Comparison

HomeWatch vs Solmeus

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

Head to head
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…

About

Solmeus

Read full description

The sun belongs to everyone — and Solmeus shows you what your share of it is worth. Engineering-grade precision in your iPhone. Personalised by what you actually have — your surface, your angle, your shadows, your surroundings, your bill. Not by your postcode. Free for everyone, no ads. Point your iPhone at any surface — a roof, a facade, a carport, a plot of land — and in 30 seconds Solmeus measures it, captures the sky and obstacles around it, and shows how much energy solar panels would generate there, how much they would save you each year, and when they would pay back. WHY THIS ISN'T AN ONLINE CALCULATOR Online calculators guess your roof from a satellite photo and use typical consumption. They miss the trees, the obstacles, the shadows that drop half your morning yield. Solmeus measures your actual surface, scans your obstacles, reads your real bill if you give it one. That's the difference between "solar should pay back in about 8 years for homes like yours" and "X kWh and Y years on this exact roof at this exact azimuth with this exact shadow." FREE FOR PERSONAL USE — IN FULL Solmeus is fully free for homeowners and anyone evaluating solar on their own surface — every feature available, no ads, no in-app purchases gating the report, no daily limits, no paywall. The Pro tier exists separately for solar installers and businesses; it changes nothing for personal users. PRECISION YOU CAN STAND BEHIND - AR surface measurement — your iPhone camera (and LiDAR, when available) measures area, tilt and orientation with sub-degree precision - Sky and obstacle scan — records the trees, buildings and obstacles around your site to model shading through the day - Honest physics, hour by hour — for every hour of the year Solmeus computes the real physics of sunlight on your surface: direct, diffuse and reflected radiation, the sun's path, shading from the obstacles you scanned - Two-layer climate data — authoritative satellite climate data combined with Solebo's own honest global climate model, built for Planet Mood: Earth, which also serves as a transparent offline baseline - Personalised by your bill — optionally scan or upload your electricity bill; the estimate then uses your real tariff and consumption - Honest financial model — yearly generation, savings, payback, every assumption visible - Four scenarios — panels, panels + battery, grid export, full self-consumption - Report Quality score 0–100% — every report tells you how confident the estimate is and why - Shareable PDF report THE NAME Solmeus comes from Latin sol meus — "my sun". The sun above you is yours; you have the right to know what it's worth. PRIVACY BY DESIGN No ads. No analytics. No tracking. No third-party SDKs. No user account. Your camera scans, AR measurements and electricity bill content stay on your device. The only thing Solmeus sends off your phone is your approximate location, to a public European climate-data service, only to retrieve solar irradiance for your site. LANGUAGES English · Ελληνικά · Русский · Español · Deutsch · Français · Italiano · Português · 日本語 · ไทย REQUIREMENTS iOS 17.6+. LiDAR-equipped iPhones (iPhone 12 Pro and later) give the most precise measurements but are not required. IMPORTANT Figures shown by Solmeus are indicative estimates based on satellite climate data and the information you provide. Actual results depend on hardware, installation quality, weather, future tariff changes and other factors. Solmeus is a planning tool, not a guarantee. Consult a qualified installer before any purchase decision. — Built by Solebo Ltd. No ads. No data sold. Support · info@solebo.org Privacy Policy · https://solebo.org/solmeus-privacy-policy/ Terms & Conditions · https://solebo.org/solmeus-terms-and-conditions/

Screenshots

HomeWatch3 screens
Solmeus4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: HomeWatch at every 2 months against Solmeus's every 4 months. HomeWatch also leads on device support (6 vs 1) and iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.6). On price, 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.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HomeWatch ships an update every 2 months, Solmeus every 4 months. The most recent releases landed on October 4, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
HomeWatch versus Solmeus: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHomeWatchSolmeus
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.8 (4 ratings) — better—
Positive reviews60.0% of reviews—
Number of ratings4 — better—
Update frequencyEvery 2 months — betterEvery 4 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — betteriPhone
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.6
Further details — not scored
Size64 MB28 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperPeter VogelsSolebo LTD

In-app purchases

None

HomeWatch

No in-app purchases

None

Solmeus

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is HomeWatch free?
HomeWatch is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Solmeus free?
Solmeus is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do HomeWatch or Solmeus have ads?
Neither HomeWatch nor Solmeus shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HomeWatch or Solmeus?
HomeWatch ships an update every 2 months, and Solmeus every 4 months. Most recently, HomeWatch was updated on October 4, 2026 and Solmeus on October 9, 2026.

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