Netro vs lichen play
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Netro
This app manages your home irrigation system remotely. It creates intelligent watering schedules based on local weather to conserve water and maintain a healthy garden. Monitor your garden's status and adjust settings from anywhere.
- Dynamic weather-based watering schedules
- Remote sprinkler monitoring and control
- Garden health status indicators
- Adjustable watering preferences
- Schedule manager
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Netro is a cloud based watering system that is designed for effortless use in residential irrigation. It helps to reduce unnecessary water usage and keeps your garden healthy. Netro creates dynamic watering schedules by analyzing your local weather and estimating the rain amount. The Netro app shows the key factors for a healthy garden so you know exactly how your garden is doing. It also provides a convenient schedule manager through which you can adjust your watering preferences and Netro will optimally adjust the schedule for you. With the Netro app, you can monitor and control your sprinklers from anywhere. You can purchase the smart watering controller (Netro Sprite), the smart hose faucet timer(Netro Pixie) and the smart plant sensor (Netro Whisperer) at Netrohome.com or Amazon.com
lichen play
This smart sprinkler controller offers full automation and real-time remote access to manage your irrigation zones. Create custom watering schedules with independent control for up to 8 zones, running them multiple times daily.
- Fully automated sprinkler control
- Remote access from any location
- Customizable 7-day watering schedules
- Independent control of 8 zones
- Multiple watering cycles per zone daily
- Secure multi-path connectivity
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lichen play is a fully automated smart Sprinkler controller, placing you in full control of your irrigation zones. Its secure multi-path connectivity ensures real-time access from any location in the world. Watering schedules are based on a 7 day program, with the ability to run each of the 8 zones independently, up to 6 times each day.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: lichen play at 100% against Netro's 38%. lichen play also leads on rating (5.0 vs 2.7) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 4 months). Netro's advantage is ratings volume (18 vs 3) and device support (4 vs 2). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
lichen play holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Netro has 18 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 38% of Netro's written reviews are positive against 100% of lichen play's.
Netro ships an update every 4 months, lichen play every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 26, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Netro | lichen play |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (18 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 37.9% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 18 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 4 months | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.6 — better | 16.6 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 69 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Netro Inc | Playtopro LLC |
Customer experience
Netro
lichen play
Bugs and requests
Netro
Reported bugs
36 issues- App crashes on opening
- App crashes when renaming zones
- App crashes when moving between screens
- App crashes when attempting to open
- App crashes when logging in
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- App crashes when creating an account
- App crashes immediately after opening
- App crashes after entering login info
- App crashes every time on opening
- App crashes every single time on opening
- App crashes every time I attempt to open it
- App crashes every single time I attempt to open it
- App crashes every single time I attempt to open it and log in
- Json serialization error
- App freezes on spinning green dots when making setting changes
- Hourly data split between AM/PM and separate screens
- Scrolling on data plot pages crashes the app
- System randomly will not water zones
- Manual watering not working
- App doesn't send notifications when a program has run
- Weather data is inaccurate
- Controller does not reconnect to Wi-Fi after power outage
- Delay function is confusing
- Scheduling section is pointless
- App doesn't show main page update when zone is run from programs page
- Manual control changed to separate screen
- No way to shut off manual control
- Whisperer dying
- Pixies all died
- Cannot rearrange programs
- Device was dead during watering cycle
- Sync is too long
- Manual stop button doesn't work
- Saving custom programs only saves for about 2 weeks
- Scheduling function is not working
- Created scheduling program does not reflect in the calendar
Requested features
23 requests- Allow 1.5 minute watering intervals
- Allow simultaneous watering of multiple zones
- Alter order of watering zones with drag and drop
- Add more weather providers (e.g., Apple's API)
- Improve user interface for iOS users
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- Incorporate scheduling under preferences into programs
- Increase maximum run time beyond 60 minutes
- Add push notifications for watering start/stop
- Allow users to choose Italian weather sources
- Allow users to select watering during night hours only
- Add a manual hard 'Stop' button for all zones
- Make manual control easier and more accessible
- Allow users to rearrange programs
- Improve historical data storage duration
- Remember login credentials
- Improve analytics depth and flexibility
- Allow users to customize default settings
- Make manual watering selection more accessible
- Allow users to configure custom zone names in Alexa app
- Improve the way wires make contact in slots
- Provide a more reliable weather forecast for Italy
- Allow users to disable weather-based watering if desired
- Improve the delay function to be more intuitive
lichen play
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Netro
No in-app purchases
lichen play
No in-app purchases
