Comparison

Remote Buddy Mobile 2 vs HomeWatch

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

Head to head
About

Remote Buddy Mobile 2

Control your Mac from your iPhone or iPad. Use it as a trackpad, keyboard, or for app-specific controls and media playback. Mirror your Mac's screen and manage power functions remotely.

Highlights
  • Remote control for 100+ Mac apps
  • Multi-touch trackpad with Mousespot
  • Web video playback control
  • Screen mirroring up to 60fps
  • Keyboard and numpad input
  • Power actions and Wake-On-LAN
  • Secure TLS connection
Features
Read full description

Control your Mac, with your iPhone or iPad acting as trackpad, keyboard, mirrored display and powerful remote control for 100+ Mac apps. Watch web videos and streaming services in Safari or Google Chrome and control playback, speed and volume from the comfort of your couch. Use the built-in, high performance screen sharing to mirror your screen on your device's display and control your Mac from another room. Deliver your presentations with confidence using the multitouch trackpad and its elegant Mousespot highlight. Launch, switch and quit apps - or pick from Remote Buddy's huge library of 1.200+ actions for 100+ popular Mac apps, right from your device. Remote Buddy Mobile is the mobile companion app for Remote Buddy, the remote control app for your Mac. KEY FEATURES • Remote Control Control 100+ popular Mac apps with 1.200+ tailor-made actions. • Multi-touch Trackpad with Mousespot Click, drag, scroll, switch spaces or invoke Mission Control. Want to highlight parts of your presentations? Or looking for the mouse pointer? Remote Buddy's Mousespot spotlight effect is just a tap away! • Shortcut Bar The configurable shortcut bar provides quick access to essential actions for the controlled app in the Remote and Trackpad modes. • Smart Remote Fusing the best parts of remote, trackpad and shortcut bar into a single, app-specific view, Smart Remote puts everything needed to control an app within reach. • Web Video Control Control playback, speed and volume of almost all web videos - without having to fiddle with controls in the browser. Works with YouTube, Netflix, Amazon Prime, tv.apple.com, Vimeo and many more in Safari and Google Chrome. • Screen Sharing Instantly see your Mac's screen, with up to 60 frames per second. Supports zooming, dragging, clicking, scrolling, multiple displays and more. • Actions and App Control Pick from Remote Buddy's huge library of 1.200+ app-specific actions; launch, switch and quit apps right from your device. Favorite frequently used apps and actions for quick access. • Keyboard and Numpad Type text and numbers into browsers, search fields, editors, spreadsheets and more. Supports modifiers, cursor keys, the iOS keyboard's dictation feature, password manager integration and more. • Power Actions and Wake-On-LAN Save power by putting your Mac to sleep - and wake it up later through Wake-On-LAN. Or initiate a reboot or shut down right from the app. • Audio Settings Change your system's default audio output to a different device or AirPlay target. Control its volume and mute status where supported. • Connection secured with TLS Support for the new Secure Connection feature of Remote Buddy 2.0, keeping your connection private through strong, certificate-based TLS 1.2 encryption. SUPPORTED APPS Some of the Mac apps that Remote Buddy for Mac and – thereby – Remote Buddy Mobile can control out of the box: Acrobat Pro, Adobe Bridge, Adobe Reader, AirFoil, Aperture, Audio Hijack 3, Audirvana, Books, Broadcasts, Calendar, Deckset, DVD Player, Elmedia Video Player, EyeTV, FlexTime, Firefox, GarageBand, Google Chrome, Impress (OpenOffice.org & LibreOffice), iPhoto, iTunes, Keynote, Kodi, Lightroom 1/2/3/4/5/Classic/CC, Mac Blu-Ray Player, Movist, Music, OpenPHT, Photo Booth, Photos, Plex for Mac, Plex Media Player, Podcasts, PowerPoint, Preview, QuickTime Player, Roon, Safari, Skim, Spotify, TV.app, VoodooPad, VLC, XBMC, Yojimbo A complete list of supported apps is available at the Remote Buddy website. If you want us to add support for an app that's not listed there, please let us know through the contact form of our website. HOST REQUIREMENTS Requires a Mac running Remote Buddy 2.0 or later. Remote Buddy 2.0 requires macOS 10.12 or later. Licenses for Remote Buddy for the Mac are sold separately and not part of this app.

About

HomeWatch

Monitor and control your HomeKit devices with a glanceable status display. This app offers customizable views for rooms, scenes, and individual devices across Apple platforms, including widgets and menu bar items.

Highlights
  • Glanceable room status with color-coded indicators
  • Control scenes and devices within rooms
  • View camera feeds, weather, and website content
  • Customizable home and lock-screen widgets
  • Menu bar items for Mac with real-time updates
  • Extensive interface customization options
Read full description

I made an app for my Apple Watch to see a glanceable status of our home and to control our HomeKit devices. It worked so well on the watch, that I expanded it to a dashboard app for all our Apple devices. I have now added a configuration interface to make it compatible with any HomeKit enabled home setup. I hope some of you will find it useful. HOME VIEW The circle / grid with icons on the home view shows a color coded status of the rooms of the home: red when a door is open, yellow when a window is open, orange when the heating is on, cyan when lights are on and green when nothing is on. On the iPhone, iPad, tvOS and Mac the app also shows the time, date, cameras, feeds, events, reminders, a website and weather information. When there is rain, it will show a rain graph. ROOM VIEWS When a room is selected, the circle layout will show the scenes you can control in that room. The grid layout also shows the devices that can be controlled in that room. Additionally the room view has an information section. To the right it can show any characteristics from your devices. Below is a detail view that can show a camera view, a website, a temperature, humidity and climate history graphs. WIDGETS Fully customisable lock-screen and home-screen widgets. Tap / Clicking a widget item to go directly to a room view, execute a scene or launch any url-scheme. Customisable complications on the Watch can have actions to go directly to a room view and execute any scene. MENU BAR ITEMS On the Mac any HomeKit characteristic can be added to the menu bar and is kept up to date. CUSTOMISATION The interface can be fully customised. The user can add their own background images and icons from the photo library. Customise gradient overlays, icons, fonts, colours and more. Make it your own…

Screenshots

Remote Buddy Mobile 24 screens
HomeWatch3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: HomeWatch at every 2 months against Remote Buddy Mobile 2's every 12 months. HomeWatch also leads on device support (6 vs 3). Remote Buddy Mobile 2's advantage is review sentiment (75% vs 60%) and ratings volume (34 vs 4). On price, rating, 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

HomeWatch holds the better App Store score, 4.8 against 4.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Remote Buddy Mobile 2 has 34 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 75% of Remote Buddy Mobile 2's written reviews are positive against 60% of HomeWatch's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Remote Buddy Mobile 2 ships an update every 12 months, HomeWatch every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 20, 2026 and July 7, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
Remote Buddy Mobile 2 versus HomeWatch: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterRemote Buddy Mobile 2HomeWatch
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (34 ratings)4.8 (4 ratings) — better
Positive reviews75.0% of reviews — better60.0% of reviews
Number of ratings34 — better4
Update frequencyEvery 12 monthsEvery 2 months — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS12.4 — better15.6
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB64 MB
Age rating4+17+
DeveloperIOSPIRIT GmbHPeter Vogels

Customer experience

Remote Buddy Mobile 2

All ratings34 ratings
Positive94.1%
Neutral0.0%
Negative5.9%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive75.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative25.0%

HomeWatch

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews5 reviews
Positive60.0%
Neutral20.0%
Negative20.0%

In-app purchases

None

Remote Buddy Mobile 2

No in-app purchases

None

HomeWatch

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Remote Buddy Mobile 2 free?
Remote Buddy Mobile 2 is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is HomeWatch free?
HomeWatch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Remote Buddy Mobile 2 or HomeWatch?
HomeWatch is rated higher. Remote Buddy Mobile 2 averages 4.6 out of 5 from 34 ratings, while HomeWatch averages 4.8 from 4 ratings.
Do Remote Buddy Mobile 2 or HomeWatch have ads?
Neither Remote Buddy Mobile 2 nor HomeWatch shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Remote Buddy Mobile 2 or HomeWatch?
Remote Buddy Mobile 2 ships an update every 12 months, and HomeWatch every 2 months. Most recently, Remote Buddy Mobile 2 was updated on September 20, 2026 and HomeWatch on July 7, 2026.

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