Honest Decibel: Sound Meter

Real-time dBA sound level meter. dBC, Flat, and calibration for pros. Mic stops when you leave. No account. No tracking.

A sound meter you can trust.

Honest Decibel measures A-weighted decibels in real time, with no account and no subscription. The microphone turns off the moment you leave the app.

WHAT IT MEASURES

dBA — A-weighted decibels for everyday hearing safety. Matches NIOSH occupational noise guidance. Real-time reading on one screen. A peak hold marker shows the highest level reached. Haptic ticks confirm each band crossing without you having to watch the screen. Dark mode for night use.

WHAT'S OPTIONAL

Pro tools are a one-time purchase, never a subscription, never an auto-renewing trial. They include:

— dBC (C-weighted) and dBZ (Flat) scales for low-frequency, concert, and venue measurements — Calibration offset to match a reference meter — Future pro tools, included for owners — never a new paywall

You see pro options in Settings, marked plainly. There is no startup popup, no nag banner, no expiring trial.

WHY THIS EXISTS

We use sound level meters. We kept downloading decibel apps and kept running into the same pattern. One auto-renewed a yearly subscription on the first open. Another made us tap through five screens before revealing a paywall. A third kept the microphone active for hours after we closed the app.

We read the one-star reviews. Users writing things like: charged without warning. Microphone never turned off. Subscription activated without input. We recognised the pattern. We built the alternative.

HOW IT WORKS

Open the app. The meter is ready. Tap Start — the microphone turns on. Read the level. Tap Stop or leave the app — the microphone turns off. No background audio session. No server call. No account creation. The reading is calculated on your device and goes nowhere.

WHAT YOU WON'T GET

A recurring charge. A nagging tier. A paywall after five screens. Push notifications, reminders. An account or password. A microphone that stays on after you leave.

WHO IT'S FOR

Checking concert or venue noise levels. Monitoring workplace sound exposure against NIOSH guidelines. Verifying whether a room meets a dBA threshold. Measuring noise at a job site, a rehearsal space, or a restaurant where you can't hear the person next to you.

TECHNICAL NOTES

dBA in the base; dBC and dBZ optional. Peak hold. Calibration offset. Haptic ticks. Offline — no network required. Privacy manifest included. Microphone permission is requested once, used only while the app is open, released on exit. No analytics. No third-party SDKs. No tracking.

Built by two people who got tired of subscription traps in a category that should have a clean answer.