For developers, particularly small teams, this mitigates the requirement to purchase a lot of expensive devices purely for testing purposes. Simulator allows you to pick a specific device environment for testing - like an iPhone 7 Plus running iOS 10.3. This is yet another powerful tool for professional app developers and is one of the 20 best iOS emulators to run iOS apps on Mac and Windows. Because Xcode is only available on the Mac platform, Apple's Simulator is not available for Windows users. Installed as part of Xcode's tools, Simulator functions like a standard Mac app on your desktop. It might seem obvious, but the best simulator for iOS devices comes from Apple itself.

You can simulate iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and even Apple TV environments using simulation software, though for best results you'll need a Mac. Simulators differ from emulators in that they aren't designed to replicate hardware, but rather model the underlying state of the hardware.Ī good simulator will model these conditions so well that the simulation itself can emulate the hardware. If you're looking for a way to test iOS apps on a Mac or PC, you'll need to use a simulator.

Iphone emulator or mac