Comparison · checked September 2026
If you are shopping for a heart-rate overlay you have probably already found Pulsoid or HypeRate. Both are good, both have far more widgets than we do, and both have a free tier. Here is the honest version of when each one is the right answer, including the cases where you should not buy ours.
The one difference that matters
Pulsoid · HypeRate
2companies in the path
Pulse Station
0companies in the path
Their longer path is not carelessness. It is the only way to reach a device like Apple Watch, which cannot send heart rate to a computer at all. If that is your sensor, take the long path and do not think twice.
| Pulse Station | Pulsoid | HypeRate | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price | One-time purchase | Free tier, or 4.99 USD a month, 45 USD a year, 135 USD once | Free |
| Account required | No | Yes | No |
| Data leaves your machine | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works with the internet down | Yes | No | No |
| Keeps working if the vendor has an outage | Yes | No | No |
| Built-in looks | 12 | 40+ on the paid plan | 100+ |
| Runs on Windows | No | Yes | Yes |
| Apple Watch | Not directly | Yes | Yes |
| Fitbit, Amazfit and similar | Only if the device broadcasts 0x180D | Yes | Yes |
| Needs a phone in the chain | No | Usually | Not with Web Bluetooth |
| Discord, IFTTT and similar | No | Yes | Some |
| Overlay for OBS on a second computer | Yes, over your own network | Yes, over the internet | Yes, over the internet |
Pricing and feature counts read from the vendors' own sites in September 2026. They change. Check Pulsoid and HypeRate before deciding.
Stated plainly, because you will find out anyway.
HypeRate advertises over a hundred widgets and Pulsoid over forty on its paid plan. We ship twelve. Ours are previewed in the app with your own live reading and every one is adjustable, but twelve is twelve.
Apple Watch, Fitbit and a long tail of wearables reach them through phone apps. We read the open Bluetooth Heart Rate profile only, so if your device will not broadcast it, we cannot see it.
Most streamers are on Windows. Pulse Station is a Mac app. It can feed OBS on a Windows PC across your network, but the sensor still has to reach a Mac.
HypeRate costs nothing. If budget is the deciding factor, that is a complete answer and we are not going to argue with it.
You are on a Mac, you own a Garmin or a chest strap, and you would rather your heart rate never left the machine. You want one purchase instead of a subscription, and you want the overlay to keep working when the network does not.
You want the widest choice of widgets for nothing, you stream from Windows, or your device is an Apple Watch or a Fitbit. It is free and it is good.
You want the readings wired into other services, Discord and IFTTT among them, or you want your data exported. That is an ecosystem, and we are deliberately not building one.
If the first one sounds like you
Twelve styles, previewed with your own pulse. No account, no cloud, no subscription.
