Speedtest by Ookla

I usually love this app. I have used it on iPhones for years and years. And it worked fine on my wife's iPhone 8 and on my iPhone 11 ProMax. A few days ago we upgraded to my iPhone 12 Pro Max and she loves her new iPhone 12 Mini. But both show a disappointing incompatibility with the Ookla Speedtest app. The Ookla app on my iMac (2019) works great. It shows my Mbps speed to be at or even over the 300 Mbps line I pay for. But when I run the app on both my new iPhone 12s I get the exact same results of very low speeds shown. Sometime measures under 100, usually around 150. I take care to match the chosen server to the one the Mac is using and it is an incredible difference. Had I only bought the one iPhone I would likely have put on my mask and gone to the Apple Store. But two iPhones doing the exact same thing? So I dwonloaded a competing speedtest app which I do not usually like as much as Ookla. That app works fine on both the 12 Max and the 12 Mini. Measurements all pretty much match the Mac's Ookla results at 300 . I think this shows the problem is in something Ookla is not allowing for as to some sort of change in the iPhone 12. I hope that the Ookla team will touch base with Apple and fix this. Note I have given this app 4 stars as I really love it and have used it for years and years. BUT IF YOU HAVE AN IPHONE 12 THERE MAY WELL BE A SERIOUS PROBLEM. Let's hope it to be temporary so I can dump the speedtest I don't like.

I love using this app to check my internet speed. Having recently switched from AT&T to Comcast, I wanted to make sure I was getting my money's worth. At first, I didn't see an improvement and in some cases worst performance even though I was paying $50 more per month. Then I figured out that it was how my VPN to my workplace was throttling things and have since come up with a workaround. I would suggest it would be helpful to have the tool show where the "bottlenecks" might be in performance so the layperson can learn more quickly why their actual performance isn't as expected. The other improvement I would suggest would be to making it easier to find an "optimal" server. Some times that can be delayed with no explanation. With those two improvements, I would give this app a "5-star" rating

I have been a longtime Ookla Speedtest user for many moons…. I retired from IBM in 2008 with 30 years of working with computers/networks Speedtest has been my go to network test for as long as I can remember. I always found that depending on your web browser you could get different results and its far better to have a local run application to cut out as much of noise from applications to get a truer picture of what your results are. This app is well put together and the options it gives you are just what is needed with no extra fluff. The response is quick and the reporting is reliable, free from all the overhead of the browser and any cache etc that can and would be in the way. The options of saving your test along with running it in the menu bar and haveing the capability of uploading it to about 23 different places (depending on your Mac’s configuration) listed under your System Preferences/Extensions/Share Menu You still have the option of selecting where you want to test to. If is set automaticly to the closest point from you ISP. The graphical interface showing in a line graph of both incoming and outgoing testing shows how smooth or dirty you results can be. With showing a more flatline giving you the cleaner results of your ISP.

I was just scrolling the top free apps on the mac app store and saw this. I use SpeedTest anytime I want to see the status of my connection but didn’t know it was an app. I’ll be honest my first thought was, why is this an app if I can just open safari and click on it in my bookbark bar? Then I downloaded the app and realized it was more responsive and gives an alert when the test is complete. Also now that I think about it the history of your speeds should be stored permanetly as long as the app exists on a computer. This is an advantage over safari because if you clear cache, cookies, and history, this connection speed data I’m pretty sure is also deleted. Overall, beautful design, awesome color scheme, smooth ainmations, and time tested functionality. P.S. It can be put in the menu bar!

I really don’t know what the word “accurate” would mean in the context of measuring download/upload speeds over the internet, but Ookla’s speed test service is great in that it reflects the real-world performance you can expect. Especially since the app version doesnt have the extra overhead of flash + all the other clutter on the web version. One thing I sort of wish it had was the option to choose the network interface to use for testing. I don’t think this can be done, maybe the SC api could be used to temporarily change network settings, but that would be disruptive… Or maybe it could be done at low low level using bsd sockets, but then this would dissociate it from the real-world speeds using NSURL… Really hope someone can think of a clever way though!

This is an excellent app and easy to use. I live in the US but teach students online overseas. I have been working with them trying to figure out why my ping is measuring so terribly on their end but not on mine. I love having this app so handy so I can pull it up during classes and check my speed any time. The only request I have is to be able to test on a server outside the "local" range set on the app. On the Speed Test website, I can search for servers in the country where my students are and run a test and see that my ping is being affected by that country's network. On the app, I can only choose from a pre-set list based on my location. I would love to be able to set favorite test servers anywhere in the world.

apple doesn't allow screenshots on here for no valid reason or i'd screenshot that speedtest by ookla keeps going haywire when left to run in the background. at 1st it looks fine, m1 macbook air runs cool as normal, then if i forget to quit the app immediately after use, within a few hours the computer is very hot & activity monitor shows speedtest by ookla taking like 10,000% of computers resources, much more than all other apps & processes combined. i've deleted & redownloaded the app. its continued to have this big problem thru multiple MacOS' w/o change. Ookla needs to fix this. This could cause damage to internal components. No other app has shown any similar potential for overheating my m1 & everytime it has been this app that has been the culprit. unfortunately i need a speedtest app & this is the only one i've found in the app store. i'd gladly replace it w/an alt if i could find one since ookla's had a long time to fix this but has not.

I am a Technology Architect and use Speedtest regularly to baseline Internet connectivity and find bottlenecks in customer networks, or diagnose peering issues. It is super easy to use and will tell you immediately where the bottleneck is. One note, though, Speedtest is multi-streamed, which means you cannot measure single stream performance that is often a bottleneck for multi-cored network appliances that have some application layer functionality. It is more of a tool to find out whether your Wifi is giving your bottlenecks, the firewall is underdimensioned, links not negotiating correctly, and the like. It is also a good tool to show a customer that a 10 Gbps pipe does not automatically leads to 10 Gbps of throughput unless you make the investments into network infrastructure to support that.

Just a basic app that tells me how fast my connection is. Roundtrip ping, download, and upload speeds. That's all you get and all I usually want. No WIFI stats or other stuff to clutter up my brain. It's the first tool I go to when someone says the internet is slow. I usually run this tool to see how much bandwidth I give uo to run everything through a full-time VPN; run once with VPN oo, once with it off. I appreciate that it keeps history and allows me to turn off intrusive data collection and doesn't throw ads at me. Supposedly they advertise, in-app but I have never seen an ad; could be my ad filter kills them before they reach my eyes. Ookla - if you're reading this -- don't fix that!

What can I say? It’a an easy and convinient way of checking my internet speeds and I no longer have to boot up a browser to do so. It’s a beautifully designed app. Clean, modern and simple to navigate. Great work guys! I do want to mention a current problem that I’m experiencing though, with version 1.3 specifically. I’m using MacOS High Sierra on a 2017 iMac and whenever I run the application (start a speed test) it freezes and locks up my computer until it restarts. Not exactly a small bug, but it’s something that’s prevented me from using it the past week or so. Not exactly sure when this happened, but it could be High Sierra causing this. Hopefully you guys will be able to find and squash this bug!

I started out with 2.4 G Wi-Fi, improved it to 5G. Then had to add an extender because of the layout of the house. I used Speed test to make sure I was acutually improving things as I tested out different locations for my extender. Now I am on Google Fiber and I was amazed at how much your signal drops when it is no longer line of sight to the primary node. It is a least a 50% drop. Adding more Nodes to create a mesh helps with dead spots but doesn’t do much for speed. When I was on AT&T you could see how much your speed would drop on nights with inclement weather and everyone was staying home streaming movies etc. I look forward to seeing how much Google drops on bad weather nights.

Although I was originally detered from downloading this app for use on my personal MacBook since, according to the description, the app "lives in your macOS menu bar". Upon first launch it was a standalone app (bonus points for not being one of those horrible Electron apps!) that did not live in the Menu Bar, although that setting could be toggled easily. The app also quits when you close the window! I get notifications when the tests are done, which is useful for when I want to run my Internet speed test in the background. The app's result history, which is unusually tucked in the preference area, has a list view and a detailed view for each test. The detailed view logs your ISP, latitude, and longitude, which can be a privacy concern for some users (not including me). Result logs can be deleted individually, or shared using macOS's native share sheet. Overall this is a well-polished app with many small details that make the user experience better. Although it would be nice to have scheduled tests, the current features have a lot of thought put into them.

We have 2 dedicated WIFI sources in household because of the number of items needing connections. All of mine are oon the lower speed connections as it was put to me, I don't need high speed for what i do. Some one gaming or doing constant downloads will need the higher speeds. I just used the app today 6/2/17 to check my connection speed and within 3-4 ms I got the results for both downloads and upload speeds. Considering I have cookie blockers on laptop, the speed is fair. We have Verizon Fios connection and just upgraded the wiring connection because of problems and was glad to see we made the right decision. This speed test ap will help me monitor when I see connection slowing. Thanks for the great app so easy to use.

I’ve used Speedtest for years to help determine the current state of a high speed internet connection. Having this on my laptop is easier to conduct that test. One option I’d like to see added is the ability to search for a server. I’ve had need to test on occassion with a server located across the country (US) and the desktop version only provides a choice of servers in your “region” or to have the app select the server automatically. The ability to search for the server is available in the browser version of the test and it would be a plus to have that same feature available in the desktop app as well.

I was struggling daily to even get on the internet with my Mac, then I download Ookla, ran the diagnostics and found that by moving my computer from one side of the room to the other I could at least consistently log on to the internet. I went one step further and rotated the computer 10 degrees through a 90 degree arc and was stunned to see a consistent 10Mbps at the 80 degree mark from where I started off. From 0 to 70 I was only getting 4-5Mbps, at 80 degrees it was 10Mbps, and just another 10 degrees to 90 droppped the Mbps back down to just over 5. Would never have figured that out without this app.

I downloaded this app since the website pop-up said it was more accurate for speeds over 100mbps. When at my desk, my macbook is connected with ethernet. The app will work if Wifi is enabled, but when i disable Wifi to test the ethernet speed, the app cannot locate a server or run a test. The app also returns lower speeds than the website when both Wifi and ethernet are connected, leading me to believe the app can only see the Wifi connection. The website works fine and gives me my ethernet speed from my ISP when Wifi is disabled. This appears to be a bug with the app that it only tests your wifi connection.

I love the Speedtest website, but the app is even better. I find it even more reliable and able to get more stable connections than via a web browser; this is noticeable in the higher bandwidth, lower ping, and more stable rates I get using the app. It's simple to use, free, and reliable and for these reasons it's one of the first apps I install on any Mac. I see that others have reported issues, but have never experienced those myself. I hope developers take their feedback into account and keep maintaining the app and fixing issues as they are reported.

I’ve been using Speedtest for a few years. I recently have been having issues with my service being slow. I ran speed test and found my speed had been throttled down by 50%. I call the provider and of course they contested my claim. I asked them what service or app they recommend I use to monitor my speed. They mentioned Ookla. I them told them I have 3 years of history using this app and it shows the recent drop. Suddenly they paid attention and offered me a higher speed service for less money with a 3 year guarantee.

I have used the app version for a long time and its handy. but it often has issues after a new macOS update and takes a year or too to catch up. When i compared a speed test via ethernet on (1) Spectrum Speed Test (2) Ookla Speed Test -- Via Website) (3) Ookla Speed Test -- Via the macOS App. each time the macOS app has issues with my upload speed making it dive down rapid then soar up and dive back down then slowly increase to match download speed line that was striaght on well above expected speeds. i use CAT 8 cables have no interefernce. please see if there is something that can be done.

Ookla Collects Personal details, demographic information, contact details, consent records, location information, employer details, views and opinions, and “Other Information” such a usage data, browsing history (including websites visited), searches (‘interactions’ with e-commerce ‘opportunities’ [f.e., merchants], approximate physical location, IP address, advertising ID or IDFA, IP address, ISP, IMSI & IMEI, information collected via cookies, eTags, Javacript, pixel tags, device ID tracking, etc & etc, log files, web beacons, flash cookies, and it goes on and on. Ookla is not responsible for Personal Information you volunteer about yourself! Tracking purchase traffic … development of audience engagement, advertising and promotional strategies on various platforms … commerce offerings (using your cookies and browsing history). What is “business-to-business lead generation”? Provision of leads to customers? [do they make money on this?] Downdetector - isn’t that connected with Google, another big collector of personal data? Direct Marketing …. this is too much! This is NOT about privacy, it’s all about UN-privacy! If that is not enough, a lot of this is stored on one’s OWN COMPUTER, phone, or iPad.

I have Speed test by Ocola on my windows 10 laptop, my iPhone, my iPad, and my iMac 2011. all of the rest of the devices have an easily locatable app for speed test. Except OS 12. Where do you hide the speed test app? is it an apple? its not with the regular;ar applications. Its great that I can have a better GUI because with Charter Spectrum i am getting 450 mbps. using the online version the graphic speedometer only goes to 100. The app goes to 500 maybe 1gb. Any rate I use this app exclusivly to test all my friends and families internet speed and would be nice is you could upgrade the GUI on the online version Thanks

This app tests your internet conenction for speed. It does a wonderful job of it. The display is very attractive and it does not try to be all tools for all occasions. It could use one addition... a croud source fed world wide database of speed tests at lat/long which indciate carrier, speed, map location. If this were overlayd on Apple Maps with a heat map for example for any given provider. We submit all this information in each test to identify the characteristics of the network connection we have. None of that useful crowd collected information is available for use in the app.

After a couple of weeks of trying to get this update to download I’m ready to give up. A suspicious thing about the prior version is that it always reads higher speeds than any other speed test. The web based version at least give the option of multiple connection tests and single stream but the app does not and does not explain how it is getting the numbers it displays. Multi-stream or single? I’m always suspicious of apps that are offered by ISPs like Comcast. It does, at least, show that Comcast starts the transfer at an abysmally slow rate until about 5 seconds into the transfer when they allow you the speed you paid for.

Speed test? No problem! This app is the go-to for anyone looking for an easy internet speed test solution. 5/5 Stars I noticed way too many negative reviews here simply saying "it doesn't connect" or "it's missing this one feature". I can confirm this app DOES work as intended. As for the lack of specific features, as with any app, not every one app will work for everyone. If you don't like it simply because of a lack of features, don't downrate it, just delete and use another app :) Cheers!

Speedtest by Ookla is my favorite and trusted app for testing the speed of my internet connections. The test results relate directly to how fast my internet connection feels in real use. No star deduction, because they will probably fix this soon, when I opened the app for the first time post GDPR, the premissions box did not have a link to their privacy policy. Maybe that is an Apple policy issue regarding not allowing links. If so, maybe an exception needs to be made. Good app. If you don’t like ads, pay the small upgrade fee and the app shines.

This app is very valuable to me. I use the Mac Version, iOS version on my iPhone and iPad, and the AppleTV version on our Apple TV. Since the Mac is directtly connected to the Fibre Modem, I can verify the data speed to my house, then with the iOS versions I can verify wifi speeds in home areas and what the Apple TV is seeing. When used together, it is a very useful problem isolation tool. I would love to see a realtime wifi speed graph which I can startup and let me see the wifi signal strength around the house ... but this is a great tool indeed!

I have tried to uninstall it and restart my computer but it does not seem to find any servers even after approximately 30 minutes of running. Not sure why since the website works fine along with other speedtest apps/websites. I have also tried on different computers and my iPhone and it does work there. It seems to be a MacOS Catalina compatibility issue, possibly if they are using 32-bit software drivers or the server locator used 32-bit drivers. I am still giving this three stars since it has worked great for past years and I am sure Ookla is hard at work on this. Have a great day! :)

When selecting servers to test, there’s no indication which ones do not support the Packet Loss test. One only finds this out after the fact. As a result you have to try other local servers until you find one that supports it. I’d strongly recommend they indicate which servers do/don’t support the Packet Loss test. Perhaps an asterisk, bold, italicized server names to indicate such would help. Otherwise the app is great. One potential issue is that there’s extra work when consulting and having to get clients to download the app rather than simply check on a web link.

Speedtest is a great app. I've used it for years and test my home and church internet often. At home we just got upgraded to 300 mbs and I found my old cable modem wasn't up to that speed after running the app. New Gbit modem is on the way! And at church, we run Speedtest every Sunday morning to ensure our upload speed has full capability before starting our livestream. By the way, the app for iPhone works great on my new iPhone 13 Pro (November 2021), as well as on Macs with macOS Monterey!

Since about a month ago, I noticed that Speedtest is now giving me about half the download speed that I’ve been consistently getting for the past several years. I’ve checked my wifi speed with a couple of other apps and those apps continue to provide twice the speed that SpeedTest now reports (the same speed that SpeedTest used to provide prior to about a month ago). Something’s changed, perhaps with a recent update. Also, I haven’t noticed any speed decrease in any of my devices.

This is a great app to help monitor your current connection speeds. NONE better! And I have tried all them! Well, the free ones at least. I do have to state that the MacOS version is SLOW to provide frequent updates like the iOS version. Please bring the newly updated features from the web version and the iOS version to MacOS, such as the Multi or Single Connections so that I can test my VPN connection properly. Also, give us the ability to change the Gauge Scale and the Speed Units. Thanks Ookla Team!

I just had my cable internet tech out to check my speed. He clocked my speed to be as it should be. However, this app always shows, ridiculously, slow download speeds. I have used it many times since the tech came out and it’s always the same. I, also, check my speed at another third party site. Still, this app clocks my download speed significantly slower than the other site. I am convinced that this app is, in no way, accurate. The tech told me that he has other customers, who use Apple products and they don’t get accurate readings either. It would be great if this app was accurate but in my experience, it’s not.

I recently started using a VPN, and my hope was that I could use the Speedtest app to measure how my connection speed was being affected by each of their servers, so I could always pick a good one. Unfortunately after I've connected my VPN, even though every other Internet application on my Mac works without a restart, Speedtest hangs while looking for a test server. I have to quit and relaunch it. Frustrating that it would be literally the only app that can't dynamically adjust its connection when a VPN is connected. At least in my use case, it negates the convenience of having a desktop app.

Bizarrely, the desktop version of the app is missing the website's functionality to log in and save your results across different devices! This means any results logged with the desktop Speedtest app aren't saved in any meaningful way – they're not connected with your account, and are stored locally on whatever device you happen to be using, making them essentially useless. Basically, if you have a Speedtest account you've been using for a while: you're better off ignoring the desktop app and just using the website. What a strange omission!

The biggest drawback is that although you have to go through all these permissions to let them track you and share analytics and crash reports, you can't track your own data like you can on the web. If you want to know if your internet speed is getting better or worse, you have to use another app to take notes versus the web app that allows you to create a login for historical speeds. The general appearance is similar to the website, but you cannot resize the window or do anything useful with the window like standard Mac OS apps.

Wife: “There is something wrong with my computer! My browser is so slow!” Me: “Open SpeedTest and tell me what it says’ Me: “Hey, there’s something wrong with Netflix! It’s all pixelated…” And so on, and so on. This app reliable lets you know your up/down bandwidth and latency, so the answer to the question for the ages: is the problem with ‘the internet?,’ ‘my computer?,’ or (best one) ‘is Netflix servers running cherry hot and sucking the power grid inside out?’ can all be answered. Thank you, Ookla!

I have many Apple products and move around daily, so I have many locations those products utilize for internet access. This app has been invaluable for years to discern if the download problem is the server, the service or if it is the device(s) used... (most people simply do not understand the differences). As much troubleshooting time this app has saved me, I would happily pay for it too :-)

I do a lot of live video online and my networking gear is in another room, so this is an excellent tool to quickly diagnose network vs ISP connection issues on the fly without leaving my desk. Where other tools will just give you numbers, this one shows you where things were throughout the test, giving you a chance to see an intermittant signal problem vs. a pure speed problem. Plus it's free.

I’ve been using the iOS version of this app for some time and just found the OS version. It does just what it says it will do and does it in such a way that the ISP providers never question the results that I share with them. I live in a frontier area ( that’s out in the sticks for you city fellas and gals) and our broadband connections 😂 are less than adequate most of the time, thus requiring frequent checks the speeds the ISPs promised and we are paying for. Thanks for a great app!

I have been using Speedtest by Ookla, almost since it came out. I have it on all my Macs, iPads, iPhones and even (shudder) my wife's PC! Love the features they have added and apreciate the abilty to select different servers to see if there is significant variation, as well as, seeing history. The hi9story part really helps when dealing with your ISP. You have the facts to make your case, if need be! Recommend it to anyone who will listen or see this review!

I recently noticed that, according to the battery menu on my M1 Macbook Air, this app is using significant energy while running in the background. When I close the laptop and leave it overnight, I come back to my battery 50% drained and the Speedtest app shows an order of magnitude greater energy consumption than anything else. Right now, its showing 12hr power consumption of ~2000, whereas the second most energy intensive app is Google Chrome (with 5 windows and about 50 tabs open) at ~260. I love the easy-access nature of the app and use it frequently but this battery consumption is unacceptable so I'm uninstalling.

The app is better than the browser/flash based version, in my opinion. The best part of the app is that it has credibility with the several ISPs I’ve had. I just wish it had a way to show specifics fo drop-outs (when it dips below, say 1mb/s). I’d also like the ability to run a 24 hour test, where it checked the speed at a reasonable interval so I could show my ISP when I’m not getting the bandwidth I’m paying for.

Testing works well on my 2019 MBP and iphone 14 on both wifi and cell neworks. App is an annoyance on my macbook though because for whatever reason, if you leave it open after a speed test the app's energy usage skyrockets while it should be fairly idle. So you need to open the app for the test and remember to immediately close it or you'll get half the battery life you should as it will stay ramped up for hours sucking up more juice than rendering 4k video would.

I produce remote livestream events. Speedtest by Ookla is one of the most important tools I use. I love that I can have my remote clients just click on a button to see VERY CLEARLY just what a difference it makes for them to use an ethernet cable rather than just connect to wi-fi. This saves me an enormous amount of time and hassle. It's also VERY helpful in troubleshooting a bunch of speed and connectivity issues.

This is a focused, efficient app that does exactly what it claims. Its simplicity belies the somewhat complex, behind-the-scenes magic that determines how best to measure your current speed. I have never been disappointed in the performance of this app, even when it confirmed my disappointment in internet speeds. This app is a no-brainer for anyone that needs or wants to determine available internet bandwidth.

With multiple rooftop internet providers I have learned that speeds can magically increase after running Speedtest. Often it appears I've been throttled even on unlimited usage, or the connection seems to go to sleep and no request from a browser or other app using the internet will wake the connection up, but Speedtest always does unless there's a physical outage of some kind.

Perhaps your privacy has no value, but it does to Ookla and they will sell your information to any taker. I'd rather give them $5 not to spy on me. Updates are unclear. The App Store keeps telling me I need to update, but I don't know why. Version History simply repeats "We've added a few updates…" But what do they do? Probably spy on you more efficiently. I've had this program for many years and haven't used it. It seemed OK back then but there are many other options that don't overuse the CPU or network. Time to dump it.

Great app, this is my go-to for doing speedtests on my mac. One minor thing I noticed is that there is no way in the mac version to increase the size of the graph to > 500. I see on the iOS version you can up the scale to 1000, but now with 2gb connections being available, it would be nice to be able to select 1000 or greater speeds for the graph. Thanks!

Ookla is generally my first choice in speed testing my network. The iPhone version has so much more features and setting than teh macOS version does. Not Cool Please update Speed Test App so it mirrors the ios verison. (1) The "Connection type" and (unquie Icon) so you know your testing "WiFi" or "Ethernet" or a "Cellular" is missing in macOS Version (2) The ability to change the "scale" is missing in the macOS version (3) The MacOS Version has some issues with that alighment of its titles. In "Result History" the title coloumn text (Date / ms / Mbps / Mbps) is not aligned correctly with the data below it. "Date is to far left and others need to be centered better. (4)The same title coloumn in the settings or menu page of the app, is also not aligned right. and the "Mbps" is halfway off the screen.

I use the app to check my internet speeds and make sure that my ISP is providing the speed I pay for. Its also a tool I use to help diagnoise issues when something is wrong. If I'm not getting the speeds I expect, I'll initially restart my modem and wifi routers. The Speed App greatly assists with keeping my internet speeds where they should be.