Philips Hue vs IKEA Home smart
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Philips Hue
Control and customize your smart lighting system from anywhere. Organize lights by room, create custom scenes, and automate your lighting to match your daily routine or enhance security. Sync lights with media for immersive experiences.
- Organize lights into rooms and zones
- Remote control from anywhere
- Explore and create custom lighting scenes
- Home security features with sensors
- Automate lighting schedules
- Sync lights with TV, music, and games
- Voice control integration
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The official Philips Hue app is the most comprehensive way to organize, control, and customize your Philips Hue smart lights and accessories. Organize your smart lights Group your lights into Rooms or Zones — your entire downstairs floor or all the lights in the living room, for example — that mirror the physical rooms in your home. Easily control your lights — from anywhere Use the app to control your lights anywhere you have an internet connection. Explore the Hue scene gallery Created by professional lighting designers, the scenes in the scene gallery can help you set the mood for any occasion. You can even create your own scenes based on a photo or your favorite colors. Set up bright home security Make your home feel safer, no matter where you are. The Security Center lets you program your Secure cameras, Secure contact sensors, and indoor motion sensors to send you alerts when they detect activity. Trigger light and sound alarms, call the authorities or a trusted contact, and monitor your home in real-time. Get the best light for any moment of the day Let your lights change automatically throughout the day with the Natural light scene — so you feel more energized, focused, relaxed, or rested at the right times. Just set the scene to watch your lights change with the sun’s movement, transitioning from cool blue tones in the morning to warmer, relaxing hues for sunset. Automate your lights Make your smart lights work around your daily routine. Whether you want your lights to gently wake you up in the morning or greet you when you get home, setting up customizable automations in the Philips Hue app is effortless. Sync your lights to TV, music, and games Make your lights flash, dance, dim, brighten, and change color in sync with your screen or sound! With the Philips Hue Play HDMI sync box, the Philips Hue Sync for TV or desktop apps, or Spotify, you can create totally immersive experiences. Set up voice control Use Apple Home, Amazon Alexa, or Google Assistant to control your smart lights with voice commands. Turn lights on and off, dim and brighten, or even change colors — completely hands-free. Use Siri Shortcuts for quick control Use the Shortcuts app to create shortcuts that you can place into widgets on your Home Screen for even faster control of your lights. Turn lights on or off, adjust their brightness and temperature, or set scenes — all without even opening the app. Learn more about the official Philips Hue app: www.philips-hue.com/app. Read the Philips Hue Privacy Notice at www.philips-hue.com/privacy. Note: Some features in this app require a Philips Hue Bridge.
IKEA Home smart
Automate your home with smart lighting, speakers, blinds, and air purifiers. Create custom scenes for everyday moments like waking up or leaving home, and control devices individually or in groups. Integrates with popular voice assistants for seamless control.
- Create custom scenes
- Control devices individually or in groups
- Schedule scenes
- Voice assistant integration
- Personalize rooms and products
- Remote control options
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With IKEA Home smart app and DIRIGERA hub, it's easy to create smarter everyday moments with lighting, speakers, blinds and air quality products. Picture yourself waking up as your smart lights gently rise. Your favourite songs play on the speakers and you still haven't gotten out of bed. How lovely, right? Smart products like lighting, speakers, blinds and air purifiers can make a lovely addition to your everyday life. When you improve the IQ of your home, life itself runs a bit smoother. The magic happens when you combine two or more smart products from IKEA, tell them what to do in the app and save it as a 'Scene'. A great scene is one you will use often. Think about waking up and going to bed, cooking and eating, date night and family time, or leaving and coming home. All everyday moments when we can support you with the best lighting, sound that suits your mood, and cleaner air. When it comes to control, we think of everyone, from young to old and even visitors. So while the app gives you total control to customise your smart home, our range of remotes make it easy for everyone to live with and use a smart home. In control • You can control products individually or in groups. You can turn whole rooms on and off or the whole home, all at once. • Dim and change light colours, adjust blinds, speaker volume, and much more. • Set the scenes you need and trigger them with schedules, a shortcut button or use the app. Easy to use • The home screen gives a fast overview of your whole home. Quickly control products, access rooms, or start/stop scenes. This is also where you add new products, rooms, and scenes. Organised and personal • Organising your smart products in rooms gives fast access to the products you want to control. • Personalise the app with your choice of icons, names and colours for rooms and products • Create personal scenes, for example your own combination of cosy lighting and your favourite music. Integrations • Connect to Apple Home, Amazon Alexa or Google Home to use a voice assistant.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Philips Hue at 85% against IKEA Home smart's 34%. Philips Hue also leads on ratings volume (115K vs 1.3K) and rating (4.7 vs 4.4). IKEA Home smart's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10). On price, update cadence, ads and device support 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. Philips Hue sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $0.99 per month. IKEA Home smart asks for nothing beyond the download.
Philips Hue holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Philips Hue has 115K ratings behind it against 1.3K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 85% of Philips Hue's written reviews are positive against 34% of IKEA Home smart's.
Philips Hue ships an update every 2 weeks, IKEA Home smart fortnightly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.
| Parameter | Philips Hue | IKEA Home smart |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (115K ratings) — better | 4.4 (1.3K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 84.8% of reviews — better | 34.3% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 115K — better | 1.3K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Fortnightly |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #170 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 248 MB | 208 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Signify Netherlands B.V. | Inter IKEA Systems B.V. |
Customer experience
Philips Hue
IKEA Home smart
User reviews
Philips Hue
From 115K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Reliable and stable
- 💡 Flexible lighting control
- 👍 Intuitive and user-friendly
- 🎨 Vibrant and customizable colors
- 🔒 Secure remote access
Room to improve
- 🐛 Connectivity issues after updates
- 🔀 Confusing navigation and UI changes
- ⏱️ Slow performance and lag
- 🤯 Frustrating loss of key features
- 🤖 Incompatible with older devices
IKEA Home smart
From 1.3K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy setup
- 👍 Intuitive app
- 🔒 Privacy-focused
- 🚀 Reliable connectivity
- 👍 Good HomeKit integration
Room to improve
- 🐛 Buggy app
- 🔌 Unreliable connectivity
- 🔌 Frequent disconnections
- 🐛 Unstable firmware updates
- 🔌 Alexa integration issues
Bugs and requests
Philips Hue
Reported bugs
5 issues- Lights not responding to app commands
- Scenes and automations not working as expected
- Frequent app crashes and freezes
- Inability to log in or sync with account
- Erratic behavior after software updates
Requested features
5 requests- Ability to control lights individually in a room
- More dynamic and customizable lighting scenes
- Seamless integration between multiple Hue bridges
- Improved automation and scheduling options
- Restore removed timer and widget functionality
IKEA Home smart
Reported bugs
5 issues- Inability to remove devices
- Scenes not working as expected
- Inconsistent device discovery
- Shortcut buttons not functioning
- HomeKit integration problems
Requested features
5 requests- Gradual lighting transitions
- Sunrise/sunset automation
- Remote access functionality
- More customization options
- Improved energy monitoring
In-app purchases
Philips Hue
- Motion Aware Monthly Plan$0.991 Month
- Sync TV-app for LG (1 Month)$2.991 Month
- Secure Basic for 1 camera$3.991 Month
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- Secure Basic for 2 cameras$7.991 Month
- Secure Plus$9.991 Month
- Motion Aware Yearly Plan$9.991 Year
- Secure Basic for 1 camera$39.991 Year
- Secure Basic for 2 cameras$79.991 Year
- Secure Plus$99.991 Year
- Sync TV-app for LG (Lifetime)$129.99
IKEA Home smart
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Philips Hue free?
Is IKEA Home smart free?
Which has better reviews, Philips Hue or IKEA Home smart?
Do Philips Hue or IKEA Home smart have ads?
Which is updated more often, Philips Hue or IKEA Home smart?
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