Comparison

openHAB vs MarkWell

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

Head to head
About

openHAB

This app acts as a companion to an open-source home automation system, allowing users to control and integrate various smart home devices. It offers remote access, enhanced notifications, and a customizable interface for managing your smart home ecosystem.

Highlights
  • Seamless integration with openHAB UI
  • Remote control via openHAB Cloud
  • Enhanced push notifications
  • Apple Watch companion app
  • Natively supports iPhone and iPad
  • Connects to over 3000 devices
Features
Read full description

The official companion application for openHAB - an open source home automation system. The open Home Automation Bus (openHAB) project aims at providing a universal integration platform for connecting home automation technologies into a single intelligent system. With more than 3000 things that openHAB can connect to, there’s virtually nothing that can’t be integrated. Its advanced rules based architecture allows complete automation using several popular scripting languages (Java Script, Ruby, Python, Java, RDSL, and more ) as well as visual rule designers using either drag and drop interfaces or simple “If / Then” forms. The new openHAB UI allows users to easily build beautiful interfaces customized to their needs. openHAB is designed to be absolutely vendor-neutral as well as hardware/protocol-agnostic. Key Features: * Integrates seamlessly with your own openHAB UI (Main UI or sitemaps) * Control everything on your openHAB server directly or remotely through the free openHAB Cloud service (https://myopenhab.org) * Enhanced push notifications with media from openHAB Cloud and the openHAB cloud binding * Apple Watch companion app * Natively supports both iPhone and iPad Make openHAB the central integration and control point of your Smart Home. You will find openHAB at http://www.openhab.org/ openHAB has over 450 add-ons, supporting over 3000 things, some of which include: Aiphone, Amazon Dash Button, Amazon Echo Control, AmpliFi, AndroidTV, Anker, Apple HomeKit, Arlo, August, Belkin, Blink, Bosch Smart Home, Bose SoundTouch, Brinks, Chamberlain, Chromecast, Cree, D-Link, Daikin, Denon / Marantz, Dynaudio, Ecobee, Electrolux, Eero, Fibaro, Foscam, Freebox, Gardena, Google Home, Hisense, Honeywell, Honeywell Home, Hue, iRobot, JBL, Jablotron Alarm, Kaleidescape, Kenwood, KNX, Kodi, Kuka, Kwikset, LIFX, LG, Linksys, Logitech, Lutron, Matter, Miele Cloud, Miele@home, Moen, Nanoleaf, Neato, Netatmo, Nest, Nortek, Nuki, Osram, Philips Hue, Pioneer, Plex, Powermax, Rako, Ring, Ring Alarm, Roku, Samsung Smartthings, Sennheiser, Sensibo, Shelly, Siemens, SimpliSafe, Smarthome, Smartmeter, Smartthings, Sonos, Sony, Spotify, Squeezebox, Tado, Technics, Tesla, TP-Link Smart Home, TRÅDFRI, Unifi, Velux, Vera, Verisure, Vizio, Volumio, Wemo, Whirlpool, Wink, Xiaomi, Yamaha Musiccast, Yamaha Receiver, Yeelight, Zigbee, Z-Wave and 400 more popular technologies….

About

MarkWell

A native bookmark manager for Mac, iPhone, and iPad that syncs bookmarks across devices using iCloud. Organize links with tags and save them from any app via the system share sheet. Prioritizes user privacy with no account or analytics.

Highlights
  • Save links from any app
  • Organize with tags, not folders
  • End-to-end iCloud sync
  • Privacy-first design
  • Fetch title and favicon automatically
  • Offline functionality
Features
Read full description

MarkWell is a native bookmark manager for Mac, iPhone, and iPad. Save links from anywhere, organize them with tags, and find them again later — across all your devices, with no separate account to manage. SAVE FROM ANYWHERE Share any URL from Safari, Mail, Messages, or any other app, straight into MarkWell using the system share sheet. The app fetches the page's title and favicon for you, so the bookmark looks right the moment it lands. TAGS, NOT FOLDERS Tag a link with as many ideas as it has. Filter the sidebar by tag to find things by mood, topic, or project — whatever sticks in your head. No nested folders to maintain, no rigid structure to fight against. IN YOUR MENU BAR On the Mac, MarkWell can run from the menu bar instead of the Dock. Its menu adds a bookmark, brings the window back, and quits — or set a single click on the icon to open New Bookmark straight away. SYNCED THROUGH YOUR OWN ICLOUD Bookmarks sync end-to-end through your own iCloud account using Apple's CloudKit framework. There is no MarkWell account, no MarkWell server, and no analytics. Your data stays under your Apple ID, and the same bookmark you save on your iPhone shows up on your Mac a few seconds later. BRING YOUR BROWSER BOOKMARKS Import the bookmarks file that Safari, Chrome, Firefox, Edge, or Vivaldi exports. Folders become tags, so the way you sorted things comes with you, and duplicates are flagged before they land. Export your library any time — as JSON for a complete MarkWell backup, or as a standard bookmarks file any browser can import. PRIVACY-FIRST MarkWell collects nothing. The only network call the app makes on its own is to read the title and favicon of a URL when you save it. There are no third-party SDKs, no advertising, no telemetry. The privacy policy at bendansby.com/apps/markwell/privacy.html spells it out in detail. REQUIREMENTS - Mac running macOS 14 Sonoma or later - iPhone or iPad running iOS / iPadOS 17 or later - Optional: iCloud account for cross-device sync (works fully offline without one) Feedback welcome — ben.dansby@gmail.com.

Screenshots

openHAB4 screens
MarkWell4 screens

Verdict

The call

openHAB and MarkWell both sit at 5.0 stars, but that hides the real split: 100% of MarkWell's written reviews are positive against 33% of openHAB's. openHAB's advantage is price (Free vs $4.99) and ratings volume (3 vs 1). On rating, update cadence, 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

openHAB is free to download; MarkWell costs $4.99 up front. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for openHAB against 5.0 for MarkWell. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 3 and 1 respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 33% of openHAB's written reviews are positive against 100% of MarkWell's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

openHAB ships an update every 3 weeks, MarkWell every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 28, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
openHAB versus MarkWell: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameteropenHABMarkWell
PriceFree — better$4.99
Rating5.0 (3 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews100.0% of reviews — better
Number of ratings3 — better1
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree — betterPaid
DevicesiPhone, iPad, Apple WatchiPhone, iPad, Mac
Requires iOS16.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size45 MB6 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperopenHAB Foundation e.V.Benjamin Dansby

Customer experience

openHAB

All ratings3 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews9 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral33.3%
Negative33.3%

MarkWell

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%
Written reviews1 reviews
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

openHAB

No in-app purchases

None

MarkWell

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is openHAB free?
openHAB is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is MarkWell free?
MarkWell costs $4.99, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, openHAB or MarkWell?
openHAB and MarkWell are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 3 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do openHAB or MarkWell have ads?
Neither openHAB nor MarkWell shows ads.
Which is updated more often, openHAB or MarkWell?
openHAB ships an update every 3 weeks, and MarkWell every 2 weeks. Most recently, openHAB was updated on October 23, 2026 and MarkWell on October 28, 2026.

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