Comparison

smart vs Rain Bird

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

Head to head
About

smart

Monitor and control your home's energy flow in real-time. View reports, optimize solar energy usage with smart actions, and track historical consumption. MID-certified meters allow for billing in prosumer communities.

Highlights
  • Real-time energy flow monitoring
  • Historical energy use reports
  • Solar energy optimization tools
  • Smart If/Then action setup
  • Prosumer community billing
  • MID-certified metering
Features
Read full description

smart-me puts your energy data on your iPhone and iPad. Whether it's a single-family home, an apartment building with shared solar power (ZEV/vZEV) or a business: see live how much power your solar system produces, how much of it you use yourself and what it costs. LIVE AND TRANSPARENT • Live values from all your smart-me meters and devices • Energy flow between solar system, battery, building and grid • Self-consumption and self-sufficiency rate at a glance • Consumption and costs per apartment, tariff and period – from yesterday to the last 365 days LOAD PROFILES AND HISTORY • Detailed load profiles you can zoom with two fingers • Read the values of individual periods right in the chart • Electricity, heat, hot and cold water in one app FOR OWNERS, PROPERTY MANAGERS AND TENANTS • Ideal for ZEV and vZEV: tenants see their consumption, their solar share and their costs • Clear overview of entire properties with all apartments and meters • Keep an eye on charging stations and e-mobility MADE FOR YOU • Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets with the current power • "Current power" shortcut for Siri and the Shortcuts app • Light and dark mode • Optimized for iPhone and iPad SECURE, FROM SWITZERLAND Your data is stored encrypted in a certified data center in Switzerland. smart-me is the Swiss specialist for smart energy management in buildings. To use the app you need a smart-me account and smart-me devices, such as meters, M-Bus gateways or the Pico charging station. Learn more at web.smart-me.com Customer support Help: https://doc.smart-me.com/home Email: support@smart-me.com

About

Rain Bird

Control your sprinklers remotely from your mobile device. Automate watering schedules and adjust for weather conditions to conserve water and reduce costs. Compatible with various Rain Bird controller models.

Highlights
  • Remote sprinkler control
  • Customizable watering schedules
  • Automated weather adjustments
  • Water and money saving
  • Controller model compatibility
Features
Read full description

Smart Watering Made Simple. Connect your Rain Bird controller to your mobile device to turn on sprinklers, set up customized watering schedules, and automate weather adjustments, saving you water and money. Compatible with the following Rain Bird controller models: ST8-WIFI ESP-TM2 ESP-RZXe ESP-Me ESP-ME3 RC2 ARC8 For more information: http://wifi.rainbird.com 1-800-RAINBIRD

Screenshots

smart4 screens
Rain Bird4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: smart at 50% against Rain Bird's 31%. Rain Bird's advantage is iOS requirement (13.0 vs 17.0). 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

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

UpkeepUpdate frequency

smart ships an update monthly, Rain Bird every 2 months. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 8 level
smart versus Rain Bird: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParametersmartRain Bird
PriceFreeFree
Rating—4.7 (79K ratings) — better
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews — better31.2% of reviews
Number of ratings—79K — better
Update frequencyMonthly — betterEvery 2 months
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.013.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB48 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developersmart-me AGRain Bird Corporation

Customer experience

smart

Written reviews10 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

Rain Bird

All ratings66,807 ratings
Positive93.0%
Neutral3.1%
Negative3.9%
Written reviews894 reviews
Positive31.2%
Neutral17.4%
Negative51.3%

Bugs and requests

smart

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Rain Bird

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Constant connection errors
  • App crashes frequently
  • Date/time not syncing correctly
  • Seasonal adjustment not working as expected
  • Manual controls not functioning properly

Requested features

6 requests
  • Add water usage history and analytics
  • Allow pausing of individual zones
  • Improve manual control options
  • Add weather integration and smart scheduling
  • Improve notification system
Show 1 more
  • Add ability to turn off entire system remotely

In-app purchases

None

smart

No in-app purchases

None

Rain Bird

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is smart free?
smart is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Rain Bird free?
Rain Bird is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do smart or Rain Bird have ads?
Neither smart nor Rain Bird shows ads.
Which is updated more often, smart or Rain Bird?
smart ships an update monthly, and Rain Bird every 2 months. Most recently, smart was updated on November 1, 2026 and Rain Bird on November 8, 2026.

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