Beneath vs Exabox: ten tools with an inspector, or thirty without one
Short answer
Exabox has the deeper utility bench, with more than 30 tools including a regex evaluator, fake data generator and REST client that Beneath does not have. Beneath covers the ten most common conversions and adds something Exabox has no version of: a browser that inspects live pages, their source, network and storage.
Published . Last reviewed . App Store figures checked 15 September 2026.
At a glance
| Fact | Beneath | Exabox |
|---|---|---|
| Type | Standalone browser, inspector and 10 developer tools | Offline utility collection |
| Released | 14 September 2026 | 1 August 2021 |
| Developer | Dynamic Web Solutions B.V. (AppActive) | Alberto Malagoli |
| Price | Free, with a one-time €9.99 Pro unlock | Free, with a one-time purchase |
| Minimum iOS | 17.0 | 13.0 |
| Download size | 27.4 MB | 101.6 MB |
| Current version | 1.0 | 4.0.2 |
| Last updated | 14 September 2026 | 16 April 2026 |
| App Store rating | No ratings yet | No ratings yet |
Figures come from each app's App Store listing, read through Apple's lookup API on 15 September 2026: Beneath and Exabox.
Two different bets
Exabox bets on breadth: more than thirty offline utilities in one app, so you never open a random website to format or generate something again. Beneath bets on context: a browser that explains the page you are looking at, with the ten most common conversions built in next to it.
Beneath used to have no converters at all. It now has ten, which closes part of the gap but nowhere near all of it. Exabox still has roughly twenty tools Beneath does not.
Where they overlap
Both apps cover this ground.
| Tool | Beneath | Exabox |
|---|---|---|
| JSON formatter | Free | Yes |
| Base64 encode and decode | Free | Yes |
| URL encode and decode | Free | Yes |
| JWT parser | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| Hash generator | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| Number base converter | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| String and backslash escaping | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| Colour format conversion | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| Case and text transformation | Beneath Pro | Yes |
| Date and timestamp parsing | Beneath Pro | Yes |
Where Exabox goes further
None of these exist in Beneath.
- Regular expression evaluator
- Fake data generator
- REST API client for requests you compose
- JSON, YAML, TOML and GSON conversion
- UUID generator and parser
- QR code generator
- Cookie builder and cookie parser
- Text comparator and text inspector
- Timezone comparator
- Maths expression evaluator
- URL builder and parser
- Hexadecimal and HTML escaping
- 60 app themes and 90 code highlighting options
It also reaches back to iOS 13, four major versions earlier than Beneath, and sells as a one-time purchase with no subscription.
The cost of that breadth is weight: 101.6 MB, against 3.9 MB for the comparable Dev Tool Box.
Where Beneath goes further
None of these exist in Exabox, because Exabox has no browser.
| Capability | Beneath |
|---|---|
| Browse to a URL | Free |
| Raw server bytes, kept separate from the live DOM | Free |
| Response headers, status and redirect chain | Free |
| DOM tree with element picker | Free to view |
| Matched CSS rules with media and layer context | Free |
| Network requests the page made on its own | Free to list |
| Request bodies, timing and WebSocket frames | Beneath Pro |
| Copy request as cURL | Beneath Pro |
| Console with a JavaScript REPL | Beneath Pro |
| Edit the page, attributes and HTML | Beneath Pro |
| Cookies including HttpOnly, read natively | Free to view |
| Edit storage and cookies | Beneath Pro |
| Real Chrome DevTools panels | Beneath Pro |
| Safari share-sheet capture | Free |
Which should you pick
Pick Exabox if the job is converting, generating and testing strings, and you want the widest bench available offline. Also pick it if you are on iOS 13 to 16, where Beneath will not install at all.
Pick Beneath if the job is understanding a page, and you want the everyday conversions to hand while you do it rather than in a second app.
Pick both if you do web work on a phone regularly. The overlap is ten tools wide, and each app does something the other cannot.
How we compared these
Figures for both apps came from Apple’s iTunes lookup API for the Netherlands storefront on 15 September 2026. Exabox’s tool list comes from its own App Store description. Beneath’s tool list and its free versus Pro split come from the app’s source, which we maintain. Beneath reached the App Store on 14 September 2026, so it has no ratings yet where Exabox has four years of releases behind it. Tell us if this page falls out of date.
Frequently asked questions
Does Beneath have the converters Exabox has?
Some of them. Beneath ships ten: JSON, Base64, URL encoding, JWT, hashes, case conversion, timestamps, number bases, string escaping and colour. Exabox has those plus roughly twenty more, including regex, YAML and TOML conversion, UUIDs, QR codes and fake data.
Which has more tools?
Exabox, clearly. It advertises more than 30 utilities against Beneath's ten. If breadth of conversion is what you are buying, Exabox wins that comparison.
Exabox has a REST client. Is that the same as Beneath's Network panel?
No, they are opposites. Exabox sends requests you compose yourself. Beneath records the requests a real page made while you were on it, including fetch, XHR and WebSocket traffic.
How much of Beneath is free?
The browser, view source, the elements tree, styles, the network list, storage viewing and three tools: JSON, Base64 and URL encoding. Request details, the console, page and storage editing, Chrome DevTools and the other seven tools need the one-time Pro unlock.
Which runs on the oldest iPhone?
Exabox, at iOS 13 or later. It reaches considerably further back than Beneath, which needs iOS 17.