Recent advancements in energy efficient wireless communication protocols and low powered digital sensor technologies have led to the development of wireless sensor network (WSN) applications in diverse industries. These WSNs are generally designed using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), ZigBee and Wi-Fi communication protocol depending on the range and reliability requirements of the application. Designing these WSN applications also depends on the following factors. First, the environment under which devices operate varies with the industries and products they are employed in. Second, the energy availability for these devices is limited so higher signal strength for transmission and retransmission reduces the lifetime of these nodes significantly and finally, the size of networks is increasing hence scheduling and routing of messages becomes critical as well. These factors make simulation for these applications essential for evaluating the performance of WSNs before physical deployment of network in a cost-effective manner. Since there are several WSN simulators with different functionalities, this paper aims to deliver a comparative study of the features of most widely used simulators. This study includes evaluation of these simulators based on communication protocols supported, visualizations for the network, calculation of network performance parameters like packet delivery ratio, throughput, energy consumption, and support for channel modelling. The uniqueness of this study arises from its focus on the BLE network simulations since it is increasingly becoming a protocol of choice for WSN application in automotive domain. Also, we consider both open source and closed source simulators. This study also becomes necessary as many of the simulators discussed in the existing studies have become obsolete and the classification parameters don’t consider the wireless communication protocols supported by them. Through this analysis of simulators, the best choice of simulator for an application can be made without investing too much time in exploring all the options.