Cycling through all six. Tap any point to stop.

Measured on six things

Free online gamepad tester for drift, buttons, triggers &...

Security

HTTPS enforced with HSTS, secure cookies, X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy set. No CSP, frame protection, Permissions-Policy, SPF or DMARC. Client-side-only design genuinely limits data exposure, but header hygiene is incomplete.

Screenshots

1 / 1

Controller Test

About this app

Controller Test is a free, browser-based diagnostic tool that instantly checks your gamepad's health. It runs entirely client-side using the Gamepad API, so your button presses and stick movements never leave your device. Whether you're a competitive gamer, a repair technician, or shopping for a used controller, this tool provides accurate readings for stick drift, button mapping, vibration motors, polling rate, and input latency. It supports Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, and generic USB/Bluetooth controllers. The interface is clean and intuitive, with dedicated pages for each test and clear pass/fail verdicts. No downloads, no accounts, no data collection. It's like having a professional bench tool right in your browser.

Key features

1Client-side gamepad diagnostics via W3C Gamepad API — no upload, no account, no install
2Dedicated pages for stick drift, button mapping, vibration, polling rate, latency and circularity
3Pass/fail verdicts per test with troubleshooting guides and fix links
4Supports Xbox, PlayStation, Switch, Joy-Con, 8BitDo and generic USB/Bluetooth HID controllers

Target customer profile

Drawn from the product itself, not from a survey.

Demographic

Competitive gamers (18-35)

Pain points

Need to ensure controller performance before tournaments; stick drift can ruin gameplay.

Primary needs

Quick, reliable diagnostics without installing software.

Demographic

Repair technicians

Pain points

Require a fast way to verify controller fixes and diagnose issues accurately.

Primary needs

Detailed component tests (stick, buttons, rumble) with clear pass/fail results.

Demographic

Used controller buyers

Pain points

Risk of purchasing a faulty controller; want to test before buying.

Primary needs

Portable, easy-to-use tool to check drift, buttons, and connectivity on the spot.

Scout Review

Written by AI from measured evidence, scored out of 100.

Controller Test is a browser-based gamepad diagnostic tool that runs entirely client-side via the W3C Gamepad API. It covers stick drift, button mapping, vibration, polling rate, latency and circularity across Xbox, PlayStation, Switch and generic HID controllers, with a dedicated page per test and pass/fail verdicts. The design is coherent and tool-appropriate, usability is genuinely thoughtful (real troubleshooting, no account, no install), and the privacy story is architecturally sound. The gaps are speed on mobile (Lighthouse 60/100, LCP 3.6s), incomplete security headers, and two accessibility failures despite a 95/100 automated score. Against Gamepad Tester and Hardware Tester, it wins on depth and verdicts, loses on nothing structural. A solid, honest indie tool that does what it says.

Measure by measure

Usability

Four-step setup guide, per-test troubleshooting, and dedicated pages for each diagnostic make this genuinely usable. No account, no install, immediate CTA. Docs are decent but the FAQ tap targets and dense tables hurt on mobile.

Design

Coherent dark theme with restrained neon green accents suits a diagnostic tool. Live gamepad SVG showing real-time axis values is a genuine functional touch, not decoration. Small FAQ tap targets and cramped troubleshooting tables hold it back.

Speed

Lighthouse mobile 60/100 with LCP 3.6s and TBT 1.1s; desktop 89/100. Client-side-only processing keeps runtime light, but the mobile first paint is slow enough to notice on a phone at the bench.

Security

Accessibility

Lighthouse accessibility 95/100. Two real failures: insufficient color contrast and non-sequential heading order. No published a11y statement or WCAG claim. Strong automated score, but the contrast issue is user-visible, not theoretical.

Growth

Real problem, three named segments (competitive players, repair techs, used-pad buyers), and a concrete wedge: one focused page per test with pass/fail verdicts. Category is crowded with free alternatives, so the ceiling is real but not tall.

Improvement areas

Mobile Lighthouse performance is 60/100 with LCP 3.6s — slow first paint on phones
Missing CSP, frame protection, Permissions-Policy, SPF and DMARC headers
Accessibility: insufficient color contrast and non-sequential heading order
FAQ accordion tap targets are too small and troubleshooting tables are hard to scan

Design & Usability

Controller Test's design is competent and on-brand: a dark theme with restrained green accents, a live gamepad SVG that mirrors real input, and a clean 2x3 grid of diagnostic cards. It reads as a tool, not a landing page, which is the right call. Usability is the stronger half — a four-step setup guide, per-test troubleshooting that names real culprits (Steam Input, DS4Windows, Bluetooth re-pairing), and dedicated pages for drift, buttons, triggers, vibration, latency, polling rate and circularity. The weak spots are small: FAQ accordion tap targets are tiny, the troubleshooting table crams text into narrow cells, and the hero's 'controllers tested' stat sits unanchored under the connection panel. Nothing here is broken; it's a well-executed indie tool that could tighten its mobile ergonomics.

Speed & Security

Speed is a split verdict. Lighthouse desktop scores 89/100, but mobile lands at 60/100 with an LCP of 3.6s and TBT of 1.1s — noticeable on a phone, which is exactly where a repair tech or a used-pad buyer would use this. The client-side-only architecture keeps runtime work light, so the cost is mostly first paint. Security is honest but incomplete: HTTPS is enforced with HSTS, secure cookies, X-Content-Type-Options and Referrer-Policy set, but there's no CSP, no frame protection, no Permissions-Policy, and no SPF or DMARC. The product's core claim — that button presses never leave the browser — is architecturally true and genuinely reduces risk surface. But 'we don't collect data' is a design choice, not a security program, and the header hygiene reflects that.

Accessibility & Growth

Accessibility scores 95/100 on Lighthouse, which is strong, but two real failures remain: insufficient color contrast and non-sequential heading order. The contrast issue is user-visible, not theoretical, and the heading order will confuse screen reader navigation. There's no published accessibility statement or WCAG conformance claim, which is normal for an indie tool but limits how far the score can go. Growth is a judgement call, not a traction read. The problem is real — stick drift ruins controllers and nobody wants to install software to check — and the site names three specific segments: competitive players pre-match, repair techs verifying fixes, and used-pad buyers checking before purchase. The wedge is one focused page per test with pass/fail verdicts, versus the single-page alternatives. That's a genuine differentiator, but the category is crowded with free tools and the domain is only months old. The idea has room; the moat is thin.

Conclusion

If you're a repair tech, a competitive player, or someone staring at a used DualSense on Marketplace wondering if the sticks are cooked, this is the tool to open. It's free, it's fast on desktop, it never uploads your inputs, and it tells you pass or replace instead of leaving you to interpret a scatter plot. The mobile experience and the accessibility contrast issue are the two things worth fixing next. Everything else is a small indie tool doing its job without pretending to be a platform.

Suggestions for improvement

Fix the color contrast failure flagged by Lighthouse — it's the one automated a11y check you're failing and it's user-visible.
Correct heading order on the homepage so screen reader navigation follows a logical hierarchy.
Improve mobile LCP (3.6s) — defer non-critical JS and inline critical CSS for the hero panel.
Add a Content-Security-Policy and frame-ancestors header; both are cheap and close real gaps.

How we score

Alternatives comparison

Named competitors, point by point. Nobody paid to appear here or to be left out.

	Controller Test	Gamepad Tester	Hardware Tester
Price	Free	Free	Free
Stick drift test with pass/fail verdict	Yes — dedicated page with per-stick verdict	Live axis readout, no verdict	Live axis readout, no verdict
Vibration / rumble motor test	Yes — strong and weak motors fired independently	Not offered	Not offered
Polling rate measurement	Yes — Hz readout, wired vs Bluetooth comparison	Not offered	Not offered
Input latency measurement	Yes — ms readout over multiple runs	Not offered	Not offered
Stick circularity / accuracy trace	Yes — rim trace with quadrant weakness detection	Basic circularity display	Basic circularity display
Dedicated page per test	Yes — 16+ separate tester pages	No — single-page tool	No — single-page tool within a larger suite
Data privacy (client-side only)	Yes — no upload, no account, no tracking of inputs	Client-side; ad-supported	Client-side; ad-supported
Troubleshooting / setup guidance	Yes — 4-step guide plus per-test troubleshooting	Minimal	Minimal
Account required	No	No	No