Smart Shades vs Sunsa
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Smart Shades
Transform your existing window shades into smart devices with this solar-powered, wireless gadget. Control your blinds remotely via a smartphone app, setting custom schedules and automated movements for enhanced convenience.
- Turns regular shades into smart shades
- Solar-powered operation
- Wireless and easy installation
- Smartphone app control
- Automated patterns and schedules
- Bluetooth Low Energy communication
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SOMA Smart Shades is an easy to install, solar-powered device that turns your regular window shades into smart shades. It is extremely simple to operate via your smartphone. It is also easy to install since it is wireless. All the movements of SOMA Smart Shades are controlled by the application which communicates with SOMA Smart Shades via Bluetooth Low Energy. You can move blinds in your rooms up and down whenever you like or create automated patterns and schedules for different rooms to make your life even more convenient.
Sunsa
Automate your existing blinds with motorized control from your phone. Schedule them to open and close for natural light or privacy, and create groups to manage multiple blinds simultaneously. Enhance home security by simulating occupancy while away.
- Motorize existing blinds
- Remote control via smartphone
- Customizable schedules
- Group control for multiple blinds
- Simulate home occupancy
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Sunsa - The world’s simplest smart blinds, motorized, and automate your existing blinds. Control your blinds anywhere, anytime right from your phone with the Sunsa App for IOS. Open and close your blinds to shut out the glare or open them up to enjoy the view. The Sunsa App for IOS makes it easy to fully open your blinds, close them, or anything in between to get it exactly right. Create schedules that automatically tilt your blinds open and close. Wake up to natural light in the morning and close at night for privacy. You can even make it look like someone is home when you are away for vacation or business. Create groups that let you control as many blinds as you want at the same time. Want to close all the blinds in your house? No problem. There is no limit to the number of groups you can have and blinds can be in multiple groups. *******IMPORTANT INFORMATION******* The Sunsa app is free to install, but it requires the purchase of one or more Sunsa Wands. Sunsa Wands upgrade your blinds to smart blinds in under 2 minutes and can be purchased at sunsahomes.com.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Sunsa at 83% against Smart Shades's 25%. Sunsa also leads on rating (4.5 vs 2.1) and monetization model (free with in-app purchases vs paid). Smart Shades's advantage is update cadence (every 2 months vs every 29 months). On price, ratings volume, ads and in-app purchases there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Sunsa holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 2.1. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 62 and 27 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 25% of Smart Shades's written reviews are positive against 83% of Sunsa's.
Smart Shades ships an update every 2 months, Sunsa every 29 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Smart Shades | Sunsa |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.1 (62 ratings) | 4.5 (27 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 25.0% of reviews | 83.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 62 — better | 27 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 29 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Paid | Free with in-app purchases — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 15.0 | 13.4 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 47 MB | 21 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Wazombi | Sunsa, Inc |
Customer experience
Smart Shades
Sunsa
Bugs and requests
Smart Shades
Reported bugs
32 issues- App crashes with Smart Shades 3
- App crashes after update
- App crashes instantly
- App closes itself right away
- App won't open at all
Show 27 moreShow fewer
- App crashes before it even opens
- Sunset function stopped working
- Sunset trigger doesn't work
- Bluetooth stopped working
- Not responding to Alexa
- Soma Connect not working
- Soma Connect shows WiFi numbers, not names
- Soma Connect connection failed
- Shade control only works on Android
- Next button missing during calibration
- Calibration deviation over time
- Blind drifts out of calibrated position
- Cog works its way off spindle
- Battery status inaccurate
- Motor is slow
- Units open at different speeds
- Blinds lose their position
- Hub setup programmed poorly
- Voice commands limited
- App not updated for over a year
- Easy to interrupt movement
- Device forgets min/max heights
- Pairing Soma Connect is almost impossible
- Blinds slip and need reconfiguring
- Motor is slow to respond
- Ripped the gear cog to shreds
- App crashes halfway through firmware update
Requested features
24 requests- Matter support
- Change app language
- Change highest/lowest position
- Recalibrate function
- Simple up and down buttons
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Dusk to dawn automation
- Sunrise/sunset schedule
- Siri Shortcut integration
- Group triggers
- Confirmation dialog when cancelling setup
- Manual adjustment offset
- Notification for low battery
- Single screen for all battery levels
- Support for iPhone X screen size
- Rename groups/individual units
- Speed control for motors
- Temperature setting (Fahrenheit)
- Dusk/dawn open and close
- Edit shade name
- Continuous open/close feature
- Update for iOS 11 group creation
- iPad version
- Live power meter for solar panel
- Secure version of product
Sunsa
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Smart Shades
No in-app purchases
Sunsa
No in-app purchases
