Rain Bird vs Birdfy
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rain Bird
Control your sprinklers remotely from your mobile device. Automate watering schedules and adjust for weather conditions to conserve water and reduce costs. Compatible with various Rain Bird controller models.
- Remote sprinkler control
- Customizable watering schedules
- Automated weather adjustments
- Water and money saving
- Controller model compatibility
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Smart Watering Made Simple. Connect your Rain Bird controller to your mobile device to turn on sprinklers, set up customized watering schedules, and automate weather adjustments, saving you water and money. Compatible with the following Rain Bird controller models: ST8-WIFI ESP-TM2 ESP-RZXe ESP-Me ESP-ME3 RC2 ARC8 For more information: http://wifi.rainbird.com 1-800-RAINBIRD
Birdfy
Monitor your backyard visitors in real-time with live streaming and automatic video capture of birds and animals. Organize clips by species, track nesting processes, and share your discoveries with a global community. Optional cloud services offer advanced AI recognition and extended recording.
- Live stream bird and animal activity
- Automatic video capture of detected moments
- Categorize clips by bird species
- Track nesting and hatching processes
- Community sharing of observations
- AI-powered species identification (cloud service)
- Customizable highlight reels (cloud service)
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The Bird Side of Life 1. Live Stream: Real-time Bird Visitor Tracking - View the device's live feed anytime, anywhere to track birds or animals visiting your backyard. 2. Moment Auto-Capture: Automatically Record Wonderful Moments - The device automatically records short video clips when it detects birds or other creatures, saving key moments without manual operation. You can view these directly within the app. 3. Categorized Collection: Manage Wonderful Clips by Bird Species - Sort videos by bird species based on recognition results or your manual selection, allowing you to easily find, manage, and browse your collected video content. 4. Community Sharing: Explore Other Users' Fascinating Observations - Share or browse wonderful content of bird visits with users worldwide. Enjoy an immersive video stream experience that supports Browse by bird species, expanding your birdwatching horizons. 5. Bird Nesting & Hatching Process Tracking (for Birdhouse Devices) - Automatically identify and record the complete process of birds from nest building, laying eggs, hatching, to fledging. The process is automatically archived by stages, allowing you to browse the entire lifecycle on a timeline. Finally, a merged video is generated, fully presenting the precious process of nesting and raising young. 6. Cloud Services (Optional Paid Premium Features) - AI Recognition Cloud Service: When enabled, it supports more intelligent video analysis and content organization, including: * Accurate Identification: 6000+ bird/animal identification, accurately recognizing species like birds, squirrels, and other visiting animals in your device's footage. * Highlights: Automatically generates daily highlights, selecting the most exciting moments of the day. * Monthly/Annual Recap: The system organizes and generates monthly and annual highlight video compilations for easy review and saving. * Birdfy Data: Records bird visit times, frequency, and species, generating data reports. * Smart Moment List Filtering: Supports quick filtering of interesting bird videos by recognition results, improving Browse efficiency. - MVR Cloud Service * Standard recording is 20 seconds. Subscribing provides longer moment recording times (30 seconds+) and longer moment preservation times. - Collection Cloud Service * Standard users have only 5GB of collection memory. Subscribing increases collection memory to 20GB+.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Rain Bird at 4.7 against Birdfy's 4.1. Rain Bird also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ratings volume (79K vs 3.9K). Birdfy's advantage is update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (49% vs 31%). On price, 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. Birdfy sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.39 per month. Rain Bird asks for nothing beyond the download.
Rain Bird holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 4.1. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Rain Bird has 79K ratings behind it against 3.9K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 31% of Rain Bird's written reviews are positive against 49% of Birdfy's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Rain Bird ships an update every 2 months, Birdfy every 10 days. Both last shipped on November 5, 2026.
| Parameter | Rain Bird | Birdfy |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (79K ratings) — better | 4.1 (3.9K ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 31.2% of reviews | 49.1% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 79K — better | 3.9K |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 10 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.5 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 48 MB | 290 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Rain Bird Corporation | NETVUE, INC. |
Customer experience
Rain Bird
Birdfy
User reviews
Rain Bird
From 79K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to program
- 🚀 Convenient remote control
- 👍 Versatile
- 👍 Must have
- 👍 Ease of mind
Room to improve
- 🐛 Connectivity issues
- 🐛 Slow and clunky app
- 🐛 Date/time not updating
- 🐛 Unreliable system
- 🐛 Limited functionality
Birdfy
From 3.9K App Store ratingsWhat we love
- 🚀 Easy to use
- 👍 Intuitive app layout
- 🎥 Great video quality
- 🐦 Excellent for bird watching
- 💡 Useful community features
Room to improve
- 🐛 Occasional crashes or freezes
- 🔌 Connectivity issues
- 🤖 Inconsistent bird identification
- 🔍 Difficult to navigate/use
- 💰 Paywall for advanced features
Bugs and requests
Rain Bird
Reported bugs
5 issues- Constant connection errors
- App crashes frequently
- Date/time not syncing correctly
- Seasonal adjustment not working as expected
- Manual controls not functioning properly
Requested features
6 requests- Add water usage history and analytics
- Allow pausing of individual zones
- Improve manual control options
- Add weather integration and smart scheduling
- Improve notification system
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- Add ability to turn off entire system remotely
Birdfy
Reported bugs
3 issues- Inability to delete devices
- Unreliable live view and video uploads
- Unexpected app logout and account deletion
Requested features
5 requests- Batch editing for misidentified birds
- Favorites/frequently spotted section
- Landscape mode support
- Customizable notification sounds
- Motion detection sensitivity adjustments
In-app purchases
Rain Bird
No in-app purchases
Birdfy
- Collection Storage Basic mo.$2.391 Month
- MVR - Basic - Monthly$2.391 Month
- MVR - Plus - Monthly$3.591 Month
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- Hummingbird Recognition mo.$4.691 Month
- Bird Recognition Basic mo.$5.891 Month
- Collection Storage Pro mo.$7.091 Month
- Collection Storage Basic ann.$23.491 Year
- MVR - Basic - Annual$23.491 Year
- Bird Recognition Basic ann.$57.991 Year
- Bird Recognition Lifetime Plan$99.99








