Comparison

SPAN Home vs Green Backyard

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

Head to head
About

SPAN Home

This app provides smart control over your home's electrical panel, allowing you to monitor energy usage, manage individual rooms and appliances, and uncover cost-saving insights. It enhances home energy management and offers advanced features when paired with solar and battery systems, including EV charging.

Highlights
  • Real-time energy dashboard
  • Room and appliance level control
  • Cost saving insights
  • Power outage protection
  • EV charging integration
  • Over-the-air updates
Read full description

For SPAN Panel MAIN 32 “This thing is a game changer. This is how you save money” - Jon Dawson, Next-gen builder “A long-overdue, borderline genius product that puts much-needed control back into the hands of homeowners.” - Wired Magazine “SPAN is now the center of my smart home. I’ve been waiting most of my life for this product” - A SPAN customer SPAN reinvented the 100-year-old electrical panel with smarter controls for smarter savings. It replaces your existing electrical panel and gives you complete control over every room and appliance in your home right from your phone. From anywhere in the world, the SPAN Home® App allows you to: Centralize your home’s energy data into one real-time dashboard, giving you a 360° view of your home’s energy performance Make real-time energy changes at the room and appliance level to suit your needs and lower your energy bill Uncover cost-saving insights designed to lower your energy bill and save you money When paired with solar panels and a home battery system, SPAN gives you the best protection against power outages by extending battery life by 40%, providing whole-home backup on a single battery system, and the unmatched flexibility to change what your battery system powers in an outage. Your SPAN Home can include SPAN Drive, a universal EV charger that delivers up to 41 miles of range per hour (48A, 11.52kW) of charging for the fastest charging speeds available - all without a service upgrade to install. The SPAN Home App is constantly improving with free, over-the-air updates designed to improve your experience and unlock greater savings.

About

Green Backyard

Connect to your bird box camera to watch live streams of birds. Enjoy high-definition video, capture moments with recording, and receive real-time alerts about nesting and hatching. Share your discoveries with friends and family.

Highlights
  • Connect bird box camera
  • Live bird streaming
  • High-definition video
  • Image and video sharing
  • Motion and continuous recording
  • Real-time nesting alerts
Features
Read full description

With the Green Backyard Bird Box Camera, connecting is a breeze! Designed to bring nature to your fingertips, our app pairs seamlessly with our bird box cameras, providing you with a front-row seat to the enchanting world of birds, all while keeping it fun and user-friendly! Key Features: Easily connect your Green Backyard Bird Box Camera Watch birds live with a simple tap on your smartphone or tablet. Experience crystal-clear, high-definition live streams of birds in action. Share delightful images and videos with friends and family. Capture every moment with motion and continuous recording. Stay in the loop with real-time alerts for nesting, hatching, and more.

Screenshots

SPAN Home4 screens
Green Backyard4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: SPAN Home at 3.6 against Green Backyard's 2.8. SPAN Home also leads on ratings volume (104 vs 12) and update cadence (fortnightly vs monthly). Green Backyard's advantage is device support (3 vs 1) and iOS requirement (11.0 vs 17.6). On price, review sentiment, 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

SPAN Home holds the better App Store score, 3.6 against 2.8. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: SPAN Home has 104 ratings behind it against 12, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 29% of SPAN Home's written reviews are positive against 31% of Green Backyard's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

SPAN Home ships an update fortnightly, Green Backyard monthly. Both last shipped on November 3, 2026.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
SPAN Home versus Green Backyard: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterSPAN HomeGreen Backyard
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.6 (104 ratings) — better2.8 (12 ratings)
Positive reviews28.6% of reviews30.8% of reviews — better
Number of ratings104 — better12
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterMonthly
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.611.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size120 MB181 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperSpan.io, IncNVIC TECH PTE LTD

Customer experience

SPAN Home

All ratings104 ratings
Positive56.7%
Neutral10.6%
Negative32.7%
Written reviews49 reviews
Positive28.6%
Neutral16.3%
Negative55.1%

Green Backyard

All ratings9 ratings
Positive55.6%
Neutral0.0%
Negative44.4%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive30.8%
Neutral0.0%
Negative69.2%

Bugs and requests

SPAN Home

Reported bugs

34 issues
  • App freezes on iPad
  • Circuit switching sometimes fails
  • App shows ads for other products
  • Energy usage data is inaccurate or delayed
  • PowerUp feature control is hidden
Show 29 more
  • App needs force quit to work
  • Data fails to load or stalls
  • App loses connectivity with batteries
  • System does not function as intended during power outages
  • Estimated battery hours/minutes are incorrect
  • App shows panel offline when it's online
  • App recently deleted backup instructions
  • App displays data hours old
  • App crashes or encounters problems constantly
  • App is slow to load
  • App is sluggish and chunky
  • App shows solar production at night
  • App does not support Powerwall 2
  • Responsiveness for switching breakers is poor
  • Circuit monitoring breaks frequently
  • Panel does not function offline
  • Password change process is difficult
  • App does not integrate multiple panels correctly
  • Setup was a pain
  • App in a cycle of constant loading
  • App does not have native iPad support
  • App UI looks dated
  • App crashes and takes a while to launch
  • App loses connection to battery system frequently
  • App disconnects way too often
  • App is seriously dumbed down from v1
  • App has basic inconsistencies in real-time stats
  • App data does not match Tesla App
  • App only supports Alexa and it doesn't work

Requested features

23 requests
  • Unified view for multiple panels
  • Improved app customization
  • More robust connectivity
  • Better Tesla battery integration support
  • Easier labeling of breakers
Show 18 more
  • Darker, more readable app interface
  • Desktop dashboard/web app
  • Smaller SPAN sub-panel option
  • Modular sub-panel breaker monitoring
  • Public API for Home Assistant integration
  • Native iPad support (split screen, hover)
  • More smart home integration (Apple HomeKit)
  • Ability to toggle between panels with swipe
  • Increased character limit for circuit names
  • iOS Widget for at-a-glance data
  • Schedule breakers to turn on/off automatically
  • Better daily data view for breaker level changes
  • 2FA for account security
  • Historical usage per circuit
  • SPAN Drive mode for solar-only charging
  • Basic voltage readouts for grid diagnostics
  • Improved Time of Day Plans functionality
  • Fix for 'areas' feature for multi-panel setups

Green Backyard

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

None

SPAN Home

No in-app purchases

None

Green Backyard

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is SPAN Home free?
SPAN Home is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Green Backyard free?
Green Backyard is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, SPAN Home or Green Backyard?
SPAN Home is rated higher. SPAN Home averages 3.6 out of 5 from 104 ratings, while Green Backyard averages 2.8 from 12 ratings.
Do SPAN Home or Green Backyard have ads?
Neither SPAN Home nor Green Backyard shows ads.
Which is updated more often, SPAN Home or Green Backyard?
SPAN Home ships an update fortnightly, and Green Backyard monthly. Most recently, SPAN Home was updated on November 3, 2026 and Green Backyard on November 3, 2026.

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