Comparison

tado° vs Hive

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

Hive

Control your home's energy usage, from heating and EV charging to lighting and solar power, all from your smartphone. Save money and reduce your carbon footprint with smart scheduling, real-time tracking, and personalized insights.

Highlights
  • Smart heating control
  • EV charging management
  • Smart lighting and plugs
  • Solar energy generation and storage
  • Energy usage tracking and budgeting
  • Personalized dashboard
  • Smart actions and scheduling
Features
Read full description

SAVE MONEY AND ENERGY WITH HIVE From smart heating to EV charging and so much more, Hive makes it easy to cut costs and carbon – all from your smartphone. Already trusted by more than 2 million customers, our clever technology is changing the way homes use, store and generate energy for the better. So we can get Britain living more sustainably every day. INTRODUCING THE NEW HIVE APP Our better-than-ever app has even more features to make saving energy easier – all based on feedback from real Hive users. • Personalise your dashboard to show your most-used devices first for quicker control. • Track budgets, check your history and discover more ways to save with Trends. • Switch on your devices, set smart actions and control it all from the dashboard.   HIVE THERMOSTATS • Get everything you need to take control of your heating with the best-selling Hive Thermostat - or choose the Hive Thermostat Mini for all the benefits at an even more affordable price. • Set energy-saving schedules, boost the temperature and get alerts if you’ve accidentally left the heating on. • Save energy and protect your heating system with built-in features like Frost Protection and Holiday Mode. • Boost your control with smart Hive Radiator Valves and save by never heating a room you’re not using. • Upgrade to Hive Heating Plus for even more ways to save, including insight tools, budget tracking and personalised recommendations.   HIVE EV CHARGING • Make the switch to EV easier with Hive EV Charging, including a smart home charger, installation by British Gas and simple control via the Hive app. • Pair it with any British Gas electricity tariff to access SmartCharge – our revolutionary scheduling tool that automatically charges at the greenest and cheapest times. Then, get any money you’ve saved credited on your next bill. • Or if you’re a new customer, get exclusive access to FreeCharge for a year of free charging on us! • See how much you’re spending in the Hive app and get real-time updates when your car’s ready to go.   HIVE LIGHTS, SENSORS & PLUGS • Set the mood with a swipe and get light where you need it with our ultra-efficient bulbs. • Monitor power-hungry appliances with smart plugs, so you can see how much energy you’re using at any time. • Link your whole smart home together with Motion Sensors and get it saving energy without lifting a finger.   *NEW* HIVE SOLAR • Get everything you need to power your home with greener, renewable energy, including solar panels, home battery, expert installation and full app control. • Generate free green energy from the sun, store what you don’t use with a solar battery and sell any you don’t need back to the grid. • Pair it with the Hive Solar Saver tariff from British Gas and save hundreds on your energy bills. Discover more at hivehome.com

Screenshots

tado°4 screens
Hive4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Hive at none against tado°'s 12. Hive also leads on device support (4 vs 2) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). tado°'s advantage is review sentiment (43% vs 18%) and rating (4.5 vs 4.2). On price, ratings volume and ads 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. Hive asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

tado° holds the better App Store score, 4.5 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 778 and 791 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 43% of tado°'s written reviews are positive against 18% of Hive's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

tado° ships an update weekly, Hive every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and September 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard7 real differences · 3 level
tado° versus Hive: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
Parametertado°Hive
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.5 (778 ratings) — better4.2 (791 ratings)
Positive reviews42.9% of reviews — better18.4% of reviews
Number of ratings778791 — better
Update frequencyWeekly — betterEvery 2 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS18.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size124 MB197 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developertado°Centrica Hive Limited

Customer experience

tado°

All ratings778 ratings
Positive88.4%
Neutral4.4%
Negative7.2%
Written reviews780 reviews
Positive42.9%
Neutral13.7%
Negative43.3%

Hive

All ratings791 ratings
Positive79.6%
Neutral4.6%
Negative15.8%
Written reviews1,778 reviews
Positive18.4%
Neutral10.8%
Negative70.8%

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

Hive

From 791 App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Easy to use
  • 🔒 Secure system
  • 👍 Convenient remote control
  • 👍 Integrates well with Alexa and Google

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent connectivity issues
  • 🐛 Unreliable app performance
  • 🐛 Scheduling problems
  • 🔋 High battery drain on devices
  • 👎 Paywall for basic features

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

Hive

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • App crashes and freezes
  • Devices randomly going offline
  • Heating/cooling schedules not working as expected
  • Camera live view and recordings not functioning properly

Requested features

4 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • More granular scheduling controls
  • Better integration with smart home platforms
  • Improved camera functionality and recording

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

Hive

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is tado° free?
tado° is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Hive free?
Hive is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, tado° or Hive?
tado° is rated higher. tado° averages 4.5 out of 5 from 778 ratings, while Hive averages 4.2 from 791 ratings.
Do tado° or Hive have ads?
Neither tado° nor Hive shows ads.
Which is updated more often, tado° or Hive?
tado° ships an update weekly, and Hive every 2 weeks. Most recently, tado° was updated on September 28, 2026 and Hive on September 30, 2026.

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