Comparison

Lightcloud vs SPAN Home

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

Head to head
About

Lightcloud

This app allows remote control of commercial lighting systems, offering features like dimming and scene creation. It aims to optimize energy usage and reduce costs. Free technical support is available for users.

Highlights
  • Remote light control
  • Adjustable dimming
  • Customizable scenes
  • Energy savings up to 68%
  • Unlimited technical support
Features
Read full description

Control your lights from anywhere in the world with the Lightcloud app from the experts at RAB Lighting. Lightcloud is a simple and affordable commercial lighting control system that requires no commissioning and comes with a best-in-class 10-year warranty. Features: Dimming Easily adjust light levels in any area of your building. Scenes Quickly create customizable scenes to control multiple lights and make sure your lighting suits your needs. Activate a scene with a single tap in the Lightcloud app. Energy Savings Lightcloud can save you up to 68% on energy costs from lighting. The Lightcloud app is the fastest, easiest way for building occupants to tune the lighting in their space to use only what they need. Support Lightcloud app users can call 844-LIGHTCLOUD for free, unlimited technical support with their Lightcloud system. Requires: Lightcloud Gateway device

About

SPAN Home

This app provides smart control over your home's electrical panel, allowing you to monitor energy usage, manage individual rooms and appliances, and uncover cost-saving insights. It enhances home energy management and offers advanced features when paired with solar and battery systems, including EV charging.

Highlights
  • Real-time energy dashboard
  • Room and appliance level control
  • Cost saving insights
  • Power outage protection
  • EV charging integration
  • Over-the-air updates
Read full description

For SPAN Panel MAIN 32 “This thing is a game changer. This is how you save money” - Jon Dawson, Next-gen builder “A long-overdue, borderline genius product that puts much-needed control back into the hands of homeowners.” - Wired Magazine “SPAN is now the center of my smart home. I’ve been waiting most of my life for this product” - A SPAN customer SPAN reinvented the 100-year-old electrical panel with smarter controls for smarter savings. It replaces your existing electrical panel and gives you complete control over every room and appliance in your home right from your phone. From anywhere in the world, the SPAN Home® App allows you to: Centralize your home’s energy data into one real-time dashboard, giving you a 360° view of your home’s energy performance Make real-time energy changes at the room and appliance level to suit your needs and lower your energy bill Uncover cost-saving insights designed to lower your energy bill and save you money When paired with solar panels and a home battery system, SPAN gives you the best protection against power outages by extending battery life by 40%, providing whole-home backup on a single battery system, and the unmatched flexibility to change what your battery system powers in an outage. Your SPAN Home can include SPAN Drive, a universal EV charger that delivers up to 41 miles of range per hour (48A, 11.52kW) of charging for the fastest charging speeds available - all without a service upgrade to install. The SPAN Home App is constantly improving with free, over-the-air updates designed to improve your experience and unlock greater savings.

Screenshots

Lightcloud4 screens
SPAN Home4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: Lightcloud at 100% against SPAN Home's 29%. Lightcloud also leads on rating (5.0 vs 3.6). SPAN Home's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 4 months) and ratings volume (104 vs 10). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

Lightcloud holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 3.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SPAN Home has 104 ratings behind it against 10, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Lightcloud's written reviews are positive against 29% of SPAN Home's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Lightcloud ships an update every 4 months, SPAN Home fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 3, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
Lightcloud versus SPAN Home: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterLightcloudSPAN Home
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (10 ratings) — better3.6 (104 ratings)
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews — better28.6% of reviews
Number of ratings10104 — better
Update frequencyEvery 4 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS16.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB120 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRAB Lighting IncSpan.io, Inc

Customer experience

Lightcloud

All ratings10 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews2 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

SPAN Home

All ratings104 ratings
Positive56.7%
Neutral10.6%
Negative32.7%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive28.6%
Neutral16.3%
Negative55.1%

Bugs and requests

Lightcloud

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

SPAN Home

Reported bugs

34 issues
  • App freezes on iPad
  • Circuit switching sometimes fails
  • App shows ads for other products
  • Energy usage data is inaccurate or delayed
  • PowerUp feature control is hidden
Show 29 more
  • App needs force quit to work
  • Data fails to load or stalls
  • App loses connectivity with batteries
  • System does not function as intended during power outages
  • Estimated battery hours/minutes are incorrect
  • App shows panel offline when it's online
  • App recently deleted backup instructions
  • App displays data hours old
  • App crashes or encounters problems constantly
  • App is slow to load
  • App is sluggish and chunky
  • App shows solar production at night
  • App does not support Powerwall 2
  • Responsiveness for switching breakers is poor
  • Circuit monitoring breaks frequently
  • Panel does not function offline
  • Password change process is difficult
  • App does not integrate multiple panels correctly
  • Setup was a pain
  • App in a cycle of constant loading
  • App does not have native iPad support
  • App UI looks dated
  • App crashes and takes a while to launch
  • App loses connection to battery system frequently
  • App disconnects way too often
  • App is seriously dumbed down from v1
  • App has basic inconsistencies in real-time stats
  • App data does not match Tesla App
  • App only supports Alexa and it doesn't work

Requested features

23 requests
  • Unified view for multiple panels
  • Improved app customization
  • More robust connectivity
  • Better Tesla battery integration support
  • Easier labeling of breakers
Show 18 more
  • Darker, more readable app interface
  • Desktop dashboard/web app
  • Smaller SPAN sub-panel option
  • Modular sub-panel breaker monitoring
  • Public API for Home Assistant integration
  • Native iPad support (split screen, hover)
  • More smart home integration (Apple HomeKit)
  • Ability to toggle between panels with swipe
  • Increased character limit for circuit names
  • iOS Widget for at-a-glance data
  • Schedule breakers to turn on/off automatically
  • Better daily data view for breaker level changes
  • 2FA for account security
  • Historical usage per circuit
  • SPAN Drive mode for solar-only charging
  • Basic voltage readouts for grid diagnostics
  • Improved Time of Day Plans functionality
  • Fix for 'areas' feature for multi-panel setups

In-app purchases

None

Lightcloud

No in-app purchases

None

SPAN Home

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Lightcloud free?
Lightcloud is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is SPAN Home free?
SPAN Home is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Lightcloud or SPAN Home?
Lightcloud is rated higher. Lightcloud averages 5.0 out of 5 from 10 ratings, while SPAN Home averages 3.6 from 104 ratings.
Do Lightcloud or SPAN Home have ads?
Neither Lightcloud nor SPAN Home shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Lightcloud or SPAN Home?
Lightcloud ships an update every 4 months, and SPAN Home fortnightly. Most recently, Lightcloud was updated on November 2, 2026 and SPAN Home on November 3, 2026.

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