BG Home vs HM | DCC
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BG Home
Control and automate your smart home devices with custom timers, scenes, and delays. Secure your settings with a parental lock and share access with household members. Integrate with voice assistants for hands-free operation.
- Device automation with timers and scenes
- Parental lock for settings
- Household member sharing
- Voice control via Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri
- Geolocation and weather-based automation
- IFTTT integration
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Automate your devices with timers, scenes, delays and random operation, and protect your settings with the parental lock function whilst sharing control with others in your household. The smart home integrations with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, IFTTT and Siri Shortcuts allow you to operate your BG Smart devices using your voice, and set up automated actions based on geolocation, weather and more for a truly smart solution.
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: BG Home at 4.7 against HM | DCC's 3.0. BG Home also leads on monetization model (free vs free with in-app purchases) and update cadence (every 2 months vs every 4 months). HM | DCC's advantage is review sentiment (56% vs 43%). On price, ratings volume, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
BG Home holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.0. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 7 and 6 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 43% of BG Home'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.
BG Home ships an update every 2 months, HM | DCC every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 29, 2026 and October 23, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BG Home | HM | DCC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (7 ratings) — better | 3.0 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 43.2% of reviews | 56.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 7 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months — better | Every 4 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free — better | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 11.0 | 11.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 228 MB | 48 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Luceco plc | Hornby Hobbies Ltd |
Customer experience
BG Home
HM | DCC
Bugs and requests
BG Home
Reported bugs
4 issues- Inability to change timer settings
- App crashes
- Connectivity issues
- Incompatibility with newer iOS versions
Requested features
5 requests- Sunrise/sunset timer option
- Power metering
- Improved timer functionality
- Matter protocol support
- Modernized GUI
HM | DCC
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BG Home
No in-app purchases
HM | DCC
No in-app purchases
