Pulse Pro vs Grow Sensor PRO: Full sensor comparison
Which is your ultimate grow room monitor?
Alright, let's talk about the heart of your grow: keeping those environmental conditions absolutely dialled in.
You're not just looking for any monitor. You need the right tools to perfectly monitor your grow and ensure you're heading for that flawless harvest.
That's where a good grow room monitor becomes your best friend and eyes on the ground.
Personally, I kicked off my journey with a Pulse Pro from Pulse Labs, genuinely hoping it would be the ultimate grow room monitor for my needs.
My trusty little SensorPush, which I adore for its user friendly app, just didn't quite pack the range of sensors and features I required.
So, the Pulse Pro grow monitor seemed like the next logical step.
This post is all about breaking down the Grow Sensor PRO vs Pulse Pro.
We're here to give you the full lowdown, helping you see the stark differences so you can make an informed choice for your grow setup and get that crucial data to truly optimise your crop.
Disclaimer: Any information given on this site is for educational purposes only. Please ensure if you’re growing cannabis, you’re doing so by the law and subject to appropriate permissions and licenses of the applicable country.
Please also note that this comparison is written by the team behind Grow Sensor.
While we strive for factual accuracy and an honest assessment, our perspective is naturally influenced by our experience and passion for our product.
First impressions
Pulse was among the first to bring together many of the key things growers were looking for in one place, and that’s commendable.
I had high expectations and was genuinely excited.
But boy, I was in shock after importing the device across the pond from the United States to the United Kingdom for a cool £650 with import duties!
Getting the device set up was super easy, actually (it’s the same simple process with the Grow Sensor PRO).
You connect via Wi-Fi and don’t need a dedicated router or hub, unlike some of the other competitors in the market.
Both products have good Wi-Fi range, which is essential for large grow spaces.
So, initial setup – a thumbs up for both on that front.
Hardware & design: Form, function, and durability
First off, let’s talk about how these bits of kit feel in your hand and perform in your grow room.
Both devices are compact, which is a blessing, as some sensors on the market are huge and take up far too much space in your grow setup.
The Pulse Pro: Looks good, but how does it hold up?
The Pulse Pro definitely looks cool.
That bright orange really stands out, which is smart for marketing, I’ll give them that – orange devices tend to sell well!
However, while the case feels nice, the device itself is very light and feels quite delicate.
I’ve dropped mine a few times, and it’s genuinely fallen to bits on multiple occasions.
It just doesn’t feel robust enough for the demanding environment of a typical grow room.
It might photograph well, but durability is key when you’re relying on your sensors day in, day out.
Here’s where a major practical issue arises for the Pulse Pro: the PPFD window.
The light meter is side-mounted, which is a real shame because it prevents continuous PPFD readings.
This means you can’t get accurate, ongoing light intensity measurements.
Instead, you get snapshot-only PPFD and light spectrum readings, which you have to take manually.
This also means the Pulse Pro's DLI reading is purely estimated, compared to the Grow Sensor’s real-time DLI reading.
The window itself, which covers the PPFD PAR sensor, is also concave.
This design choice doesn't accurately collect light from side of the device, impacting its ability to take light intensity and PAR measurements correctly.
Frustratingly, the window covering the PPFD sensor often came unstuck and fell off my Pulse Pro multiple times.
I even lost it and then had to make my own. They may have changed this now, but this was my experience.
Not ideal, to say the least.
When it comes to setting up the sensor in your space, the Pulse Pro does include a way to hang it using the power cable.
You wrap it around the side and out through the top of the sensor. It’s a bit of a faff to get right, and adjusting as your plants grow is not easy.
What also always bugged me is that the Pulse Pro never hangs straight.
I don’t think this impacts the readings, but it certainly doesn't look great in the grow room, especially with its noticeable orange design.
The Pulse Pro includes a wall mount, which I never quite understood.
You generally want your sensor in the centre of your grow room, not stuck to a wall.
The Grow Sensor PRO: Built for real-world growing
Now, the Grow Sensor PRO is an entirely different beast built for enhanced grow room monitoring.
It’s noticeably heavier and feels much more solid and robust than the Pulse.
The Grow Sensor PRO features a top-mounted PPFD sensor.
This means you can measure continuously, which is exactly what you need.
We also measure the latest extended PPFD spectrum (e)PPFD.
This also allows it to measure your Daily Light Integral (DLI) over a full 24-hour period, giving you continuous and accurate DLI data.
This is super handy for truly understanding how much light your plants are actually receiving and how to optimise your lights.
You can also use the Grow Sensor in powered mode, giving you the best of both options for continuous data logging and understanding your grow room environment.
Accuracy & range of sensors: Getting the right data
Accuracy is always a tricky topic.
Obviously, all sensor companies want to provide the most accurate sensors possible!
And we all try hard to do so – at least we do at Grow Sensor; every sensor we ship is factory calibrated before it’s sent out.
The Pulse Pro: Slow to react, limited insights
When I tested the Pulse against three other sensors, Growlink, SensorPush, and the Grow Sensor PRO, I consistently found that the Pulse Pro was slow to react to changes in the environment.
Its humidity tracking was also way off compared to the other sensors I tested.
In fact, the only way I found I could reliably get better humidity data was to hang the sensor upside down. Not ideal!
I believe the general airflow into the Pulse is pretty limited, meaning the device can’t react quickly to environmental changes in the grow environment.
The Grow Sensor PRO: Comprehensive & rapid response
The Grow Sensor has been designed to move air and the environment quickly through its case, meaning faster, more accurate data for temperature, humidity, and .
The Grow Sensor PRO simply can’t be beaten on the range of sensors it contains.
It measures more than any other all-in-one product on the market.
If you want to crop steer, the Grow Sensor is the product for you.
The Pulse Pro is not compatible with substrate probes.
Pulse has a different product for that, but it's a more modular system that can cost a fair amount of money if you add up all the gear you need to match the Grow Sensor’s range of in-built sensors.
You’d pay $1248 before shipping and import duties, for a setup from Pulse that still wouldn’t measure leaf surface temperature or leaf VPD.
The Pulse Pro isn’t compatible with any control-based equipment.
The Grow Sensor is, though this feature is currently in development.
Soon, you’ll be able to buy an inexpensive box that allows you to control and measure external devices and sensors, enabling a true pro controller setup for your grow space.
The Grow Sensor will also soon be compatible with Home Assistant. This is currently in beta testing; we already have growers using this feature.
Pulse doesn't have this feature, but you can access their API for a cost. We don't have a public API yet, but we will soon!
Software & user experience: How you interact with your data
The Pulse Pro App: Desktop-first data
At a very top level, the Pulse and Grow Sensor software are similar.
Both have an iOS + Android App where you can see graphs and get instant alerts.
Beyond that, they are very different.
The Pulse grow monitor App was built desktop-first, meaning they’ve squished everything down into a mobile view, and it just feels clunky.
The Pulse Dashboard Screen.
The Pulse graph screen.
Pulse’s graphs are hard to use, slow to load, and frankly, just get in the way of the main reason I want to use the app.
I want to get in, easily assess my data, compare trends, understand problems, and get out.
I always felt like this was a hard task with the Pulse.
While I found the Pulse App generally reliable, its clunkiness was a constant friction point for me.
The text is hard to read, and the App’s UI is frustrating to use on a mobile device.
You can set push notification alerts in the Pulse and get text notifications (at a cost).
The push notifications never worked on my device, so I can’t report back on this feature.
If your Wi-Fi goes down, the Pulse's graphs are not available offline, which can be annoying when you’re trying to check things quickly.
With the Grow Sensor, if your Wi-Fi networks go down, you can still access your data on your phone because we also store it locally on the device.
The Grow Sensor’s notifications are super clear at a glance.
An example of the Grow Sensor alerts.
In the graph view, your limits are shown as red or purple lines, and all adjustments are saved in your past data.
This is awesome, as it gives you something visible and tangible to aim for and look back on. With the Pulse, you can’t see limits on graphs.
In the future, we will use this as the basis for creating interactive, visible grow recipes for your environment that adjust week on week.
Setting templates with the Pulse.
Currently, the Pulse device allows you to create basic grow recipes or templates, but they are very basic.
We are working on this feature, and it’s highly advanced. Watch out for that soon!
Pulse Pro: Features available now (And in development for Grow Sensor)
As an established company, Pulse Labs has developed some features that the Grow Sensor PRO is still working on.
While our sensors offer more comprehensive measurements, our App is mobile-first, and your data is free; it's worth noting where the Pulse Pro currently provides additional functionality:
Team accounts: Pulse offers the ability to add team accounts (for an additional cost), which is in our pipeline for Grow Sensor.
Premium notifications & API: Pulse provides text notifications for a fee, and their API access is premium-only ($35/user/mo). At Grow Sensor, we're developing emergency notifications that will bypass airplane mode, and our public API is coming soon.
Desktop app: Pulse has a dedicated desktop app. While we're currently mobile-first, a desktop version for Grow Sensor is being developed.
Multiple grow locations: Pulse allows you to set up multiple grow locations (though often at an additional cost per location or user), a feature we're also actively developing for Grow Sensor.
Subscription & Pricing: The true cost of monitoring
The Pulse Pro: Ongoing costs for your data
The Pulse subscription has two main tiers beyond the free one: $15 and $35 per month.
You can see what’s offered in both of those.
This ongoing price really adds up when you consider tracking everything in your grow area over the long term.
This means the price for the Pulse Pro extends well beyond the initial purchase.
And here’s the kicker, and what was the final nail in the coffin for me, which isn’t obvious on their site:
You have to pay per month to access your past data with the Pulse.
Anything beyond three months is locked behind a paywall.
I’d just paid £650 for the device, and now I have to pay more money just to see my own data?!
This was the ultimate deal-breaker for me.
The Grow Sensor PRO: All features included, data for free
Currently, the Grow Sensor doesn’t have a subscription model, and it might in the future for enterprise features, AI, and its diary feature.
But unlike Pulse, we will never hold you to ransom for your data.
Your data will always be 100% free with the Grow Sensor. The way it should be.
When it comes to the price, both products are very similar in the UK.
That’s a good thing because solid support is paramount when you rely on sensors for your crop.
Takeaways: An honest, grower-focused take
Okay, hopefully, our Pulse Pro grow monitor review and comparison have helped you get a clearer idea.
But let’s answer the question you’re undoubtedly thinking: “This guy is totally biased, right?”
And yes (hands up!), I definitely am.
But I’m a grower, just like you, who bought a Pulse Pro hoping it would fix the problems in my grow.
Growing is something I love, and I'm not looking to make more work for myself – I’m a busy person.
I was looking for a device that did what I needed in a modern approach that was expandable, easy and fun to use, and, crucially, didn't charge me extra for my data.
And that was not the Pulse Pro.
And it absolutely is the Grow Sensor.
Our team is made up of people who, if they don’t like something, want to fix it and make something better.
And this is precisely what we have done.
It's a bias born from needing a better product to truly optimise your grow space.
So, we made it.
Happy growing!
FAQs
Is the Pulse Pro worth it?
In short, for growers, the Pulse Pro falls short.
While it offers basic monitoring, its poor build quality, very limited battery life, and most critically, charging you to access your own historical data, make it a less-than-ideal choice.
You'll find better value and more comprehensive, free access to your crucial grow data elsewhere.
What does Pulse Pro do?
The Pulse Pro is a grow room monitor that tracks temperature, humidity, VPD, dew point, CO2, and takes PPFD/PAR and light spectrum snapshots.
It connects to an App on your phone for remote monitoring and data logging.
Where is Pulse Pro made?
The Pulse Pro is designed and manufactured in the USA.
