Comparison

tado° vs Ember

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

Head to head
About

tado°

This app allows you to remotely control your home's heating, air conditioning, and heat pumps. It helps reduce energy consumption and costs through intuitive control and insights into your usage patterns.

Highlights
  • Remote heating and AC control
  • Energy usage insights
  • Energy-saving tips
  • Automated climate control
  • Matter and Thread compatibility
Read full description

Your home's energy at your fingertips. From anywhere, anytime. The tado° app isn't just for smart heating. It makes your whole home ready for intelligent energy management. Connect your tado° energy tariff. Keep your consumption and costs in view at any time. And with Smart Charging, your EV charges automatically when energy is cheapest. All in one app. SMART HEATING CORE FUNCTIONS • Remote control via app: Control your heating system anytime, from anywhere. • Smart Schedule: Easily set up custom heating schedules for each room. • Room Link: The smart integration between room thermostats and boiler makes your heating system more efficient. The boiler only runs when a room needs heat. And every room heats to its own target temperature. • Smart Home Integration: tado° is compatible with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings via Matter. • Easy DIY installation: The app provides custom step-by-step installation instructions tailored to your heating system. MORE WITH AI ASSIST Get even more smart features with AI Assist (subscription). Our AI learns your routines and room characteristics to boost comfort and efficiency. You can save up to 55%¹ more energy than with the free app. • Adaptive Heating: Learns the unique heating patterns for each of your rooms, optimising your energy consumption and enhancing your comfort, while you stay in control. • Geofencing: Using your phone’s location, tado° turns off the heating when no one’s home. • Preheat before arrival: With predictive AI, tado° will warm up your home again just before you get back. • Holiday Mode: Turns off your heating when you go on holiday and automatically switches it back on in time for your return. • Open Window Detection: tado° detects open windows without requiring additional sensors, automatically pausing your heating to avoid wasting energy. • Hydronic Balancing: Automatically manages water flow to ensure even heat distribution to all radiators. • Care & Protect: Monitors your heating system, notifies you if unusual heating behaviour is detected and helps you to solve issues with easy step-by-step guides. • Air Comfort: Helps you to achieve a healthier indoor climate, with insights and specific advice, e.g. when you should open the windows, or if a room is at risk of developing mould. • Automated Flow Temperature Optimization: Optimizes the maximum flow temperature of an OpenTherm boiler according to the outside temperature to save energy. • Climate Report: Visualizes the room temperature and heating activity for any of your rooms over time. • Energy IQ: See exactly how much energy you consume – broken down by room and month. Keep track of your costs at any time. ONE APP FOR YOUR HOME ENERGY From your smart thermostat to your energy tariff, heat pump and EV charging: tado° brings it all together. • Dynamic Tariff Integration: Connect your tado° energy tariff (available in Germany and Austria) or any other dynamic energy provider. • Smart Charging: Automatically charge your electric car when electricity prices are at their lowest. Set a ready-by time and tado° handles the rest. Included free with tado° Energy. Available as an in-app subscription for all others. • Balance for heat pumps: Your heat pump automatically runs when electricity is cheapest. tado° Balance maximizes efficiency by monitoring energy prices and outdoor temperatures. Available as an in-app subscription. ¹Up to 55% more savings is based on internal modelling comparing the use of tado° AI Assist vs the free tado° app. Actual savings depend on household characteristics, usage patterns and external factors.

About

Ember

This app allows you to precisely control the temperature of your hot beverages using a smart mug. Customize presets, receive notifications when your drink reaches the perfect temperature, and explore recipes. Personalize your mug settings for an enhanced drinking experience.

Highlights
  • Precise temperature control
  • Save temperature presets
  • Beverage recipes and blogs
  • Customizable notifications
  • Manage multiple mugs
  • Personalize mug settings
Features
Read full description

At Ember®, we use temperature control to change the world in ordinary (and extraordinary) ways. With an Ember Temperature Control Smart Mug and the Ember app, you can transform your mornings by making hot beverages set to your chosen temperature an everyday reality. Our redesigned Ember app is simple, easy to use, and customizable. Whether you are a first-time user or a long-time customer, get ready for a whole new temperature control experience. The Ember app seamlessly pairs with your Ember products to precisely adjust your favorite hot drinks to your preferred drinking temperature, saves temperature presets, offers recipes, sends notifications when your desired drinking temperature has been reached, and more. Ember App Features: - Control the temperature of your beverage down to the degree - Use your previous temperature setting for a set-it-and-forget-it beverage experience - Manage unlimited paired mugs on an all-new Ember home screen - Find recipes and blogs you can save and share with friends and family in the new Explore section - Receive notifications when your preferred temperature has been reached, or your battery is low - Customize presets for multiple beverages and engage timers - Personalize your mugs with names and adjust the color of the smart LED - Easily switch between °C/°F and control sounds and haptic feedback in the redesigned Account section - Access Ember x Health with Apple Health

Screenshots

tado°4 screens
Ember4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: tado° at 4.5 against Ember's 3.3. tado° also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 2 months) and review sentiment (43% vs 18%). Ember's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 12) and ratings volume (7.4K vs 778). On price, ads and device support 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. tado° sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month. Ember asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

tado° holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 3.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Ember has 7.4K ratings behind it against 778, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of tado°'s written reviews are positive against 18% of Ember's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

tado° ships an update weekly, Ember every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and September 23, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
tado° versus Ember: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parametertado°Ember
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (778 ratings) — better3.3 (7.4K ratings)
Positive reviews43.1% of reviews — better18.0% of reviews
Number of ratings7787.4K — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad — betteriPhone
Requires iOS18.016.6 — better
Further details — not scored
Size123 MB63 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developertado°Ember Technologies Inc.

Customer experience

tado°

All ratings778 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.4%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews778 reviews
Positive43.1%
Neutral13.8%
Negative43.2%

Ember

All ratings7,424 ratings
Positive54.6%
Neutral4.8%
Negative40.6%
Written reviews1,289 reviews
Positive18.0%
Neutral8.3%
Negative73.7%

User reviews

tado°

From 778 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Efficient heating control
  • 🔒 Secure and private
  • 👍 Easy to install and set up
  • 👍 Useful scheduling and automation features
  • 👍 Convenient remote control

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent connectivity issues
  • 🔋 Battery life problems with smart radiator valves
  • 👎 Overly aggressive upselling of subscription features
  • 👎 Unreliable open window detection
  • 👎 Lack of flexibility in temperature control

Ember

From 7.4K App Store ratings

What we love

  • ⭐ Keeps drink at perfect temperature
  • 🍵 Great for tea and coffee drinkers
  • 🎨 Customizable LED light colors
  • 🔋 Decent battery life when used properly
  • 🤖 Apple Watch app integration

Room to improve

  • 🔌 Requires frequent charging and docking
  • 🔒 Forced account creation and login
  • 🔄 Unreliable Bluetooth connectivity
  • 🐛 Buggy app with frequent issues
  • 🤔 Confusing app UI and controls

Bugs and requests

tado°

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App frequently crashes or becomes unresponsive
  • Syncing issues between app and hardware
  • Incorrect temperature readings from smart radiator valves
  • Inability to add/assign rooms in the app

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to create and apply scheduling templates
  • Improved Siri/HomeKit integration
  • Option to disable subscription upselling
  • More granular temperature control
  • Better battery life indicators

Ember

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App frequently logs users out
  • Mug disconnects from app randomly
  • Firmware update process often fails
  • App doesn't always detect liquid in mug
  • Presets and settings get lost after updates

Requested features

5 requests
  • Battery level indicator on main screen
  • Improved Apple Watch app functionality
  • Wireless charging option
  • Ability to lock temperature settings
  • Automatic temperature adjustment based on volume

In-app purchases

10 purchases

tado°

Subscriptions10
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist$3.991 Month
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist1 Month trial$3.991 Month
Show 7 more
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist7 Days trial$3.991 Month
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist6 Months trial$3.991 Month
  • Balance AC - Yearly Plan$29.991 Year
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist$29.991 Year
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist1 Year trial3 variants$29.991 Year
  • AI Assist / Auto-Assist7 Days trial$29.991 Year
  • Balance for Heat Pumps3 Months trial$44.991 Year
None

Ember

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is tado° free?
tado° is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Ember free?
Ember is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, tado° or Ember?
tado° is rated higher. tado° averages 4.5 out of 5 from 778 ratings, while Ember averages 3.3 from 7.4K ratings.
Do tado° or Ember have ads?
Neither tado° nor Ember shows ads.
Which is updated more often, tado° or Ember?
tado° ships an update weekly, and Ember every 2 months. Most recently, tado° was updated on September 22, 2026 and Ember on September 23, 2026.

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