFi Heatmap |
| Account to start | None — it is a web page | A desktop install for macOS or Windows | WiFi Heatmap |
Both are real products with real prices. They are an order of magnitude apart.
| Dimension | WiFi Heatmap | NetSpot | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Entry paid price NetSpot PRO was on promotion when checked — €179 against a €279 list price. Verify before quoting. | €9 for a 7-day project pass | €119 a year, or €179 once for PRO | WiFi Heatmap |
| Own it outright | €39 once, never renews | €179 once for PRO, €599 once for Enterprise | WiFi Heatmap |
| Seats included Different shapes. Theirs is licensed per named user; ours has no user model at all. | One purchase, unlocked on any device with your purchase email | PRO: 1 user + 1 technician. Enterprise: 10 + 10 | Even |
| Project limits Those are survey limits and have no equivalent here. Enterprise removes them. | None | PRO: 50 zones and 50 snapshots per project, 500 data points per snapshot | Even |
NetSpot measures a network that exists. We predict one that does not yet.
| Dimension | WiFi Heatmap | NetSpot | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Measured survey A measurement beats a prediction every time. If the network is already installed, this is the tool. | Not supported at any price | Its core product — walk the building, record real signal | NetSpot |
| Spectrum and scanning | None | Inspector mode, active scanning, and spectrum analysis with supported hardware | NetSpot |
| Mobile apps | None — desktop browser only | Android and iOS apps, with Planning and Survey in the paid Android tier | NetSpot |
| Predictive heatmap types | Signal strength in dBm, with coverage thresholds and per-band views | 9 predictive heatmap types in PRO and Enterprise | NetSpot |
| Runs without installing anything | Yes — any modern browser, including Linux | No — macOS or Windows desktop install | WiFi Heatmap |
| Mesh protocols | Zigbee, Thread and Z-Wave planning alongside Wi-Fi | Wi-Fi only | WiFi Heatmap |
Both produce a client document once you have paid. Ours is in every paid tier.
| Dimension | WiFi Heatmap | NetSpot | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Branded client report | Your logo and company on the cover, from the €9 pass upwards | Advanced customizable reports with PDF export, PRO and above | Even |
| Published model assumptions A prediction a client cannot interrogate is a prediction they can dismiss. | Every wall and ceiling attenuation figure per band, and the ±6–10 dB envelope, in the report | Not published | WiFi Heatmap |
| Where your floor plan goes Both keep the plan local. Worth saying, because the cloud planners do not. | Nowhere — it stays in the browser, and the PDF is built there too | Stays on your own machine; it is a desktop application | Even |
| Maturity Fifteen years of edge cases we have not met yet. That is worth something and it would be silly to claim otherwise. | Live since April 2026 | In development since 2011 | NetSpot |
Until September 2026 this site described NetSpot's free edition as giving you "walk-around survey mode" without the predictive heatmap. That was wrong. NetSpot's own version comparison puts both Planning and Survey in PRO and Enterprise; the free desktop edition is Inspector mode, with no export and a non-commercial licence. We had been crediting them with a free tier they do not offer, and it is corrected here and on the homepage.
It is worth saying out loud because it is the failure mode of every comparison page: a figure gets copied once, nobody re-reads the source, and the page quietly becomes fiction. Every row above carries a note in the source file saying how it was checked and when, and the scoreline in the paragraph above is counted from the table rather than typed.
No. NetSpot’s own version comparison says the free desktop edition is Inspector mode only — Planning mode and Survey mode are both PRO and Enterprise features, the free edition has no export, and it is licensed for non-commercial use. So if you downloaded NetSpot to work out where to put access points before buying them, the free edition cannot do it. WiFi Heatmap’s free tier does exactly that: five access points on one floor, the full COST-231 propagation model, in a browser, with no account.
It depends which half of NetSpot you wanted. For predictive planning — deciding where access points go before anything is installed — WiFi Heatmap is free for five access points on one floor with no signup, no install and no time limit, and works on Linux as well as macOS and Windows. For surveying a network that already exists, by walking the building and recording real signal, there is no substitute in this tool: that is what NetSpot PRO is for, and a measurement beats a prediction every time.
Read from their own checkout on 2026-09-11: NetSpot PRO is €179 for a lifetime licence, discounted from €279, or €119 a year; NetSpot Enterprise is €599 lifetime. PRO includes one user plus one technician, Enterprise ten of each. WiFi Heatmap is €9 for a seven-day project pass, €39 once for a perpetual licence, or €29 a year. Prices move — check theirs before quoting it.
Measure. NetSpot is a site-survey tool first: you walk the building with a laptop and it records the signal that is actually there, which is something a predictive model can only approximate. It also does spectrum analysis and active scanning, has Android and iOS apps, offers nine predictive heatmap types in its paid tiers, and has been in development since 2011. WiFi Heatmap does none of that — it predicts coverage from a floor plan you draw, and nothing else.
No. It is a web page. It runs in any modern browser on any operating system, including Linux and ChromeOS, and the floor plan never leaves your machine — the image, the walls, the access points and the exported PDF are all produced locally. NetSpot is a macOS or Windows desktop application.
Both, for different halves of the job. Plan the network here — the branded PDF report with your logo, the device schedule and the dBm figures are included from the €9 pass upwards, and you can validate the design cheaply. Then survey the finished install with NetSpot PRO, or any phone-based analyser, because what you signed off should be checked against what got built.
Comparing something else? WiFi Heatmap vs Hamina · vs Deconflict · every free planner, compared
Five access points on one floor with the full physics engine, in your browser, with no install and no account. Then survey the finished job with whatever you like.