Airward vs WiFi Explorer
These are often shortlisted together and probably should not be. One tunes your Wi-Fi; the other watches it. If you are choosing between them, you may be asking the wrong question.
Updated 21 August 2026
Fairness note. WiFi Explorer facts are from intuitibits.com in August 2026 and may change. It is a well-regarded tool and nothing here is a criticism of it — we simply think it solves a different problem.
What each one is for
WiFi Explorer is a Wi-Fi discovery and troubleshooting tool. It surveys the networks around you and shows their configuration — SSIDs, BSSIDs, vendors, channels, bands, security settings — so you can spot channel conflicts, overlapping networks and poor access point placement. It is what you reach for when Wi-Fi is slow. It costs US$19.99 once, with a 3-day trial, and needs macOS 13.5 or later.
Airward barely looks at the radio environment for its own sake. It inventories the devices on the network you are connected to, and it watches nearby access points only to answer one question: is something now claiming to be your network that was not there before?
| Airward | WiFi Explorer | |
|---|---|---|
| Primary job | Who is on my network, and is anything impersonating it? | Why is my Wi-Fi slow, and which channel should I use? |
| Device inventory on your LAN | Yes — vendor, type, open ports, history | Not its purpose |
| Nearby network analysis | Only enough to detect impersonation | Yes, in depth — signal, channels, bands, interference |
| Runs continuously | Yes, in the menu bar | Opened when you need it |
| Alerts you unprompted | Yes, in Pro | Not the model |
| Price | Free tier; Pro €39.99 once | US$19.99 once |
The honest recommendation
If your problem is that video calls drop and the Wi-Fi is slow in the back bedroom, buy WiFi Explorer. Airward will not help you pick a channel.
If your problem is that you do not know what those fourteen unnamed devices are, or you work from cafés and conference Wi-Fi and want to know when something starts broadcasting your network’s name, that is what Airward is for.
They coexist perfectly well. Several people run both, and at $19.99 and €39.99 one-time respectively, that is not an extravagant shelf.
One thing they share
Both need macOS Location permission to read SSIDs and BSSIDs, because Apple gates that information behind it. That surprises people and looks alarming for a tool that promises privacy — here is why macOS does that.