Bright vs HM | DCC
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Bright
Track your electricity and gas usage in real-time from your smart meters. This app helps you manage energy consumption and spend more efficiently, contributing to carbon reduction goals. Requires compatible hardware for full functionality.
- Real-time energy consumption monitoring
- Electricity and gas usage tracking
- Smart meter data access via DCC or CAD
- Clamp-on sensor support for electricity
- Energy spend management
- Carbon efficiency goals
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Monitor your energy consumption anytime, anywhere with Bright. For real-time data you need Glowmarkt compatible hardware (https://shop.glowmarkt.com/) - which works with either smart or traditional meters. People with SMETS2 (or E&A SMETS 1) meters can access their half hourly data with Bright for free, once they go through our verification process. Bright lets you check your energy consumption, this could be electricity and gas usage from your smart meters, via the DCC or our Consumer Access Device (CAD). Clamp-on technology sensors can support electricity usage monitoring. Our goal is to help you manage your energy consumption and spend more efficiently as we all strive to become more carbon efficient. To see our Frequently Asked Questions go to: https://glowmarkt.com/#/faqs/apps For more information or any questions please contact: support@glowmarkt.com Join the Glow community (https://forum.glowmarkt.com/).
HM | DCC
Control your model railway system wirelessly with this app. Build your locomotive library, customize their settings, and design your dream layout with untethered control over points, signals, and turntables. Enjoy free sound profiles and upgrade existing systems.
- Wireless model railway control
- Locomotive customization
- On-the-fly setting adjustments
- Layout design tool
- Controllable points, signals, turntables
- Free locomotive sound profiles
- Bluetooth® device linking
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The official app for setting up and controlling your HM7000 range of products. HM | DCC is the new model railway control system that makes it simple to build your library of locomotives and have ultimate control over them in the palm of your hand. Customise your locomotives with images, tinker, tailor & test settings on the fly to perfect your locomotive’s running style. Design your dream layout and manoeuvre locomotives through controllable points, signals, and turntables with untethered control. Easily set up your system. Log in*, link up your Bluetooth® HM devices, power-cycle and away you go. Control your system free of wires. Complete wireless & untethered control of your layout. Upgrade previous systems without ripping out installed controllers and components. Personalise your locomotives. Fill your engine shed with your fleet of locomotives, choose the perfect photo, and programme their settings to see locomotive running styles change instantaneously. Enjoy completely FREE locomotive sound profiles. Connect your HM7000-TXS decoders to HM | DCC and relish a plethora of class locomotive sounds for download. Keep up to date with the latest releases and get more locomotive sound profiles to play with on the day of release. Design your dream layout. Use the in-built Track Builder to draw up and design the perfect layout. Then, export a list easily to know what you need to build it. Everyone’s included. Functions with OO, TT and N scale gauges. Upgrade your previous DCC products to work with HM | DCC. Upgrade “DCC ready” locomotives to HM | DCC app control with HM7000 decoders. Control locomotives fitted with non-Bluetooth® and HM7000 Bluetooth® decoders in parallel. Explore the different ways you can upgrade via the Hornby.com website. *Please note: A Hornby.com account is required for HM | DCC app use. This can be easily created from the Hornby.com website. Internet access is required for device reset, profile download, hardware updates, app updates and app login. Disclaimer: Please ensure that your device is fully compatible with both the HM | DCC app and the HM7000 range of products prior to any purchase. Devices older than 5 years may work but cannot be recommended for control. If unsure, please visit the Hornby.com website or contact Hornby Hobbies customer care.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Bright at 5.0 against HM | DCC's 2.3. Bright also leads on ads (none vs shown) and monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases). HM | DCC's advantage is ratings volume (4 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 13.0). On price, review sentiment, update cadence 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Bright holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.3. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 4 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 51% of Bright's written reviews are positive against 56% of HM | DCC's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Bright ships an update every 2 months, HM | DCC every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 12, 2026 and October 8, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Bright | HM | DCC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better | 2.3 (4 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 50.7% of reviews | 56.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 1 | 4 — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No — better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 | 11.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 40 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | HILDEBRAND TECHNOLOGY LTD | Hornby Hobbies Ltd |
Customer experience
Bright
HM | DCC
Bugs and requests
Bright
Reported bugs
28 issues- App crashes
- Data not loading
- Login issues
- Registration errors
- Password reset emails not received
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- Graphs too tall for screen
- Inconsistent billing data
- App stopped working
- Tariff information outdated
- Login issues with password managers
- Slow data loading
- Gas cost not showing
- Comparison views broken
- Font changed to Times New Roman
- Doesn't remember login
- App won't load anything on iOS 15.3
- Duplicate meters showing
- Server outage caused no data
- Smart meter display not recognized
- Authentication details not sent
- Login button not clickable until character re-typed
- Comparison views broken
- Gas Tariff not found
- App won't work on IOS 15.3
- Doesn't remember login
- Login button not clickable until character re-typed
- Gas Tariff not found
- App won't work on IOS 15.3
Requested features
8 requests- Export data (CSV)
- More data analysis
- iOS widget
- Support for dual-rate electricity tariffs (Economy 7)
- Apple Watch version
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- Ability for customer to override incorrect supplier data
- Face-ID login
- Live gas usage in graphical fashion
HM | DCC
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Bright
No in-app purchases
HM | DCC
No in-app purchases
