BroadLink e vs openHAB
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
BroadLink e
Remotely manage your home appliances by controlling smart plugs. Turn devices on or off from anywhere using your smartphone.
- Remote appliance control
- Smart plug management
- Turn devices on/off
- Home automation
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This application is used for smart plugs designed by Broadlink Co.Ltd; It's main function is to remotely control your home appliances via turn on/off Broadlink smart plug.
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.
- 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
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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….
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: openHAB at 5.0 against BroadLink e's 2.4. openHAB also leads on review sentiment (33% vs 18%). BroadLink e's advantage is ratings volume (139 vs 3) and iOS requirement (7.0 vs 16.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
openHAB holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 2.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: BroadLink e has 139 ratings behind it against 3, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 18% of BroadLink e's written reviews are positive against 33% of openHAB's.
BroadLink e ships an update every 5 weeks, openHAB every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and September 18, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | BroadLink e | openHAB |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.4 (139 ratings) | 5.0 (3 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 17.9% of reviews | 33.3% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 139 — better | 3 |
| Update frequency | Every 5 weeks | Every 3 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 7.0 — better | 16.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 66 MB | 45 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Broadlink Co.,Ltd | openHAB Foundation e.V. |
Customer experience
BroadLink e
openHAB
Bugs and requests
BroadLink e
Reported bugs
4 issues- App crashes when selecting devices
- Timers not working as expected
- Compatibility issues with iOS 15
- Remote access not functioning
Requested features
4 requests- Alexa/Google Assistant integration
- Apple Watch app
- Improved timer/scheduling functionality
- Better UI/UX for newer devices
openHAB
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
BroadLink e
No in-app purchases
openHAB
No in-app purchases
