Comparison

BirdLasser vs Home Assistant

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

Head to head
About

BirdLasser

Easily record bird sightings with GPS precision, even offline. Manage your trips and lifelist with automatic cloud backups. Share your discoveries with friends and contribute to conservation efforts.

Highlights
  • Record bird sightings with GPS
  • Offline sighting capture
  • Automatic cloud backup
  • Manage trip cards and lifelist
  • Share sightings with community
  • Contribute to conservation projects
Features
Read full description

BirdLasser is a fun, easy way to record your bird sightings and share with friends, your community and contribute to conservation. • Spot - Capture bird sightings painlessly with GPS precision, even when offline. • Plot - Effortlessly view and manage your trip cards. Automatically backup your trips and lifelist to the cloud. • Play a Part - Share your sightings with friends and seamlessly contribute to conservation causes. If you enjoy using BirdLasser, please take a minute to leave a nice review on the App Store; it really helps. Testimonials from our BirdLasser Facebook page: “We've been to Ngwenya Lodge for the first time and decided to try atlassing with the iPhone app for the first time - what a pleasure! Thank you to the team for the hard work, it was a pleasure to use!” “... just loaded - impressive features so far! That voice recognition you've been looking for is one of the features.... This app could convert a whole bunch of birders to atlassers.” “I am dying for this app....what will the cost be?” BirdLasser: “Hi John, no cost - free, gratis!” Rapidly capture sightings We endeavour to make it as quick and simple as possible to log your sightings. Whether in your garden, the Kruger Park or on the open seas, we will seamlessly tag your sightings with date, time and location. Share with the community Share that special sighting with your fellow birders in real-time via email, Facebook or Twitter, or post a trip report. Conservation causes Your passion for birds and birding has the additional benefit to contribute to a greater good. BirdLasser makes it simple share your sighting details with conservation programs such as the African BirdMAP Atlas Projects. Atlassers can enable boundary change notifications to make it even simpler. Note, that this feature uses the GPS in the background. Continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life. Download BirdLasser now to Spot. Plot. Play a Part!

About

Home Assistant

Control your entire smart home from one app, locally and privately. Automate devices, receive notifications, and manage your home's data securely. Integrates with thousands of smart devices and open standards.

Highlights
  • Control entire home from one app
  • Discover and configure new devices
  • Automate device actions
  • Local data privacy
  • Connect to open standards (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter)
  • Remote access via Home Assistant Cloud
  • Location-based automation
Features
Read full description

The Home Assistant Companion app allows you to access your Home Assistant instance on the go. Home Assistant is the smart home solution focused on privacy, choice, and sustainability. It runs locally in your home via a device like the Home Assistant Green or Raspberry Pi. This app connects to all the most powerful features of Home Assistant, - One app to control the whole home - Home Assistant is compatible with the biggest brands in the smart home, connecting to thousands of smart devices and services. - Discover automatically and quickly configure new devices - such as Philips Hue, Sonos, and IKEA Tradfri. - Automate everything - Make all the devices in your home work in harmony - have your lights dim when you start watching a movie, or turn off your heat when you’re away from home. - Keep your home’s data in the home - use it privately to see past trends and averages. - Connect to open standards with hardware add-ons - including Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, Thread, and Bluetooth. - Connect anywhere - If you would like to access this app while away from home, the most secure and simple way to get started is Home Assistant Cloud. The app unlocks your smartphone or tablet as a home automation tool. - Securely share your location, using it to automate heating, security, and so much more. - Get notifications on what's happening in your home, from detecting leaks to doors left open, you have full control over what it tells you. - Carplay functionality lets you open a garage or disable the security system from the dash of your car. - Build your own widgets to control any device in your home with a tap. - Integrate Home Assistant's functionality into Shortcuts, for example have your phone’s morning alarm turn on the coffee machine. - Apple Watch compatibility can show your home's temperature on a watch face or quickly activate devices. - Text or talk to your local voice assistant on your device. - Mac compatibility allows you to control your home from your desktop, but also to share data to build automation, like having your streaming lights turn on when your camera is active. Join the over 1 million users and empower your home with better privacy, choice and sustainability. Compatible with: Airthings, Amazon Alexa, Amcrest, Apple HomeKit, Apple TV, ASUSWRT, August, Belink WeMo, Bluetooth, Bose SoundTouch, Broadlink, BTHome, deCONZ, Denon, Devolo, DLNA, Ecobee, Ecovacs, Ecowitt, Elgato, EZVIZ, Fritz, Fully Kiosk, GoodWe, Govee, Growatt, Hikvision, Hive, Home Connect, Homematic, HomeWizard, Honeywell, iCloud, IFTTT, IKEA Tradfri, Insteon, Jellyfin, LG Smart TVs, LIFX, Logitech Harmony, Lutron Caseta, Magic Home, Matter, MotionEye, MQTT, MusicCast, Nanoleaf, Netatmo, Nuki, OctoPrint, ONVIF, Opower, Overkiz, OwnTracks, Panasonic Viera, Philips Hue, Pi-hole, Plex, Reolink, Ring, Roborock, Roku, Samsung TVs, Sense, Sensiba, Shelly, SmartThings, SolarEdge, Sonarr, Sonos, Sony Bravia, Spotify, Steam, SwitchBot, Synology, Tado, Tasmota, Tesla Wall, Thread, Tile, TP-Link Smart Home, Tuya, UniFi, UPnP, Verisure, Vizio, Wallbox, WebRTC, WiZ, WLED, Xbox, Xiaomi BLE, Yale, Yeelight, YoLink, Z-Wave, Zigbe

Screenshots

BirdLasser4 screens
Home Assistant4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: Home Assistant at 4.7 against BirdLasser's 3.9. Home Assistant also leads on update cadence (every 10 days vs every 2 months) and ratings volume (4K vs 14). BirdLasser's advantage is iOS requirement (9.0 vs 16.4). On price, review sentiment, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

Home Assistant holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 3.9. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Home Assistant has 4K ratings behind it against 14, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews complicate that: 62% of BirdLasser's written reviews are positive against 54% of Home Assistant's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

BirdLasser ships an update every 2 months, Home Assistant every 10 days. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 20, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard5 real differences · 5 level
BirdLasser versus Home Assistant: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterBirdLasserHome Assistant
PriceFreeFree
Rating3.9 (14 ratings)4.7 (4K ratings) — better
Positive reviews61.5% of reviews — better54.1% of reviews
Number of ratings144K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 10 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS9.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size74 MB261 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperLejint Pty LtdNabu Casa, Inc

Customer experience

BirdLasser

All ratings14 ratings
Positive71.4%
Neutral7.1%
Negative21.4%
Written reviews13 reviews
Positive61.5%
Neutral7.7%
Negative30.8%

Home Assistant

All ratings3,967 ratings
Positive93.5%
Neutral1.6%
Negative4.9%
Written reviews510 reviews
Positive54.1%
Neutral8.6%
Negative37.3%

In-app purchases

None

BirdLasser

No in-app purchases

None

Home Assistant

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is BirdLasser free?
BirdLasser is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Home Assistant free?
Home Assistant is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, BirdLasser or Home Assistant?
Home Assistant is rated higher. BirdLasser averages 3.9 out of 5 from 14 ratings, while Home Assistant averages 4.7 from 4K ratings.
Do BirdLasser or Home Assistant have ads?
Neither BirdLasser nor Home Assistant shows ads.
Which is updated more often, BirdLasser or Home Assistant?
BirdLasser ships an update every 2 months, and Home Assistant every 10 days. Most recently, BirdLasser was updated on October 2, 2026 and Home Assistant on October 20, 2026.

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