Winter Fireplace vs Controller for HomeKit
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Winter Fireplace
Transform any space into a cozy haven with a vast library of 4K fireplace, candle, and campfire videos. Enjoy immersive soundscapes and seamless syncing across devices for relaxation, romance, or seasonal cheer.
- Extensive 4K fire video library
- Diverse fire scene types
- Immersive soundscapes
- Favorites and history
- iCloud syncing
- AirPlay support
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Welcome to Winter Fireplace, the premier 4K fireplace, candle and campfire app, creating an inviting fireside atmosphere in any setting. Winter Fireplace offers a diverse library of 4K fireplace and fireside videos, and campfire and candle light scenes, making it perfect for relaxation, romance with soft candle light, or seasonal spirit with a campfire or bonfire. Winter Fireplace Features: • Extensive Fire Video Library: Over 100 premium 4K videos showcasing fireplace, fireside, candle, campfire, and bonfire scenes. • Favorites: Easily bookmark your favorite fire place and fireside moments. • History: Return to recently watched 4K fire & candle light scenes with a tap. • Fire Variety: Winter Fireplace includes not just a traditional wood fire but also a campfire, gas fireplace, outdoor fire pits, and intimate candle settings. • Soundscapes: Choose from 20+ immersive audio options to enhance your experience, from crackling fire wood to the sounds of a campfire or bonfire in nature. • Seamless Syncing: With iCloud integration, sync your preferences across all devices effortlessly. • AirPlay Capabilities: Cast fireplace videos, candle arrangements, campfire scenes, and fireside settings to your Apple TV and compatible devices. Fireside Scene Types: • Fire place • Candle arrangement • Campfire • Bonfire • Fire pit • and more fire themed scenes! Whether for fireside chats, adding a fire backdrop to your living room, creating a votive candle display, or enhancing cozy evenings with candle light, Winter Fireplace creates a peaceful ambiance in every environment. It’s also perfect for social gatherings around a bonfire or campfire, and for creating cozy fireside family events. Gain free access to selected tranquil 4K fireplace scenes or opt for the immersive fireside, campfire and candle experiences of our affordable Winter Fireplace Premium subscription. Create a relaxing fire lit ambiance today! Winter Fireplace Terms of Use: http://teleost.net/winter-fireplace/eula/en
Controller for HomeKit
Enhance your smart home experience with advanced control and automation. Visualize your home with floor plans, track device performance with charts, and create complex automations tailored to your needs. Organize devices, store setup codes, and monitor your entire smart home ecosystem.
- Floor plan visualization with LiDAR
- Device performance charts
- Complex automations and workflows
- Custom notifications
- Smart folders and filters
- Setup code storage
- Device maintenance and logs
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Get more out of your smart home. Your HomeKit and Matter devices can do more than on and off: Controller for HomeKit gives you dashboards you build yourself, workflows that run over several steps, months of history, and a floor plan you control directly. YOUR OWN DASHBOARD Your devices sit where you need them, instead of in a list. - Views you compose yourself from tiles: per home, per person, and if you want, per device. One for the iPad on the wall, one for the iPhone in your pocket. - More than 25 tile variants: devices, scenes, workflows, time, weather, calendar, charts, battery warnings. - Five standard sizes, or drag your own size on the grid. - Visibility conditions: a tile or a whole section appears only when you need it. - Plus widgets for your Home Screen and a view of your own on Apple Watch. CONTROLLER AI Describe what you need in plain language: a dashboard, a scene, an automation or a workflow. Controller builds it, and you adjust it however you like afterwards. MORE THAN A SCHEDULE Two devices become a sequence that thinks along. - Workflows: multiple steps, conditions and branches for sequences a single automation cannot express. - Automations with advanced triggers and conditions. - States: virtual switches that capture how your home currently stands and drive your workflows accordingly. - Custom notifications for anything you want to know about. - NFC tags: one tap and the workflow runs. YOUR SENSORS ARE ALREADY MEASURING Controller remembers the values and makes them readable. - Charts: see how temperature, humidity or battery level develop over weeks and months, across every device and brand. - Maintenance: which battery is empty, which device is unreachable, which automation is broken. - Logs: every activity and every change, traceable. - Smart folders: devices and automations grouped by filters you define. - Floor Plan: scan your home with the LiDAR sensor of your iPhone or iPad and control your devices right on the plan. - Controller Hub: a dedicated iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac runs your workflows automatically. Charts and States require Controller Hub. SHARE THE WORK, NOT JUST THE SWITCHES - Home Sharing: pass your entire setup to the people you live with. For each person you choose between the whole app or only the dashboards you share with them. - Setup codes: your HomeKit and Matter codes stay safe in the app and never get lost. - Backups: save your setup and restore it whenever you need to. Controller for HomeKit runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. You already own the devices. Controller for HomeKit brings out what is in them. More on our website: https://www.controllerforhomekit.com Privacy Policy: https://controllerforhomekit.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: Controller for HomeKit at 2.7K against Winter Fireplace's 209. Controller for HomeKit also leads on device support (5 vs 3). On price, rating, review sentiment and update cadence 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. Winter Fireplace sells 12 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Controller for HomeKit sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.0 for Winter Fireplace against 4.1 for Controller for HomeKit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Controller for HomeKit has 2.7K ratings behind it against 209, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 31% of Winter Fireplace's written reviews are positive against 27% of Controller for HomeKit's.
Winter Fireplace ships an update fortnightly, Controller for HomeKit every 10 days. Both last shipped on October 18, 2026.
| Parameter | Winter Fireplace | Controller for HomeKit |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.0 (209 ratings) | 4.1 (2.7K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 31.0% of reviews — better | 26.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 209 | 2.7K — better |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, Apple TV | iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 17.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 177 MB | 210 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Henry Glendening | acasa Software GmbH |
Customer experience
Winter Fireplace
Controller for HomeKit
Bugs and requests
Winter Fireplace
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Controller for HomeKit
Reported bugs
4 issues- Backup and restore issues
- Disappearing automations and accessories
- Compatibility problems with iOS 16.2
- Slow performance and unresponsiveness
Requested features
4 requests- Improved documentation and tutorials
- Better integration with Apple Home app
- Support for more HomeKit device types
- Ability to customize automation triggers
In-app purchases
Winter Fireplace
- Winter Fireplace Premium$2.991 Month
- Winter Fireplace Premium$9.991 Year
- Fireplace Pack 2$1.99
- Fireplace Pack 12$1.99
- Fireplace Pack 1 - Originals$3.99
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- Fireplace Pack 4$3.99
- Fireplace Pack 8 - Frameless$3.99
- Pack 11$3.99
- Fireplace Pack 9 - Christmas$5.99
- Fireplace Pack 10 - Halloween$5.99
- Mega Bundle$12.99
- Unlock$19.99
Controller for HomeKit
- Controller Essentials2 variants$4.991 Month
- Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon$4.991 Month
- Controller Plus$8.991 Month
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon3 Months trial$39.991 Year
- Controller Essentials7 Days trial2 variants$39.991 Year
- Controller Plus7 Days trial$79.991 Year
- Controller Essentials Lifetime$99.99
- Controller Essentials Lifetime$139.99
Questions
Is Winter Fireplace free?
Is Controller for HomeKit free?
Which has better reviews, Winter Fireplace or Controller for HomeKit?
Do Winter Fireplace or Controller for HomeKit have ads?
Which is updated more often, Winter Fireplace or Controller for HomeKit?
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