Best WiFi Channel Scanner Apps for macOS

Why Do I Need to Use a Wireless Channel Scanner?

When you received your home router from your ISP, the chances are that you weren’t paying much attention to all configuration options available. One available option lets you choose which Wi-Fi channel the router should operate on. It’s paramount that you pick a channel that isn’t already occupied by several other nearby wireless networks.

Why? Because Wi-Fi channels are sort of like the lines on the highway. When too many cars travel in the same line, the speed of traffic can slow down to a crawl and make traveling anything but enjoyable. That’s why busy highways tend to have multiple lines going both ways.

Wi-Fi networks (those that use the 2.4 GHz band) can also take advantage of multiple lines, or channels as they are called, when broadcasting data. In North America, there are 11 channels available, each 20 MHz wide. While that may sound like a lot, only 3 of these channels are non-overlapping (1, 6, and 11), meaning they’re not affected by co-channel interference caused by adjacent channels.

The 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequency bands are also divided into multiple channels — far more than the 2.4 GHz band, actually. The 5 GHz band provides 37 channels that are 20 MHz wide and 18 channels that are 40 MHz wide. The 6 GHz band takes things to the next level with 59 20 MHz channels, 29 40 MHz channels, 14 80 MHz channels, and 7 160 MHz channels.

Because the 5 GHz and 6 GHz frequency bands offer so many channels, wireless interference is much less of an issue. What's more, most Wi-Fi routers that support these bands can configure the most suitable 5 or 6 GHz channel automatically — no need to use a Mac Wi-Fi channel scanner.

That’s why Wi-Fi channel planning is so important, and why it should always precede every deployment of a Wi-Fi network. But without a wireless channel scanner, proper Wi-Fi channel planning is impossible because you have no way of knowing which channels are busy and which are free from traffic.

macOS users have the advantage of a built-in Wi-Fi channel scanner at their disposal. By simply clicking on the Wi-Fi network icon in the menu bar and selecting the “Open Wireless Diagnostics” option, you can access this feature. While this built-in tool provides basic channel scanning capabilities, there are third-party applications that offer more advanced features and user-friendly interfaces. Such applications can provide a more comprehensive analysis of the wireless environment, aiding in better decision-making for channel selection and network optimization.

A wireless channel scanner such as NetSpot can instantly scan all wireless networks in your area, detect which Wi-Fi channels they run on, and provide you with other useful information that you can use to find the best Wi-Fi channel possible.

Some wireless channel scanners can also help you optimize the strength of your wireless network by generating a Wi-Fi strength heatmap of your local area and highlighting areas with insufficient coverage.

The Inspector mode is what you need when you want to discover Wi-Fi channel overlap. When you activate it, NetSpot immediately analyzes all nearby wireless networks, gathers all available information about them, and presents its findings sorted as an intuitive list.

You can then zoom in on individual wireless networks to learn more about them, or you can switch to Survey mode and conduct a wireless signal strength site survey to discover dead zones.

If you're planning a new network NetSpot’s Planning mode is a tool you'll find indispensable. This mode allows you to visualize the placement of access points, analyze the anticipated performance, and ensure the network is well-optimized right from the get-go.

Besides being packed with useful Wi-Fi analysis features, NetSpot is also one of the easiest Wi-Fi analyzer apps to use. The intuitive user interface of this Wi-Fi channel scanner for Mac makes it easy to take advantage of its features and understand the information presented.

It doesn't cost anything to download the free edition of NetSpot from its official website or from the Mac App Store, and you can use it to get an instant overview of your Wi-Fi network environment. To unlock more features this great wireless channel scanner has to offer, users can upgrade to NetSpot Home, PRO, or Enterprise, with cost-effective lifetime upgrades available.

Wi-Fi Scanner can scan for surrounding networks and supply vital Wi-Fi information needed for troubleshooting purposes. The app allows users to narrow down the results using customizable filter options, it can plot 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz channel graphs to display Wi-Fi channel overlap, and it even includes a handy speed test feature so you can test the performance of your network in various areas.

The information you gather using Wi-Fi scanner can be exported into CSV files, making it easy to share it with others.

In addition to the features mentioned above, Wi-Fi Scanner also includes an IP scanner that can detect unknown devices connected to your Wi-Fi network. This feature can be useful when dealing with network slowdowns caused by the so-called Wi-Fi leeches, who are unauthorized users that connect to your Wi-Fi network to consume your bandwidth.

Overall, Wi-Fi Scanner is a versatile tool for those who want to optimize their Wi-Fi network. We just wish it were cheaper and updated more often.

KisMAC is a free and open source wireless analysis and security auditing tool for macOS. It’s built upon the original KisMac, which was developed by Michael Rossberg and Geoffrey Kruse.

This versatile tool can be used for a variety of purposes, from detecting hidden networks to assessing wireless security. One of its most notable features is its ability to accurately log the precise location of access points using GPS data.

Unfortunately, the latest version of KisMAC (version 0.3.3) was released in 2011, and the open-source project is no longer maintained. Despite that, you can still run the Mac Wi-Fi channel scanner without any issues on Mac OS 10.9 - 10.12 (64-bit only).

What Is a Channel Overlap and Which Wi-Fi Channel Analyzer Apps Can Detect It?

Wireless networks operate on three main frequency ranges: 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz. Each frequency range is divided into several channels to minimize interference and network congestion. In this regard, Wi-Fi channels are like road lanes. Just like multilane roadways can carry greater volumes of traffic than two-lane roads, so do Wi-Fi channels allow more users to enjoy maximum download and upload speeds at the same time.

In most countries, the 2.4 GHz frequency range, which is the most commonly used short-distance frequency range, is divided into 13 channels with 5 MHz of channel separation. In North America, the 2.4 GHz frequency range is divided only into 11 channels, but the WiFi channel width is the same as in the rest of the world.

Because each channel on the 2.4 GHz spectrum is 20 MHz wide and the channel separation is only 5 MHz, only three channels don’t overlap with any other channels: 1, 6, and 11. This is important because WiFi channel overlap is a common cause of interference and performance degradation.

The 5 GHz frequency band is another widely used part of the radio spectrum, offering faster data transfer rates, less interference, and more available channels at the expense of a shorter range compared to 2.4 GHz. Modern Wi-Fi routers can typically take advantage of both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz at the same time to combine their strengths.

What many Wi-Fi routers still can't do is operate on the 6 GHz frequency band, which is a newer addition to the radio spectrum, introduced by the 802.11ax standard. The main benefits of the 6 GHz frequency range are its speed and capacity. At the moment, routers with support for this newest band are still expensive, but they are guaranteed to become more affordable as time goes on.

Most Wi-Fi channel analyzer and SSID scanner apps can detect which channel a Wi-Fi network operates on and plot all nearby networks on a graph to make it obvious which channels are used the least. Some Wi-Fi channel analyzer and Wi-Fi channel scanner apps, however, are far more reliable than others, and some also come with unique features that make Wi-Fi network optimization much easier.

• Get NetSpot →
• Learn more about NetSpot →