Elgato Avea vs Nanoleaf
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Elgato Avea
Create dynamic light moods in your home with customizable settings. Control your ambiance from your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch and wake up gently with a built-in sunrise alarm. Requires compatible Elgato Avea hardware.
- Dynamic light moods
- Customizable settings
- iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch control
- Built-in wake-up light scene
- Bluetooth Smart connectivity
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Avea transforms your home with beautiful dynamic light moods. Control your ambience from your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch and unwind in one of these carefully crafted settings with subtly changing light: • Magic Hour • Northern Glow • Cherry Blossom • Mountain Breeze • Cozy Flames • Sunny Field • Fairy Woods • Caribbean Sea • Candy Land • Calm Provence After a relaxing evening, simply set your alarm using the built-in wake-up light scene. With Avea, rise and shine along a natural sunrise, right in your bedroom. How does it work? This app requires Elgato Avea. Turn any luminaire into the perfect mood lamp with Avea Bulb, start transforming your home within seconds with Avea Sphere, and bring dynamic light moods anywhere with Avea Flare. Avea connects directly to your iPhone or iPad using Bluetooth Smart technology, without requiring additional gateways or bridges. Learn more about Elgato Avea at www.elgato.com/avea What do you need? • Elgato Avea • iPhone 4S or later, iPod touch (5th generation), iPad mini or iPad (3rd generation or later)
Nanoleaf
Control and customize your smart lighting experience with a comprehensive app. Design layouts, set schedules, create dynamic scenes, and integrate with voice assistants for effortless smart home management.
- Virtual Layout Assistant
- One-touch RGB presets
- Full scene customization
- Remote on/off and brightness control
- Scene scheduling and automation
- Voice command integration
- Community scene discovery
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Design, set up, manage, and control your Nanoleaf lights all in one place. From the virtual Layout Assistant, to one-touch RGB presets, to full in-depth customization like you’ve never seen before, prepare for a lighting experience that is Smarter by Design. Simple Control Use the App to scan your lights’ pairing code and get set up in seconds, then enjoy your smart light-switch. Remotely turn your lights on and off, adjust brightness (trust us they go BRIGHT), and select your color Scenes from anywhere within your home. Group your lights together for joint control with Group Scenes (because we love a team player), or segment by room to keep your lights as organized as you wish your life could be. Complete Customization Create custom dynamic Scenes by selecting palettes and colors with the intuitive color wheel, adjusting ratios, and choosing animated motions. Try vibrant RGB hues to set a total vibe, or put the “fun” in functional lighting with the whole range of white color temperatures. Advanced Automations Set Schedules to automate your daily lighting needs, from gentle morning light-alarms, to gradually dimming nightly reminders that Holy **** it’s 2AM again, you need to wake up in 4 hours, PLEASE go to sleep. Now You’re Talking Connect your lights with your smart home assistant (HomeKit, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, or Samsung SmartThings) and use voice commands to control them hands-free. Just say “Hey Siri, turn on my TGIF” Scene” and instantly enter full relaxation-mode at the end of a long week. Join the Community Explore the App’s “Discover” tab for a huge collection of incredible Scenes created by users like you. Well, like you, just more creative. But if you too are the creative type, share your own Scenes and show the community what you’ve got! There are endless Scenes to discover for every mood and occasion, all the way from “Ho Ho Holidays” to “Netflix and Chill”. + More With a virtual AR Layout Assistant, curated Scenes and Playlists, Cloud Control (requires Apple home hub), and additional product information, the Nanoleaf App really is your smart lighting one-stop-shop. The Nanoleaf App supports all Nanoleaf manufactured products including by not limited to: Light Panels, Canvas, Shapes, Essentials, Elements, Lines, Blocks, Sense+ Smart Switch and Matter Wi-Fi products. Enjoy it today on the ever superior iOS operating system.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Nanoleaf at 4.2 against Elgato Avea's 2.7. Nanoleaf also leads on ratings volume (45K vs 32) and update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 2 months). Elgato Avea's advantage is review sentiment (44% vs 17%) and iOS requirement (10.3 vs 15.4). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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.
Nanoleaf holds the better App Store score, 4.2 against 2.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Nanoleaf has 45K ratings behind it against 32, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 44% of Elgato Avea's written reviews are positive against 17% of Nanoleaf's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.
Elgato Avea ships an update every 2 months, Nanoleaf every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Elgato Avea | Nanoleaf |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 2.7 (32 ratings) | 4.2 (45K ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 43.9% of reviews — better | 17.0% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 32 | 45K — better |
| Update frequency | Every 2 months | Every 2 weeks — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 10.3 — better | 15.4 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 100 MB | 193 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 9+ |
| Developer | Eve Systems GmbH | Nanoleaf |
Customer experience
Elgato Avea
Nanoleaf
Bugs and requests
Elgato Avea
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
Nanoleaf
Reported bugs
5 issues- Lights randomly disconnecting
- Firmware updates failing or bricking devices
- Scenes not syncing properly across devices
- App crashes on launch or during use
- Delayed or unresponsive device controls
Requested features
5 requests- Improved app stability and reliability
- More intuitive scene creation and management
- Better integration with other smart home platforms
- Customizable animation speed and effects
- Ability to save and restore custom color presets
In-app purchases
Elgato Avea
No in-app purchases
Nanoleaf
No in-app purchases









