Rachio vs Places Time Intelligence
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Rachio
This app allows you to control your sprinkler system remotely, creating custom watering schedules. It helps save water and money by optimizing irrigation based on weather and yard needs. Access your system from anywhere for convenient lawn care.
- Automated watering schedules
- Remote sprinkler control
- Water and money saving
- Weather-based adjustments
- Smart home integration
- Mobile app access
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The Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller changes the way you water. It makes running your sprinklers easy and convenient while saving you water and money. Rachio automatically creates a watering schedule that lowers your water bill and ensures the beautiful yard you want, while the mobile app gives you access to your sprinkler system from anywhere. Plus, Rachio is compatible with nearly any sized yard and smart home platform. This is the companion app to the industry-leading Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller.
Places Time Intelligence
This app uses your background location to create a detailed overview of how you spend your time. It tracks visits to various places, measures duration, and provides breakdowns by day, week, month, or year. You can also view commute times and distinguish between sleep and awake time at home.
- Background location tracking
- Time spent at locations breakdown
- Visit duration measurement
- Commute time tracking
- Sleep vs. awake time differentiation
- Map view of detected places
- Pause tracking anytime
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Places turns background location into a clear picture of where your time goes. See how much of a day, week, month, or year was spent at Home, Work, the Gym, errands, and in transit. Places detects repeated locations, measures visit duration, and keeps untracked time visible instead of redistributing it. Use Places to: - Compare time across common places - Separate estimated sleep from awake time at Home - Review day, week, month, and year breakdowns - See driving and commute time - Understand gym visits without assuming every long stay is a workout - Switch between Time, Places, Map, and Settings with bottom navigation - View detected places on a map - Pause background tracking at any time Sleep is an estimate based on continuous overnight presence at Home. Places does not access HealthKit and does not present estimated sleep as medical or confirmed health data. Your location history is private to your account. Places does not sell location data or use your activity for cross-app tracking. OPTIONAL AD-FREE ACCESS Ads help support the free app. Remove Ads Forever is a one-time in-app purchase with no renewal. Restore Purchases is included.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Places Time Intelligence at none against Rachio's 5. Rachio's advantage is ratings volume (159K vs 1). On price, rating, update cadence 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. Rachio sells 5 one-off in-app purchases. Places Time Intelligence asks for nothing beyond the download.
On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.9 for Rachio against 5.0 for Places Time Intelligence. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Rachio has 159K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Rachio ships an update every 3 weeks, Places Time Intelligence every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and October 31, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Rachio | Places Time Intelligence |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.9 (159K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 58.5% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 159K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | Yes | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free with in-app purchases |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 16.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 163 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | RACHIO, INC. | Edge Case LLC |
Customer experience
Rachio
Places Time Intelligence
Bugs and requests
Rachio
Reported bugs
4 issues- Zones running at unexpected times
- Schedules not working as programmed
- App crashing during setup and use
- Syncing issues between app and controller
Requested features
4 requests- Ability to skip multiple upcoming watering cycles
- Customizable notifications for low battery and offline status
- Better integration with smart home platforms like HomeKit
- More granular control over watering schedules and durations
Places Time Intelligence
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Rachio
- Tempest Integration$29.99
- AirLink Integration$29.99
- Heat Wave Boost$29.99
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- Wire Status$29.99
- Valve & Heat Monitoring Bundle$49.99
Places Time Intelligence
No in-app purchases
Questions
Is Rachio free?
Is Places Time Intelligence free?
Which has better reviews, Rachio or Places Time Intelligence?
Do Rachio or Places Time Intelligence have ads?
Which is updated more often, Rachio or Places Time Intelligence?
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