Comparison

HomeBot for HomeKit vs BBS Manager

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

Head to head
About

HomeBot for HomeKit

This app enhances your smart home automation by providing powerful new actions for your HomeKit setup. It allows for bulk control of scenes, devices, and properties, as well as detailed information retrieval from your connected devices and sensors.

Highlights
  • Bulk HomeKit action execution
  • Detailed HomeKit item listing and filtering
  • Trigger scenes and switch device status
  • Change device properties like brightness and temperature
  • Set primary home for default Siri use
  • Supports a wide range of smart home devices and sensors
Features
Read full description

HomeBot for HomeKit lets you automate your home with Shortcuts and the command line. It includes two powerful actions to manage your HomeKit setup: • Run Home Action: Control scenes and devices in bulk, adjust device properties, or set your primary home. • Get Home Items: Find and filter scenes, devices, device groups, rooms, and homes by name, item type, service type, room, home, activation status, or supported actions and properties. Results include item details, device properties such as light brightness and thermostat target temperature, and sensor readings such as temperature, humidity, and air quality. Action Types: • Trigger Scene: Trigger one or more scenes. • Switch Scene Status: Activate, deactivate, or toggle one or more scenes. • Switch Device Status: Activate, deactivate, or toggle one or more devices or device groups. • Change Device Property: Adjust supported device or device group properties, such as light brightness, thermostat target temperature, or the position of blinds. • Set Primary Home: Set the primary home shared with HomeControl. Setting your primary home propagates the change to all your devices. Explore the included example shortcuts to get started: • Trigger Scenes: Choose scenes in your primary home and trigger them together. • Switch Lightbulbs in Room: Toggle, activate, or deactivate all lightbulbs in a room. • Get Home Status: Export the status of all items in your primary home to a JSON file. • Get Temperature Measurements: Read each temperature sensor in your HomeKit setup. • Set Thermostats Temperature: Set the target temperature of one or more thermostats. • Set Light Brightness in Room: Set the light brightness of all lightbulbs in a room. • Change Lightbulb Colors: Cycle lightbulbs through the colors of the rainbow. • Set Primary Home: Choose which HomeKit home to use as your primary home. Automation Systems: • Shortcuts: Build advanced HomeKit workflows by combining HomeBot’s powerful actions with the built-in Shortcuts actions and automation triggers. • Command-Line Automation on Mac: Automate HomeKit from Terminal, scripts, or AI agents with the included "homebot-cli" tool. Export HomeKit data as JSON for use in your scripts. HomeBot supports macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Notes: • HomeBot can detect and control the following types of devices: outlets, lightbulbs, switches, thermostats, fans, air purifiers, heaters, humidifiers, dehumidifiers, windows, window coverings, faucets, valves, irrigation systems, doors, garage door openers, and locks. • HomeBot also supports reading measurements or detections from the following types of sensors: temperature, humidity, air quality, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, contact (doors, windows, and window coverings), smoke, leak, motion, light, and occupancy sensors. • HomeBot supports changing and reading light brightness and color, thermostat and heating/cooling modes, target temperatures and thresholds, humidity targets and thresholds, fan and air purifier modes, rotation speed and direction, swing, physical controls lock, and the position of doors, windows, blinds, or shades. • HomeBot also reads detailed air-quality measurements, battery levels, and filter status when available. • HomeBot Command-Line Automation requires macOS 26 or later. Privacy by Design: HomeBot works completely on-device and does not store or send any information outside of the protected app sandbox.

About

BBS Manager

Features
Read full description

BBS Manager is an optional companion iOS application to your open-source Borg Backup Server. BBS Manager requires a paid monthly subscription in order to use the app with a 7-day free trial to test it out. BBS Manager does not provide any tunnel service to your Borg Backup Server installation – you'll need to provide the connectivity to access your server if it's behind your company firewall. KNOW BEFORE IT MATTERS Most backup failures are discovered weeks later, when you need the backup. BBS Manager gives you real-time status, errors, and even tells when a client goes offline for too long based on its client profile. Every alert is a per-device toggle, so your phone and your iPad can care about different things: • Backup failed, or completed with warnings • Backup completed — off by default, for those who like seeing "it ran" • Client offline, with how long it has been quiet • Scheduled backup missed because the client was offline • Storage running low • SSL certificate not renewing WATCH IT LIVE The dashboard shows your whole installation at a glance: clients online, jobs running with live progress, storage capacity, server health. Open a client for its plans, schedules, repositories and full backup history — including which runs finished with warnings, not just which failed. RUN IT FROM ANYWHERE • Trigger a backup now, edit, pause or resume a schedule • Manage local disks and remote SSH targets like Hetzner Storage Box, BorgBase and rsync.net • View, monitor, edit storage repos and perform maintenance tasks • Replace a client's API key instantly if one leaks • Organize machines with client profiles: laptops, servers, registers, each with its own schedule, retention and failure rules • Get notices about your SSL certificate that your agents depend on, and renew it with a tap if it's out-of-date • Even upgrade the server itself — it waits for running jobs, enters maintenance mode, upgrades and comes back on its own, with a single click YOUR SERVER, YOUR DATA BBS Manager talks directly to your server over your own TLS. Backup contents never pass through anyone else's cloud, and there is nothing to subscribe to on the server side — Borg Backup Server is an MIT-Licensed open-source orchestrator built on BorgBackup's proven deduplicating, encrypted backup engine created by Thomas Waldmann. For more info about Borg Backup Server, visit: https://borgbackupserver.com/ REQUIREMENTS Requires your own Borg Backup Server installation (v2.93 or later) — free download at borgbackupserver.com (MIT-Licensed). Spin it up on a Docker Container (or Bare Metal/VM) in just minutes and start backing up your data from Linux, Mac and Windows clients. Push notifications require the server's push service to be enabled. The BBS Manager app must be able to access your installation of Borg Backup Server over the internet or on your local LAN depending on how you have it configured. BBS Manager requires a monthly subscription in order to support the infrastructure and development of the app including the push notification service and the API integrations. BBS Manager is not open-source. Terms of Use: https://borgbackupserver.com/terms Privacy Policy: https://borgbackupserver.com/privacy

Screenshots

HomeBot for HomeKit4 screens
BBS Manager4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is price: BBS Manager at Free against HomeBot for HomeKit's $5.99. HomeBot for HomeKit's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 1). On ads, device support and iOS requirement 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

BBS Manager is free to download; HomeBot for HomeKit costs $5.99 up front. BBS Manager sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $3.99 per month. HomeBot for HomeKit asks for nothing beyond the download.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
HomeBot for HomeKit versus BBS Manager: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHomeBot for HomeKitBBS Manager
Price$5.99Free — better
Rating4.3 (18 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews35.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings18 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 3 months—
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationPaid—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Mac — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS17.016.4 — better
Further details — not scored
Size13 MB65 MB
Age rating4+12+
DeveloperPedro Jose Pereira VieitoMarc Pope

In-app purchases

None

HomeBot for HomeKit

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

BBS Manager

Subscriptions1
  • BBS Admin$3.991 Month

Questions

Is HomeBot for HomeKit free?
HomeBot for HomeKit costs $5.99, with no in-app purchases.
Is BBS Manager free?
BBS Manager is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Do HomeBot for HomeKit or BBS Manager have ads?
Neither HomeBot for HomeKit nor BBS Manager shows ads.

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