OnSwitch for Philips Hue vs Magic Hue Bluetooth
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
OnSwitch for Philips Hue
Enhance your smart lighting with dynamic scenes and effects. Create immersive experiences for holidays, parties, and relaxation with a user-friendly interface. Features include sunrise alarms, sunset timers, and creative color controls.
- Animated light scenes for holidays and parties
- Live game-sync events for sports
- Sunrise alarm and sunset sleep timer
- Creative color control and discovery
- Manage and control light groups
- Hero lighting with cinematic flair
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LIGHTS! COLORS! ACTION! OnSwitch is the #1 rated companion app for Philips Hue smart lighting systems. Downloaded over 2.5 million times! OnSwitch for Philips Hue has a beautiful, simple user interface but it's also powerful. Your Hue lights come alive with a single click! • Holidays • Party/Disco Lighting • Sports, Including LIVE game-sync events • Sunrise alarm and sunset sleep timer • Fun kids content • Accent Lighting • Color flows • Candle light • Nature Scenes • Lightning • Fireworks Our Hue app connects to your Philips Hue Bridge, creating immersive animated experiences with your Hue lights! Get the best Hue App, get OnSwitch! UNLOCK EVERYTHING With OnSwitch Premium subscription you can unlock our entire content library and more! • Unlock ALL albums (300+ animated light scenes) • Unlimited SIRI Shortcuts • Access exclusive LIVE events. • Amazing NEW scenes added regularly. HERO LIGHTING Our Hue light scenes have cinematic flair. Music sound tracks set the mood while our an animation engine delivers bursts of light and sound where anything can happen. Santa lands on your house! Zombies attack! You are in a spaceship battle! Other light scenes transport you to a Lush Forest, Venice or even Deep Space to chill out in the Orion Nebula listening to superb ambient electronic music. CREATIVE LIGHTING OnSwitch gives you smarter, clearer ways to control your smart lights. Instead of guessing what Hue's "Light Recipes" mean, our Everyday Lighting album presents gorgeous photos of antique and halogen bulbs or a skylight so it's clear what kind of light you are going to get. Our fluorescent tube even flickers on like the real thing! Want Color? Other apps make you drag a pin around a color wheel. OnSwitch makes it easy with curated Pastels and Accent colors. Warm and Cool color flows. And "Color Splat!" our exclusive color discovery feature that's always fun and a surprise. SUNRISE ALARM & SUNSET SLEEP TIMER Wake up with a beautiful sunrise and your favorite music! Go to sleep with a sunset, optimized for better sleep. LIGHT GROUPS Easily create and manage groups of bulbs. Control each group independently. OnSwitch manages groups on your Philips Hue Bridge so it will play nicely with your other apps! IMPORTANT! • You will need LIFX smart bulbs or a Philips Hue bridge and light bulbs to use this app. • OnSwitch requires iOS10 or later to run. SUBSCRIPTION TERMS OnSwitch Premium subscription unlocks all of the app's lighting content. You can preview all of the content for 3 days FREE before your subscription starts. If you choose to subscribe, you will be charged a per month subscription fee according to your country. The subscription fee will be shown in the app before you complete the payment. Your subscription will automatically renew at the end of each subscription term, unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the term. Subscription renewals cost the same as the original subscription, and your credit card will be charged through your iTunes account at confirmation of purchase. You may manage your subscription and turn off auto-renewal at any time after purchase by going to your iTunes Account Settings. Refunds will not be given for any unused portion of the term. For additional information, please read: •Terms of Service (https://www.getonswitch.com/terms) • Privacy Policy (https://www.getonswitch.com/privacy)
Magic Hue Bluetooth
Control smart bulbs with your phone via Bluetooth. Adjust color, brightness, and set dynamic lighting scenes like flowing colors or music synchronization. Automate on/off times for personalized ambiance.
- Bluetooth Low Energy control
- Color and brightness adjustment
- Dynamic scene lighting
- Music synchronization
- Scheduled on/off times
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MagicHue Bluetooth is a BLE(Bluetooth Low Energy) based, personal, scene lighting system. A BLE supported smart phone can be used to control the bulbs, for color/brightness setting. Some useful functions can be used to set the scene lighting, e.g., flowing Color, dancing with music, turn on/off, times.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: OnSwitch for Philips Hue at 62% against Magic Hue Bluetooth's 17%. OnSwitch for Philips Hue also leads on rating (4.7 vs 3.7) and ratings volume (9.6K vs 7). Magic Hue Bluetooth's advantage is in-app purchases (none vs 10) and device support (4 vs 2). On price 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
Both are free to download. OnSwitch for Philips Hue sells 9 in-app purchases, starting at $12.99 per month. Magic Hue Bluetooth asks for nothing beyond the download.
OnSwitch for Philips Hue holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: OnSwitch for Philips Hue has 9.6K ratings behind it against 7, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 62% of OnSwitch for Philips Hue's written reviews are positive against 17% of Magic Hue Bluetooth's.
OnSwitch for Philips Hue ships an update every 2 weeks, Magic Hue Bluetooth every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | OnSwitch for Philips Hue | Magic Hue Bluetooth |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (9.6K ratings) — better | 3.7 (7 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 62.0% of reviews — better | 16.7% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 9.6K — better | 7 |
| Update frequency | Every 2 weeks — better | Every 2 months |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium | Free — better |
| Best chart rank | #155 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple Watch — better |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 | 8.0 — better |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 88 MB | 12 MB |
| Age rating | +17 | 4+ |
| Developer | Buzzhaus, LLC | 明长 周 |
Customer experience
OnSwitch for Philips Hue
Magic Hue Bluetooth
Bugs and requests
OnSwitch for Philips Hue
Reported bugs
4 issues- Crashes on launch after update
- Connectivity issues
- Lights not responding correctly
- Scenes not working as expected
Requested features
7 requests- Add support for LIFX bulbs
- Allow customization of light groups
- Add background mode/automation
- Add Siri/HomeKit integration
- Improve interface and organization
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- Add more scenes and effects
- Reduce pricing of individual scenes
Magic Hue Bluetooth
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
OnSwitch for Philips Hue
- OnSwitch Premium$12.991 Month
- OnSwitch Premium3 Days trial$35.991 Year
- Embers$0.99
- Fireplace$1.99
- Lightning$1.99
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- Aurora$1.99
- Nature Album$4.99
- Science Fiction Album$5.99
- Fireworks Album2 variants$7.99
Magic Hue Bluetooth
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is OnSwitch for Philips Hue free?
Is Magic Hue Bluetooth free?
Which has better reviews, OnSwitch for Philips Hue or Magic Hue Bluetooth?
Do OnSwitch for Philips Hue or Magic Hue Bluetooth have ads?
Which is updated more often, OnSwitch for Philips Hue or Magic Hue Bluetooth?
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