I always get surprised with how far we’ve come when it comes to the Internet. Keep in mind I’m the person who started using the Internet back in its dial-up days. For those of you who don’t know what that is, to put it simply, it was extremely sluggish Internet you were just happy to have. Today, although the Internet is faster than ever, we still face problems, especially with our mobile connection. For me personally, it hurts the most while watching YouTube videos. To see if there’s a way to brush up the software, I did a hefty research on mobile apps that claim to help with overall 3G/4G. After a couple of minutes, I found this list that I thought was quite useful. I’ll share it for you to check out.
Best 10 Apps to Test Your Internet Speed
I like how I got a decent number of apps to choose from instead of searching for them one by one. This made my job a lot easier and finally, I picked the top 3 apps and decided to give you my insight.
Speedcheck – Doctor For a Sick Connection
The first app that stood out for me was Speedcheck. Although the app’s initial function is to give measurements of your connection speed, it has other features that help you further optimize your mobile Internet. Instead of just telling you that your connection is good or bad (you probably already know that), it tells you why. Finally, with just a few taps, it told me for what kind of services is my current connection good and what I can do to make it better. For instance, I wanted to watch YouTube and to completely test it, I decided to go with 1080p quality. Speedcheck immediately told if I’m currently able to smoothly enjoy the videos, together with stats on gaming, music, streaming, etc.
I got to say, for a free app, Speedcheck is well optimized. This, of course, means there are bound to be some ads. However, for an unclear reason, after performing a couple of initial speed tests, I completely stopped getting ads. I am not sure if it’s just my case, so I’m interested to see what your experience is.
Traffic Monitor & 3G/4G Speed
If you need more of an “on-the-go” speed test, this app might be better for you. After performing my first speed-check, Traffic Monitor provided me with a benchmark. To be honest, at first I felt a bit overwhelmed, but just after a few seconds, I realized how neatly the stats were organized. In the benchmark window, you compare your speed with other users, but what I liked the most is the extra feature for Wi-Fi. You can use a neat map that tells you where exactly is your coverage performing the best in your area. Finally, you don’t have to start the app every time you want to test as it comes with a simple widget for a quick speed check in real time.
The thing I was extremely surprised with is that the app is missing a result-sharing feature. Yes, you can simply do a screenshot if needed and send to your ISP, but a one-tap sharing option would be much more convenient!
WiFi Map
The third app I decided to include in case everything else fails and you just can’t get a connection directly from your mobile device. Unlike the first two, this app focuses on finding and testing WiFi spots near you. I was pleasantly surprised how it doesn’t just show a map of WiFi spots but also tells you their quality. Naturally, you’ll still need the password if the access is limited, but I think the app gets extremely helpful when you need reliable speed and there are tons of WiFi spots around you.
The downside is that the app doesn’t provide feedback on your mobile connection. But as I said, I recommend this app in case all other fail and you just can’t fix the current speed issue. I think this app can come especially in handy if you’re a remote worker who travels enough. You never know when a bad connection will ruin your work possibilities, so having a constant backup plan is the smart way to go.
Conclusion
So these are my top 3 internet speed apps. Both the first and second one are great for checking your own mobile Internet speed. The difference is that Speedcheck lets you do a deeper analysis of your Internet connection so you can get better performance on longer runs. The second one provides a super fast speed check you can do in a few seconds. The way I ended up doing it is checking my speed with Traffic Monitor and if I find something wrong I just switch to Speedcheck for a better overview. Finally, the last one is the last resort app in case it’s really urgent and you need to find a reliable Wi-Fi quickly. This way, I think you can easily bring the possibility of being offline to a bare minimum. I hope you’ll find the apps useful. Enjoy.