tado° vs Tapkey
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
tado°
Manage your home's energy consumption and costs from anywhere. This app offers intelligent heating control, smart scheduling, and integration with smart home devices. It also provides insights into energy usage and can optimize EV charging for cost savings.
- Remote heating control
- Smart scheduling
- Room Link efficiency
- Smart home integration
- AI-powered optimization
- EV Smart Charging
- Energy consumption tracking
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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.
Tapkey
Transform your smartphone into a secure digital key for doors, offices, and cars. Easily manage access for others and monitor activity logs. Enjoy high security standards comparable to online banking.
- Smartphone as secure key
- Grant and revoke access
- Track locking activities
- NFC and Bluetooth access
- Secure sign-on options
- Register locking devices
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Tapkey turns your smartphone into a super-secure key. Combined with Tapkey-enabled locking devices, the app allows you to open entrance doors, shared office spaces, lockers, garage doors and cars with your smartphone. In addition, you can grant access to others and track locking activities. Access management has never been that easy! FEATURES - Secure sign-on: with your Google Account or Tapkey ID - Register locking devices: with the app - Easy access management: grant and remove access at any time - Keyring: all access authorizations at a glance - Open smart locks: use NFC and/or Bluetooth—no internet connection required - Use NFC transponders: as alternative access medium that can directly be programmed with NFC-enabled smartphones - Check locking activities: in the access log of the Tapkey app - High security standards: comparable to online banking with strong cryptography and firmware updates directly via your smartphone LOCKING DEVICES Tapkey-enabled products can be ordered at https://shop.tapkey.com, Amazon or our partner's dealer network. SUBSCRIPTIONS “Let’s keep it simple” is our motto. That’s why all user packages include the entire range of features. They only differ in the amount of Smartphone Users. These are users with active access permissions for smartphones. You may buy additional NFC Tags, Cards and Stickers any time. User Packages - 25 Smartphone Users - 100 Smartphone Users - 250 Smartphone Users User packages are valid for 1 year and will be renewed automatically, unless the auto-renew function is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. Your account will be charged within 24 hours prior to the end of the current period. The payment will be processed via your iTunes Account. Please refer to your iTunes account settings to manage your subscriptions and how to turn off auto-renewal. Terms and Conditions: https://tapkey.com/en/terms-conditions/
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: tado° at 4.5 against Tapkey's 1.6. tado° also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 6 weeks) and ratings volume (779 vs 5). Tapkey's advantage is iOS requirement (15.6 vs 18.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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
Both are free to download. tado° sells 8 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and Tapkey sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $3.99 per month. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
tado° holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 1.6. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: tado° has 779 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 42% of tado°'s written reviews are positive against 27% of Tapkey's.
tado° ships an update weekly, Tapkey every 6 weeks. Both last shipped on November 13, 2026.
| Parameter | tado° | Tapkey |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (779 ratings) — better | 1.6 (5 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 42.4% of reviews — better | 26.8% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 779 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Weekly — better | Every 6 weeks |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 18.0 | 15.6 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 151 MB | 94 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | tado° | Tapkey |
Customer experience
tado°
Tapkey
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
Tapkey
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
tado°
- 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 5 moreShow fewer
- AI Assist / Auto-Assist7 Days trial$3.991 Month
- AI Assist / Auto-Assist6 Months trial$3.991 Month
- 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
Tapkey
- 10 Smartphone Users$3.991 Month
- 25 Smartphone Users$7.991 Month
- 50 Smartphone Users$14.991 Month
Show 7 moreShow fewer
- 100 Smartphone Users$29.991 Month
- 150 Smartphone Users$44.991 Month
- 200 Smartphone Users$59.991 Month
- 250 Smartphone Users$74.991 Month
- 25 Smartphone Users$96.991 Year
- 100 Smartphone Users$349.991 Year
- 250 Smartphone Users$899.991 Year









