Comparison

xgoose vs Houm

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

Head to head
About

xgoose

Features
Read full description

Meet xgoose - a floating AI assistant that lives right inside Safari. Tap the launcher button on any page and a chat panel slides up, ready to read the page, answer questions, and get things done. It runs in an isolated shadow DOM, so it never breaks the site you're on. Most "AI in your browser" extensions just paste a chat box on top of the web. xgoose actually understands the page you're on, and on supported sites it loads purpose-built skills that let the AI use clean, first-party tools instead of blindly scraping HTML. FREE AI, BUILT IN Start chatting in seconds - no API key, no credit card. Every signed-in account gets a free daily balance on the built-in xgoose AI. Prefer your own model? Switch to it anytime (see "Bring your own model" below). AN AI THAT KNOWS THE PAGE - Ask anything about the page you're reading and get a straight answer - Summarize long articles, threads, and YouTube or Bilibili videos - Pull structured data out of tables and search results - Declutter busy forums by hiding ads and chat boxes so you can read - Fill repetitive forms from a short prompt SITE-SMART SKILLS When you open a supported site, the matching skill auto-activates and gives the AI safe, typed helper functions, so it calls real APIs, not guesswork: - Search USCardForum and any Discourse forum, paginated - Scan American Airlines award calendars across cabins and months - Check Hyatt award availability across a date range - Summarize USCreditCardGuide reviews, bonuses, and offers - Add your own: drop a SKILL.md and skill file into the open-source project BRING YOUR OWN MODEL (OPTIONAL) Power users can plug in any model they like: - Google Gemini (native) - Any OpenAI-compatible endpoint: OpenAI, Together, Azure OpenAI, Ollama - Gemini or anything else via a LiteLLM proxy PRIVATE BY DESIGN - Your API keys, chat history, and per-site memory stay on your device - No tracking, no analytics, no ad SDKs - Open source, so you can inspect exactly what it does - Per-site memory the AI can reuse, scoped to each origin ONE APP, EVERY DEVICE xgoose works on iPhone, iPad, and Mac from a single sign-in. Your settings and skills follow you across Safari on all three. Enable on iPhone and iPad 1. Settings > Apps > Safari > Extensions > turn on xgoose 2. Tap xgoose, then set All Websites to Allow 3. Open any page, tap the launcher in the bottom-right, and start chatting Enable on Mac 1. Safari > Settings > Extensions > turn on xgoose 2. Allow it on Every Website 3. Click the launcher on any page and ask away Open source, no lock-in, and built for people who actually live in their browser. Add xgoose to Safari and put an AI on every page.

About

Houm

This app unifies control of your self-hosted services, including smart home devices and media servers. Monitor and manage your homelab infrastructure, from media requests to server status, all from one place.

Highlights
  • Unified smart home control
  • Media request and tracking
  • Real-time playback monitoring
  • Download queue management
  • Server and container status overview
  • Direct server integration
Features
Read full description

Houm is one dark, modular home for everything you self-host — the smart home your phone already talks to, and the media, servers and containers your homelab already runs. Every service is its own switch. Turn on only the ones you actually use, sign each into your own server, and Houm gets out of the way. SMART HOME See and control every accessory from Apple Home or Google Home — lights, locks, thermostats and cameras — without opening a separate app. WATCH SOMETHING Browse what's trending and request new films and shows through Requests, then follow it through Radarr and Sonarr's queues until it's ready. WHAT'S PLAYING The dashboard leads with what's on: streams, transcodes and bandwidth from Plex or Tautulli, updated as they happen. DOWNLOADS Keep an eye on NZBGet's queue and speed without switching to a browser tab. THE RACK Proxmox, Unraid and Portainer put every node, VM, disk and container in your pocket — what's running, what's full, and what needs attention. Sign in once with Plex to connect Requests and the Now Playing card, or skip it and set everything up later from Settings. Houm talks directly to the servers you already run — no new accounts, no subscriptions, no cloud in between. Houm is for people who already run a homelab. Bring your own Plex, Seerr, Radarr, Sonarr, NZBGet, Tautulli, Proxmox, Unraid or Portainer — Houm is the one app to watch them all from

Screenshots

xgoose1 screens
Houm4 screens

Verdict

The call

xgoose and Houm are too close to call on the numbers: across 6 compared parameters — price, update cadence, ads and in-app purchases among them — neither pulls far enough ahead to decide it. What separates them is feature set and interface, not measurable difference.

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

xgoose ships an update every 2 weeks, Houm every 6 days. The most recent releases landed on October 6, 2026 and October 17, 2026 respectively.

ScorecardNo meaningful differences
xgoose versus Houm: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterxgooseHoum
PriceFreeFree
Rating—5.0 (1 ratings) — better
Number of ratings—1 — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 weeksEvery 6 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
Monetization—Free
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS16.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size9 MB70 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperYang HuTehseen Hussain

In-app purchases

None

xgoose

No in-app purchases

None

Houm

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is xgoose free?
xgoose is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Houm free?
Houm is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do xgoose or Houm have ads?
Neither xgoose nor Houm shows ads.
Which is updated more often, xgoose or Houm?
xgoose ships an update every 2 weeks, and Houm every 6 days. Most recently, xgoose was updated on October 6, 2026 and Houm on October 17, 2026.

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