Comparison

Controller for HomeKit vs StainTime

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

Head to head
About

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.

Highlights
  • 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
Features
Read full description

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/

About

StainTime

Features
Read full description

Wood stain or polyurethane drying time on the can assumes 70°F and 50% humidity. Your garage isn't 70°F. Your basement isn't 50% humidity. StainTime adjusts dry-to-touch, recoat, and full chemical cure times based on your actual workshop conditions and today's weather. HOW IT WORKS 1. Pick your finish (stain, polyurethane, shellac, lacquer) and brand. 2. StainTime checks your local temperature and humidity, plus your workshop type (heated indoor, garage, outdoor carport). 3. You get an Apply Score, dry-to-touch time, recoat window, and full cure date. It takes 10 seconds to set up. No account required. DAILY APPLY SCORE A green, yellow, or red zone tells you whether to apply now, work with caution, or wait for better conditions. DRY AND RECOAT TIMING Each coat's dry-to-touch and recoat-ready times are calculated from manufacturer Technical Data Sheets, then adjusted for ambient temperature (Arrhenius reaction rate) and humidity (solvent-specific multipliers). WEATHER-AWARE Open-Meteo provides current local conditions. Cached data is used when offline so you can still check timing without a connection. PRO FEATURES Upgrade to Pro for deeper insights: - 7-day finish-readiness outlook to plan multi-coat projects - Multiple active projects tracked at once - Recoat-ready push notifications - All brands: Rust-Oleum, Cabot, DuraSeal, ZAR, Olympic, Behr, Ready Seal, Thompson's WaterSeal, Bona - All finish types: shellac, lacquer, Danish oil, gel stain, varnish - Project log with notes - Custom workshop temperature and humidity offset PRIVACY FIRST All your projects are stored locally on your device. No account, no tracking, no data sold. Location is used only to fetch weather from Open-Meteo and is never stored on any server. This app provides timing estimates based on manufacturer Technical Data Sheets and ambient conditions. It is not a substitute for product-label instructions, scrap-wood testing, or experienced finisher guidance. Results vary by brand, application method, airflow, and surface preparation. Terms of Use (EULA): https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Controller for HomeKit4 screens
StainTime3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is device support: Controller for HomeKit at 5 against StainTime's 3. StainTime's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). On price, 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. Controller for HomeKit sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month and StainTime sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $4.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
Controller for HomeKit versus StainTime: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterController for HomeKitStainTime
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.1 (2.7K ratings) — better—
Positive reviews26.7% of reviews—
Number of ratings2.7K — better—
Update frequencyEvery 10 days—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchases—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone, iPad, iPod
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size210 MB28 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developeracasa Software GmbHJUHWAN PARK

Bugs and 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

StainTime

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

8 purchases

Controller for HomeKit

Subscriptions6
  • Controller Essentials2 variants$4.991 Month
  • Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon$4.991 Month
  • Controller Plus$8.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon3 Months trial$39.991 Year
  • Controller Essentials7 Days trial2 variants$39.991 Year
  • Controller Plus7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time2
  • Controller Essentials Lifetime$99.99
  • Controller Essentials Lifetime$139.99
1 purchases

StainTime

Subscriptions1
  • Pro — Full Access7 Days trial$4.991 Month

Questions

Is Controller for HomeKit free?
Controller for HomeKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is StainTime free?
StainTime is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do Controller for HomeKit or StainTime have ads?
Neither Controller for HomeKit nor StainTime shows ads.

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