About Gamepad Tester
Who builds Gamepad Tester, why it reads raw controller values, and the rule that nothing you test ever leaves your browser.
Why this tool exists
Most controller testers show you whether a button lights up. That tells you almost nothing about the condition of the hardware. A stick can be four months from failure and still light up perfectly. What actually answers the question is the raw number the controller is reporting, before any game applies a deadzone to hide it.
So that is what this site does. It reads the HTML5 Gamepad API directly, prints exact floating-point values, and lets you decide whether a pad is fine, degrading, or worth replacing.
Who writes it
Marcus Feld — Controller repair technician & hardware diagnostics writer.
Marcus has spent nine years repairing game controllers, first at a high-street console repair counter and now running his own bench service. He has replaced well over three thousand joystick modules and writes about the diagnostics that tell you whether a pad is worth fixing.
The diagnostic thresholds used across the site — the drift bands, the trigger range expectations, the latency reference figures — come from bench experience with the same failures, seen repeatedly across every major controller brand.
What we will not claim
The browser Gamepad API has real limits, and this site states them rather than papering over them. Battery percentage is not readable. The DualSense microphone and speaker are not testable. Safari does not support rumble at all, and iOS supports neither vibration nor adaptive trigger testing. Where a feature is unavailable, the tool says so instead of failing quietly.
Your data
Nothing you test is stored or transmitted. All input processing happens in your browser. There is no account system, no upload step, and no server-side record of any controller you connect. The only thing kept between visits is your light or dark theme preference, in localStorage. See the privacy policy for the full detail.
Trademarks
This site is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or associated with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, or any controller manufacturer. Product names are used descriptively to say which hardware the tester works with. All controller illustrations on the site are original schematic drawings.
Get in touch
Found a controller the tester mis-reads, or a browser it behaves strangely in? Contact us — the more hardware reports we get, the better the detection gets.