Comparison

Home Assistant vs HSBuddy

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

Head to head
About

Home Assistant

Control your entire smart home from one app, locally and privately. Automate devices, receive notifications, and manage your home's data securely. Integrates with thousands of smart devices and open standards.

Highlights
  • Control entire home from one app
  • Discover and configure new devices
  • Automate device actions
  • Local data privacy
  • Connect to open standards (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter)
  • Remote access via Home Assistant Cloud
  • Location-based automation
Features
Read full description

The Home Assistant Companion app allows you to access your Home Assistant instance on the go. Home Assistant is the smart home solution focused on privacy, choice, and sustainability. It runs locally in your home via a device like the Home Assistant Green or Raspberry Pi. This app connects to all the most powerful features of Home Assistant, - One app to control the whole home - Home Assistant is compatible with the biggest brands in the smart home, connecting to thousands of smart devices and services. - Discover automatically and quickly configure new devices - such as Philips Hue, Sonos, and IKEA Tradfri. - Automate everything - Make all the devices in your home work in harmony - have your lights dim when you start watching a movie, or turn off your heat when you’re away from home. - Keep your home’s data in the home - use it privately to see past trends and averages. - Connect to open standards with hardware add-ons - including Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, Thread, and Bluetooth. - Connect anywhere - If you would like to access this app while away from home, the most secure and simple way to get started is Home Assistant Cloud. The app unlocks your smartphone or tablet as a home automation tool. - Securely share your location, using it to automate heating, security, and so much more. - Get notifications on what's happening in your home, from detecting leaks to doors left open, you have full control over what it tells you. - Carplay functionality lets you open a garage or disable the security system from the dash of your car. - Build your own widgets to control any device in your home with a tap. - Integrate Home Assistant's functionality into Shortcuts, for example have your phone’s morning alarm turn on the coffee machine. - Apple Watch compatibility can show your home's temperature on a watch face or quickly activate devices. - Text or talk to your local voice assistant on your device. - Mac compatibility allows you to control your home from your desktop, but also to share data to build automation, like having your streaming lights turn on when your camera is active. Join the over 1 million users and empower your home with better privacy, choice and sustainability. Compatible with: Airthings, Amazon Alexa, Amcrest, Apple HomeKit, Apple TV, ASUSWRT, August, Belink WeMo, Bluetooth, Bose SoundTouch, Broadlink, BTHome, deCONZ, Denon, Devolo, DLNA, Ecobee, Ecovacs, Ecowitt, Elgato, EZVIZ, Fritz, Fully Kiosk, GoodWe, Govee, Growatt, Hikvision, Hive, Home Connect, Homematic, HomeWizard, Honeywell, iCloud, IFTTT, IKEA Tradfri, Insteon, Jellyfin, LG Smart TVs, LIFX, Logitech Harmony, Lutron Caseta, Magic Home, Matter, MotionEye, MQTT, MusicCast, Nanoleaf, Netatmo, Nuki, OctoPrint, ONVIF, Opower, Overkiz, OwnTracks, Panasonic Viera, Philips Hue, Pi-hole, Plex, Reolink, Ring, Roborock, Roku, Samsung TVs, Sense, Sensiba, Shelly, SmartThings, SolarEdge, Sonarr, Sonos, Sony Bravia, Spotify, Steam, SwitchBot, Synology, Tado, Tasmota, Tesla Wall, Thread, Tile, TP-Link Smart Home, Tuya, UniFi, UPnP, Verisure, Vizio, Wallbox, WebRTC, WiZ, WLED, Xbox, Xiaomi BLE, Yale, Yeelight, YoLink, Z-Wave, Zigbe

About

HSBuddy

Control your HomeSeer home automation system from your mobile device and Apple Watch. Manage devices, run events, view camera feeds, and create custom dashboards. Automate tasks with Siri shortcuts and widgets.

Highlights
  • Control and edit devices
  • Run and edit events
  • View camera feeds
  • Customizable dashboards
  • Siri shortcuts
  • Home Screen widgets
  • Push notifications
Features
Read full description

HSBuddy is a free application for iOS® that turns your mobile device into the ultimate companion for your HomeSeer® home automation system. With the included Apple Watch companion app you can take control of your home from your wrist! Certain features require an additional HomeSeer controller plug-in which you can install from the plug-in manager in your HomeSeer configuration pages. Look for HSBuddy under the User Interfaces section. Complement your home automation experience and use HSBuddy to: • Control and edit devices • Run and edit events • View history of device state changes * • View images from your home cameras ** • Create your own customized dashboards • Speed up your daily automation tasks » Create Siri shortcuts » Place Widgets for your Home Screen • Send push-notifications to your devices as part of your server events • Browse your HomeSeer server logs * • Enable geo-location on the app and location-based events * • Automatically switch between local-WiFi and remote connectivity to your server based on your location. • Connect to multiple HomeSeer servers and switch quickly between them • Use Smart Tags to quickly control a device or run an event by tapping a tag with your phone *Requires installing the free HSBuddy HomeSeer controller plug-in **Compatible with some existing HomeSeer controller camera plug-ins To use this app you need a running instance of HomeSeer. To find out more, visit http://www.homeseer.com For more information and troubleshooting help, go to http://hsbuddy.avglabs.net

Screenshots

Home Assistant4 screens
HSBuddy4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Home Assistant at every 10 days against HSBuddy's every 2 months. Home Assistant also leads on ratings volume (4K vs 29). HSBuddy's advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 54%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 16.4). On price, rating, 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

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for Home Assistant against 4.6 for HSBuddy. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Home Assistant has 4K ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 54% of Home Assistant's written reviews are positive against 76% of HSBuddy's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Home Assistant ships an update every 10 days, HSBuddy every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on October 20, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Home Assistant versus HSBuddy: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHome AssistantHSBuddy
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4K ratings) — better4.6 (29 ratings)
Positive reviews54.1% of reviews76.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings4K — better29
Update frequencyEvery 10 days — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch
Requires iOS16.413.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size261 MB60 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperNabu Casa, IncAntonio Vargas Garcia

Customer experience

Home Assistant

All ratings3,967 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews510 reviews
Positive54.1%
Neutral8.6%
Negative37.3%

HSBuddy

All ratings29 ratings
Positive86.2%
Neutral3.4%
Negative10.3%
Written reviews17 reviews
Positive76.5%
Neutral5.9%
Negative17.6%

In-app purchases

None

Home Assistant

No in-app purchases

None

HSBuddy

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Home Assistant free?
Home Assistant is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HSBuddy free?
HSBuddy is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Home Assistant or HSBuddy?
Home Assistant is rated higher. Home Assistant averages 4.7 out of 5 from 4K ratings, while HSBuddy averages 4.6 from 29 ratings.
Do Home Assistant or HSBuddy have ads?
Neither Home Assistant nor HSBuddy shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Home Assistant or HSBuddy?
Home Assistant ships an update every 10 days, and HSBuddy every 2 months. Most recently, Home Assistant was updated on October 20, 2026 and HSBuddy on October 7, 2026.

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