Best apps to track your cellular data usage
- feb
- 10
Getting close to the maximum allowed data on your cellular plan can cause a lot of anxiety. Lower your stress levels with a data usage tracker.
Say it's 10 days until your monthly data plan resets and you've got about 2 GB left in your current coffers. Say you know you're going on a road trip and plan to stream a lot of music across the great wide open, but you're worried you'll use up those precious gigs. Wouldn't it be great if you could budget your data ahead of time so you don't run out before the end of the month? Well, you can. I've given a bunch of data plan trackers the run through and come up with the cream of the crop in their respective categories. Here are the best apps for tracking your cellular data usage.
DataMan Pro
DataMan Pro is built with design in mind. The main screen clearly shows you the percentage of cellular data you've used for the month so far. Below the percentage, you can see how many days left until your current allotment ends. Below that, you can view your current cellular usage and your current Wi-Fi usage. When you swipe up from the bottom of the screen, you can view your usage history, app usage, and locations you use data.
You can set alerts to let you know when you reach 90, 70, and 50 percent of your allotment and export your statistics if you want to save the information on another device.
It also includes a widget that you can add to the Lock screen to offer suggestions on how much data you should use on a daily or hourly basis in order to avoid going over your limit.
The true beauty of DataMan Pro is that it doesn't reroute any data through proxy or change your configuration profile. Nothing is transmitted to a secondary location. All of your usage information stays on your device, even your app usage.
If you want to keep track of your cellular data usage and don't want the app keeping track of you, DataMan Pro respects your privacy while helping you see how much data you're using.
$5.99 - Download now
DataMan Next
DataMan Next is similar to DataMan Pro. Without an in-app purchase, it doesn't have a whole lot of features, but it looks very good. It tracks your cellular and Wi-Fi usage and lets you know what percentage of your monthly allowance you've used. At the bottom of the screen, you can see how much cellular data you've used and how much Wi-Fi data you've used. The display also shows how many days until your current data allotment ends.
You can set alerts to let you know when you reach 90, 70, and 50 percent of your allotment and export your statistics if you want to save the information on another device.
The feature that makes DataMan Next stand out is the theme variations. You can change the display styles from minimal, standard, and complete. You can also change the font style and colors, most of which will require an in-app purchase of $0.99 for the theme pack. There are a couple of cool free themes. Tap on "The Force" or "Winter Wonderland" to enable a special gift.
If you just want a simple app for keeping track of your data usages, DataMan Next is the perfect app for giving you the info you need at a glance.
- $0.99 - Download now
MobiStats
MobiStats is built on the idea that we can learn better data usage habits if we can see when and where we use data the most. It keeps a close eye on how much data you use on a daily basis and sets monthly forecast for your expected use. You can filter this information for cellular, roaming, or Wi-Fi. For me, it doesn't matter how much Wi-Fi data I consume, so I switch over to cellular-only mode. You can also track your stats history by day, month, and all time. When viewing the stats by day, you can get a clear picture of when you use data the most. You can also filter this information by cellular, roaming, or Wi-Fi. If you notice that you use a lot of cellular data right around noon, maybe it would be a good idea to skip your daily Facebook check-in at lunch when you're trying to conserve cellular data.
MobiStats also tracks your usage in real-time. You can't divide out which apps are using the data, but you can quickly see if you're gobbling up a lot of data at any given moment in time. You can also keep track of where you are using data the most, so you can make changes to your daily activities if need be.
If you are the type of person that likes to view stats that track your behavior in order to help you make changes, you'll appreciate MobiStats aesthetic.
- Free - Download now
Advanced Data Usage Tracker - smartapp
The thing I really like about smartapp is that the data information is presented to you with advice. If you've been overdoing your cellular usage, the app will suggest you reduce your consumption by a certain amount per day. If you've got lots of gigs left for the month, it'll tell you that you are safe. It also lets you know the percentage of data you have consumed on Wi-fi vs. cellular. You can also track your usage history by month and week.
There is also a Lock screen widget that will let you track cellular data usage during a specific period of time. So, if you are wondering how much cellular data you're eating up every time you play Pokémon GO or when you update your status on FaceBook, you can set a timer before you start your usage activities and stop it when you're done to see how much you've used up.
The best feature of smartapp is the speed tester. With the tap of a button, you can find out the current upload and download speed of any network you are on, including your cellular network. After the data is analyzed, smartapp will give you a report card on your internet speed.
As an added bonus, smartapp monitors your iPhone's CPU status, memory, and disk usage so you can get an idea of how your device is performing.
If you want a little advice on the best way to reduce your data consumption, smartapp is for you. Added bonus: in-house speed tester!
- Free - Download now
My Data Manager
My Data Manager is a useful tracking app for making sure you don't go over your limits. It has a summary that is easy to read and covers cellular, Wi-Fi, and roaming, and shows you a grid of your usage history. There is a convenient app tracker that will show you how much data each app is using so you can keep those apps closed if you're trying to conserve your data usage. You can set alerts to warn you when you've reached certain percentages. You can get a notification when you've reached your plan's limit, when you've hit 90 percent of your plan's limit, when you've reached your daily budget, and when the forecast tool estimates you are likely to go over budget for the day.
You can also set custom alarms. So, if one particular month you're trying to conserve early so you can use more (like if you're going on vacation), you can manually set up alerts when you've reached specific data amounts each day and for the entire month.
In order to keep track of the data each app uses, you'll be asked to add a VPN configuration to your device. This will help the app track which apps are open and how long they are being used for. This information is sent to the company's servers. You should read about Mobidia Technology's privacy policy before deciding if you want to allow this.
The best feature of My Data Manager is that you can connect multiple devices to track data. If you're on a shared plan with your spouse and kids, connect everyone to the shared plan and keep track of what everyone is using.
If you're on a shared data plan, use My Data Manager to keep track of everyone's usage.
- Free Download now
What do you use?
Do you use a particular data tracking app on your iPhone? How do you ensure you don't go over your monthly cellular data limit?