Comparison

Josh vs AUTOMATE PULSE

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Josh

Control your smart home with an AI-powered platform. Personalize your experience by adjusting settings, creating automations, and accessing devices from anywhere. Enjoy intuitive control through touch, text, and voice commands for the whole family.

Highlights
  • AI-powered smart home control
  • Personalize home intelligence
  • Create automations and alerts
  • Access property from anywhere
  • Intuitive touch, text, and voice commands
  • Customizable dashboards and interfaces
Features
Read full description

Josh.ai: AI powered smart home control. Powered by Josh.ai's award winning software platform AI OS, the Josh App provides seamless access to your connected devices and dynamic tools to personalize your home intelligence experience to the fullest. Refine administrative settings, adjust a home's floor plan, nickname devices, create automations and alerts, and add custom photos to your bespoke interface. Access your property from anywhere and easily navigate to what's important. Simply swipe from the Interactive Home Page to access custom dashboards, areas, devices, and scenes. The Josh.ai platform is designed to empower every member of the family with intuitive control and intelligent assistance through touch, text, and natural voice commands. Note: The Josh App requires a valid software plan and accompanies Josh hardware, which is exclusively available through certified home technology professionals. Visit www.josh.ai for more information.

About

AUTOMATE PULSE

Control motorized window shades remotely with an intuitive interface. Visualize shade positions, check battery health, and set custom timers and scenes for automated comfort, whether you're home or away.

Highlights
  • Remote shade control
  • Bi-directional communication
  • Visualize shade positioning
  • Check battery health
  • Create rooms, timers, and scenes
  • Motor limit adjustment
  • Up, down, stop, and position control
Features
Read full description

Automate Pulse is an easy to use interface used to configure and control motorized window shades using the Automate "ARC" radio motor platform. Whether you are at home or away you can accurately control your shades via the animated interface on your smartphone. Bi-directional communication allows you to visualize the exact positioning of your internal and external shades while also allowing you to check the battery health of your wirefree motors. Getting started is simple via the easy to follow setup wizard. Create rooms, set timers & scenes for optimum comfort and allow Automate PULSE to take control. Installers can also take advantage of the convenient remote free setup to efficiently set motor limits with their smart phone. · Requires the ARC Pulse Hub – available from your Rollease Acmeda Automate Motorized Shade Dealer Features: Each Pulse Hub supports up to 30 motorized window treatments · Create up to 20 Rooms, Scenes and timers · Invite up to 4 users per Pulse Hub with full control privileges and their own “Favorites” list. · Administrator account allows system configuration- o Set up, activate and deactivate timers o Create Scenes o Adjust travel limits o Create multiple locations (up to 5) and add Pulse hubs (up to 5) · Control screens provide motor status including- o Operate motors to any position desired § Up, down, stop and move to position control § Animation and end position status provided through 2 way feedback from motors. § Battery health for Wirefree rechargeable motors o Favorite position setting & recall

Screenshots

Josh4 screens
AUTOMATE PULSE4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Josh at 87% against AUTOMATE PULSE's 31%. Josh also leads on rating (4.9 vs 2.8) and update cadence (weekly vs every 3 months). AUTOMATE PULSE's advantage is iOS requirement (8.0 vs 18). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Josh holds the better App Store score, 4.9 against 2.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 114 and 44 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 87% of Josh's written reviews are positive against 31% of AUTOMATE PULSE's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Josh ships an update weekly, AUTOMATE PULSE every 3 months. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 15, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Josh versus AUTOMATE PULSE: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterJoshAUTOMATE PULSE
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.9 (114 ratings) — better2.8 (44 ratings)
Positive reviews87.1% of reviews — better30.6% of reviews
Number of ratings114 — better44
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 3 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS188.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size142 MB27 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperJosh.ai IncROLLEASE ACMEDA

Customer experience

Josh

All ratings114 ratings
Positive96.5%
Neutral0.9%
Negative2.6%
Written reviews31 reviews
Positive87.1%
Neutral3.2%
Negative9.7%

AUTOMATE PULSE

All ratings44 ratings
Positive38.6%
Neutral11.4%
Negative50.0%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive30.6%
Neutral14.3%
Negative55.1%

Bugs and requests

Josh

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

AUTOMATE PULSE

Reported bugs

21 issues
  • Hub stopped working
  • App not connecting to WiFi
  • App not working for no reason
  • Cannot add location
  • App not compatible with hub
Show 16 more
  • Settings not stored
  • Lost Rooms and Scenes after iOS update
  • Stopped working with Alexa
  • App randomly wiped everything
  • Automated timings lose settings
  • App crashes frequently
  • Devices not responding
  • Alexa not finding devices
  • Devices paired change when app reopened
  • Requires re-pairing devices
  • "Time out" errors
  • "Log in failed" errors
  • App hangs
  • Timer function unreliable
  • Amazon Echo not recognizing scenes
  • Timer loses settings for selected days

Requested features

12 requests
  • Add tablet support
  • Add widget support for quick scene access
  • Add sunrise/sunset timers
  • Add HomeKit integration
  • Add Alexa support (for some users)
Show 7 more
  • Allow reordering of scenes/timers
  • Allow grouping scenes/timers in folders
  • Sync settings online to avoid redoing
  • Add sunrise/sunset function in timer module
  • Add IFTTT integration
  • Update software for iPad rotation
  • Add HomeKit and/or Alexa support

In-app purchases

None

Josh

No in-app purchases

None

AUTOMATE PULSE

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Josh free?
Josh is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is AUTOMATE PULSE free?
AUTOMATE PULSE is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Josh or AUTOMATE PULSE?
Josh is rated higher. Josh averages 4.9 out of 5 from 114 ratings, while AUTOMATE PULSE averages 2.8 from 44 ratings.
Do Josh or AUTOMATE PULSE have ads?
Neither Josh nor AUTOMATE PULSE shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Josh or AUTOMATE PULSE?
Josh ships an update weekly, and AUTOMATE PULSE every 3 months. Most recently, Josh was updated on October 17, 2026 and AUTOMATE PULSE on October 15, 2026.

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