HSBuddy vs UniFi Protect
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
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.
- Control and edit devices
- Run and edit events
- View camera feeds
- Customizable dashboards
- Siri shortcuts
- Home Screen widgets
- Push notifications
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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
UniFi Protect
Access your camera security system from your mobile device. Stream live feeds, manage devices, and download recordings. Offers cloudless storage and customizable alerts for residential and commercial users.
- Adopt and manage Protect devices
- Stream low-latency livestreams
- Download localized recordings
- Cloudless recording storage
- Timelapse footage scrubbing
- Personalized security notifications
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UniFi Protect brings the full functionality of our web-based camera security application to your mobile device. Adopt and manage your Protect devices, stream low-latency livestreams, and download localized recordings directly to your phone. Designed for residential and commercial use, UniFi Protect also allows you to: - Maintain complete data privacy with Cloudless recording storage. - Quickly scrub through hours of Timelapse footage to pinpoint the exact moments you're looking for. - Personalize security notifications based on a wide variety of individual, vehicular, and atmospheric-based detections.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ratings volume: UniFi Protect at 78K against HSBuddy's 29. UniFi Protect also leads on rating (4.8 vs 4.6) and update cadence (every 3 weeks vs every 2 months). HSBuddy's advantage is review sentiment (76% vs 53%) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 18.0). 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.
UniFi Protect holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: UniFi Protect has 78K ratings behind it against 29, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 76% of HSBuddy's written reviews are positive against 53% of UniFi Protect's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
HSBuddy ships an update every 2 months, UniFi Protect every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 2, 2026 and November 4, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | HSBuddy | UniFi Protect |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.6 (29 ratings) | 4.8 (78K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 76.5% of reviews — better | 52.6% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 29 | 78K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 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, Apple TV |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 60 MB | 270 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Antonio Vargas Garcia | Ubiquiti Inc. |
Customer experience
HSBuddy
UniFi Protect
Bugs and requests
HSBuddy
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
UniFi Protect
Reported bugs
5 issues- Geofencing not working as expected
- Doorbell audio/video not syncing properly
- Frequent disconnections from cameras
- Playback issues and video not loading
- Notifications not reliable or timely
Requested features
5 requests- Add option to snooze/silence notifications
- Improve video scrubbing and playback controls
- Integrate with Apple HomeKit
- Add custom notification sounds
- Enhance multi-view and layout options
In-app purchases
HSBuddy
No in-app purchases
UniFi Protect
No in-app purchases
