Inspect
Inspect (Inspect DevTools LLC) is a bootstrapped developer tools company that builds Chrome DevTools Protocol adapters for debugging Safari and Chrome on iOS and Android from any desktop operating system without requiring a Mac, sold via a freemium subscription model to individual developers and engineering teams.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What Inspect does
Inspect (legal entity Inspect DevTools LLC, Delaware) is a privately held, bootstrapped developer tooling company founded in 2020 by Kenneth Auchenberg during COVID-19 quarantine in Seattle, with a registered headquarters in New York and a distributed team of 1-10 employees. The company builds software that enables web and mobile developers to debug Safari and WebViews on iOS, and Chrome and WebViews on Android, from Windows, Linux, or macOS without requiring a Mac. Its core technology is a proprietary Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) adapter for WebKit that translates Safari's WebKit Remote Debugging Protocol into CDP, packaged into an Electron-based desktop application and an npm-distributed command-line tool. Inspect builds on years of work from the founder's prior projects, ios-webkit-debug-proxy and RemoteDebug, and integrates React DevTools for mobile component-level debugging.
Inspect monetizes through a freemium subscription model introduced in May 2024. Inspect Core is free with a 15-minute-per-day debugging cap; Inspect Pro is $79/year with unlimited debugging and CLI access; Inspect Teams is $99/seat/year with user and team management, auto-scaling seats, and advanced billing. Enterprise customers with 10+ seats can purchase volume licenses with SSO, dedicated support, and custom invoicing via direct sales. The company serves a horizontal base of individual web and mobile developers via product-led growth (direct download, GitHub, documentation, Twitter), and targets engineering teams in larger organizations via the Teams plan, with customer references including Accenture, Microsoft, BBVA, Plaid, Affirm, Eventbrite, Lightspeed, Flipkart, Epicor, Yandex, Ionic, Instacart, Philips, and Gira. The company has not raised external funding and operates primarily on subscription revenue, with infrastructure dependencies on Vercel, Stripe, Clerk, PostHog, and Intercom as named sub-processors under its GDPR-compliant DPA.
Inspect firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Inspect
- Legal name
- Inspect DevTools LLC
- Website
- https://inspect.dev
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- Inspect (Inspect DevTools LLC) is a bootstrapped developer tools company that builds Chrome DevTools Protocol adapters for debugging Safari and Chrome on iOS and Android from any desktop operating system without requiring a Mac, sold via a freemium subscription model to individual developers and engineering teams.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Where Inspect is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Inspect business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Marketing or Sales, Operations
Revenue model
- Subscription - Pro Plan: Annual subscription at $79/year providing unlimited iOS and Android debugging, CLI access, priority support, and updates for new iOS versions.
- Subscription - Teams Plan: Per-user annual subscription at $99/user/year for teams. Includes all Pro features plus user and team management, auto-scaling subscriptions, advanced billing and invoicing.
- Freemium - Core Plan: Free tier offering 15 minutes of daily debugging on iOS and Android. No Mac required. Allows users to evaluate product before upgrading.
- Volume/Enterprise Licensing: Volume purchases for 10+ seats with custom pricing, SSO, dedicated support, and custom invoicing for enterprise customers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Annual | Core - Free forever |
| Subscription | Annual | Pro - $79/year |
| Per seat | Annual | Teams - $99/user/year |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Inspect product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Inspect provides developer tools to debug and inspect mobile-web apps on iOS and Android devices. It offers a standalone desktop DevTools application (Inspect App) and a command-line CLI that expose a Chrome DevTools-based workflow for debugging Safari and WebViews on iOS and Chrome and WebViews on Android from Windows, Linux, or macOS without requiring a Mac. The products are sold via a freemium annual subscription model with Pro and Teams tiers.
Product overview
Inspect is a developer tooling company offering a unified mobile debugging platform consisting of two core products: the Inspect App (a standalone desktop DevTools application) and Inspect CLI (a command-line CDP adapter). Both products share the same underlying WebKit-to-Chrome DevTools Protocol translation layer, enabling developers to use Chrome DevTools to debug iOS Safari, Android Chrome, and WebViews on either platform from Windows, Linux, or macOS without requiring a Mac. The platform is sold through a freemium subscription model with three tiers: Inspect Core (free, 15 min/day), Inspect Pro ($79/year, unlimited), and Inspect Teams ($99/user/year, adds team management and advanced billing). The Inspect CLI is exclusively available to Pro and Teams subscribers.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Inspect CLI: Command-line tool for debugging iOS Safari from VS Code, Cursor, or any CDP-compatible tool
- Inspect App
Products and services
- Inspect App Standalone desktop DevTools application for debugging Safari and WebViews on iOS devices, and Chrome and WebViews on Android devices. Provides Chrome DevTools UI on Windows, Linux, and macOS without requiring a Mac. Supports USB and WiFi connections, DOM inspection, CSS editing, JavaScript debugging, network analysis, and screencasting.
- Inspect CLI Command-line tool providing a Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) adapter for WebKit on iOS. Enables iOS Safari and WebView debugging from VS Code, Cursor, or any CDP-compatible tool. Installed via npm and designed for CI/CD pipelines and headless debugging workflows.
Quantifiable outcome
- No $799 Mac Mini required for iOS debugging
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Inspect
Customer profileNamed customers14 records
Segments2 records
Ideal customer profiles2 records
Inspect technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration6 records
Feature7 records
Inspect partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- Vercel Inc.coreCloud infrastructure partner providing application hosting and edge compute services. All Inspect application infrastructure hosted on Vercel.
- Clerk, Inc.coreAuthentication and identity management provider. Manages user authentication and social sign-in for Inspect accounts.
- Stripe, Inc.coreBilling and payment processing partner. Manages subscriptions, invoicing, and payment collection. Billing data never touches Inspect servers.
- PostHog, Inc.coreProduct analytics provider. Used to understand how the Inspect app is used, which features to improve, and identify bugs.
- Intercom, Inc.coreCustomer support communications platform. Used for in-app chat support and product update emails. Users can unsubscribe at any time.
- Google (Android)coreInspect uses Android Debug Bridge (ADB) to detect and communicate with Android devices. Supports debugging Chrome and WebViews on Android.
- ApplecoreInspect uses Apple's official iOS drivers provided through iTunes for device communication. Relies on Safari's WebKit Remote Debugging Protocol and iOS Web Inspector functionality. iOS Simulator support via Xcode Command Line Tools (xcrun simctl).
- Google (Chrome DevTools)coreInspect builds on Chrome DevTools Protocol, using the familiar DevTools front-end UI. CDP adapter maps WebKit protocol to CDP for seamless interoperability.
Scale indicators1 record
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Inspect competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- mitmproxy: Open-source intercepting HTTPS proxy for debugging mobile and web traffic. It competes for the same developer budget on network and WebView debugging, with a stronger emphasis on programmatic/CLI use.
- Proxyman: Native macOS HTTP/network debugging proxy for iOS and Android developers. It competes for the same developer's debugging workflow budget — particularly iOS app developers needing to inspect traffic and WebView behavior.
- ios-webkit-debug-proxy: Google's open-source proxy that bridges Safari's WebKit inspector to a CDP-like interface. Inspect explicitly positions itself as the modern successor to this project, making it the closest technical and conceptual peer.
- Reactotron: Open-source desktop debugging tool for React Native and React apps. It overlaps with Inspect's React DevTools integration for mobile and addresses the same React-on-mobile debugging workflows.
- Charles Proxy: Long-standing HTTP debugging proxy used by mobile and web developers. Like Proxyman, it addresses adjacent debugging use cases (network inspection) for the same iOS/Android developer audience Inspect targets.
- Flipper: Meta's open-source mobile app debugging platform. Flipper targets mobile developers with a plugin-based debugging desktop app, comparable to Inspect's positioning as a desktop debugging tool for mobile (iOS/Android) apps and WebViews.
Others
- Sentry: Application error monitoring and performance debugging platform used by mobile and web developers. Adjacent rather than directly competitive — Sentry focuses on production error tracking while Inspect focuses on development-time debugging — but they serve overlapping developer personas.
Broad incumbents
- Chrome DevTools: Google's browser DevTools suite that Inspect mimics and integrates with via the Chrome DevTools Protocol. Inspect uses CDP as its front-end UI layer, so any native Google improvement to mobile debugging narrows the differentiation gap.
- BrowserStack: Cross-browser and real-device testing platform used by web and mobile developers. It addresses a broader testing/debugging workflow that overlaps with Inspect's mobile web debugging use case, especially at enterprise scale.
- Safari Web Inspector: Apple's native iOS Safari debugging tool, included with Safari on macOS. It is the incumbent solution Inspect most directly replaces for non-Mac teams, but is limited to macOS hosts.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat3 records
Key risks7 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Inspect social profiles
Digital presenceInspect compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance1 record
Inspect financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Inspect leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Inspect funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Inspect M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Inspect
What does Inspect do?
Inspect provides developer tools to debug and inspect mobile-web apps on iOS and Android devices. It offers a standalone desktop DevTools application (Inspect App) and a command-line CLI that expose a Chrome DevTools-based workflow for debugging Safari and WebViews on iOS and Chrome and WebViews on Android from Windows, Linux, or macOS without requiring a Mac. The products are sold via a freemium annual subscription model with Pro and Teams tiers.
Is Inspect a public or private company?
Inspect is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Inspect founded?
Inspect was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Inspect based?
Inspect is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Inspect make money?
Four revenue lines are on record. Subscription - Pro Plan is the primary driver. The others are subscription - Teams Plan, freemium - Core Plan and volume/Enterprise Licensing.
Who are Inspect's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are mitmproxy, Proxyman, ios-webkit-debug-proxy, Reactotron, Charles Proxy and Flipper. Sentry is listed as an others. Broad incumbents are Chrome DevTools, BrowserStack and Safari Web Inspector.
Does Inspect have an API?
No public API is recorded for Inspect.