Comparison

HomeSense vs The Home Remote

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

Head to head
About

HomeSense

Transform your iPhone or iPad into a central hub for your smart home. Seamlessly integrate and manage devices from various brands, including lights, thermostats, and audio systems. Enjoy a convenient overview of your entire home and control individual devices or create custom scenes.

Highlights
  • Centralized smart home control
  • Integrates with multiple brands
  • Device and room overview
  • Customizable scenes and favorites
  • Today widget for quick access
  • iCloud sync across devices
Features
Read full description

HomeSense turns your iPhone or iPad into a command center for your automated home. HomeSense supports Caséta Wireless, Lutron RadioRA 2, Lutron RadioRA 3, Lutron HomeWorks QS, Philips Hue Personal Wireless Lighting, Sonos speakers, Honeywell Lyric Thermostat and HomeKit, providing seamless integration between these systems. See the state of your connected devices, rooms, and convenient summary of your whole home with the base version, and upgrade to control lights, fans, shades, thermostats, edit schedule and more. With Notification Center widget, favorites, home and room scenes, HomeSense is flexible, convenient and easy to use. Please note that device control and editing for scenes and schedules requires a purchase. Common Features - See and control lights, ceiling fans, shades, blinds and thermostats from the application. - Home overview shows the state of every room and makes it easy to see what rooms have lights or fans on. - Add often used controls or scenes to the Favorites. Any light, fan, shade, or even individual keypad button can be added to Favorites to appear on a separate screen. Tap to toggle, or tap and hold to open the detail view. - Create your own home and room scenes that can combine devices from different systems. - Turn off all lights and fans in a room with a single gesture - just choose “All Off” action on the room. - Set up additional actions for a room to be recalled quickly from actions menu. - Organize your home: manage rooms, rename controls and keypad buttons, hide unwanted devices. - Today widget lets you access selected controls or scenes without launching the app. - Change switch type - choose if switch controls an outlet, light or fan. - Adjust device defaults - set default brightness, fade-in and fade-out time for dimmers, set default speed for fans. - iCloud sync keeps your home configuration up-to-date on all of your devices. Caséta Wireless Features - View and edit Pico button programming and scheduled events. Lutron RadioRA 2 and HomeWorks QS Features - View and edit keypad button programming, scheduled events and thermostat schedules. - Change schedule and energy saving (“Green”) mode. Philips Hue Features - View and edit scheduled events, including events relative to sunrise or sunset. HomeKit Features - Supported devices include outlets, switches, lights, fans, shades, blinds, thermostats, door locks, garage door openers, faucets, and sensors. - Scheduled events support both weekly events, as well as time triggers with repeat intervals, from 5 minutes up to one month. Sonos Features - Play, pause, and control volume. - Select a playlist or a station to play from your Sonos favorites. - Group speakers to play music to more than one rooms. Requirements - For Caséta Wireless, Smart Bridge or Smart Bridge Pro connected to home WiFi network. - For Lutron, professionally installed system connected to home WiFi network. - For Philips Hue, Philips Hue lights with bridge connected to home WiFi network. - For Lyric, Lyric Round Wi-Fi Thermostat, Lyric T5 or Lyric T6 Pro Wi-Fi Thermostat with working Internet connection. Trademarks Lutron, HomeWorks, RadioRA are trademarks of Lutron Electronics Co., Inc registered in the US and other countries. Caséta, RadioRA 2, RadioRA 3, GRAFIK RA are trademarks of Lutron Electronics Co., Inc. Lyric, Lyric Round are trademarks of Honeywell International Inc. PHILIPS is a registered trademark of Koninklijke Philips N.V. Sonos and Sonos product names are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Sonos, Inc.

About

The Home Remote

Unify control of your smart home and AV devices within a single application. Easily add new devices by tapping the '+' button. Advanced users can design custom layouts and dashboards using a separate program.

Highlights
  • Control all smart home devices
  • Control AV devices
  • Add devices easily
  • Custom layout design
  • Support for numerous brands
Features
Read full description

Control all of your home automation and AV devices from one app. Simply click the '+' button to begin adding your devices. For our advanced users that want to create custom layouts & dashboards be sure to check our Designer program which can be downloaded from our website. It'll give you complete control & access to all of the Home Remote features. Use of projects created with the Home Remote Designer will require the purchase of a "Home Remote Pro" license. This is a one-time In-App Purchase (it's not a subscription). Here is a list of devices we currently support: AMAZON ALEXA • Alexa Voice Service (AVS) AUGUST HOME • August Home Smart Locks BRYANT • Bryant Evolution Connex Thermostat CARRIER • Carrier Côr Thermostat • Carrier Infinity Touch Thermostat CRESTRON • Crestron 2-Series Control Systems • Crestron 3-Series Control Systems DENON • Denon AV Receivers • Denon HEOS Speakers DIRECTV • DIRECTV Standard Receivers • DIRECTV HD Receivers • DIRECTV Genie Receivers DOORBIRD • DoorBird video door stations ECOBEE • ecobee2 Thermostat • ecobee3 Thermostat • ecobee4 Thermostat EWELINK • Sonoff Switches • Sonoff Smart Plugs • Sonoff Sensors • Sonoff Lights FIBARO • Fibaro Home Center 2 • Fibaro Home Center 3 • Fibaro Home Center Lite GLOBAL CACHÉ • Global Caché Global Connect • Global Caché Flex • Global Caché iTach • Global Caché GC-100 GOOGLE CAST • Chromecast • Chromecast Audio • Google Home Max • Google Home Mini • Nest Audio • Nest Mini HOME ASSISTANT • Home Assistant HOMESEER • HomeSeer HomeTroller w/ HS3 • HomeSeer HomeTroller w/ HS4 HONEYWELL • Honeywell Evohome Thermostat Systems • Honeywell Round Smart Thermostat • Honeywell T5 & T6 Series Smart Thermostats • Honeywell Total Connect Comfort Thermostats HUBITAT ELEVATION • Hubitat Elevation Hub INSTEON • Insteon Hub 2245-222 INTEGRA • Integra AV Receivers IP Cameras • MJPEG / JPEG / RTSP KASA SMART • TP-Link Kasa Smart Light Bulbs • TP-Link Kasa Smart Light Switches • TP-Link Kasa Smart Plugs KNX • KNX IP Interface • KNX IP Router LG • LG webOS Smart TVs LIFX • LIFX Bulbs • LIFX Lightstrips LOGITECH • Logitech Harmony Hubs LUTRON • Caséta Smart Bridge • Caséta Smart Bridge Pro • Lutron RA2 Select • Lutron RadioRA 2 Main Repeater Marantz • Marantz AV Receivers MQTT • MQTT Requires Configuration with Home Remote Designer MYQ • Chamberlain myQ Garage Door Openers • LiftMaster myQ Garage Door Openers • myQ Light Switches NETATMO • Netatmo Smart Weather Station • Netatmo Smart Anemometer • Netatmo Smart Rain Gauge • Netatmo Smart Indoor Air Quality Monitor • Netatmo Smart Thermostat • Netatmo Smart Radiator Valve NEXIA • Trane XL Thermostats Featuring Nexia ONKYO • Onkyo AV Receivers OSRAM • Osram Lightify Bulbs • Osram Lightify Lightstrips PHILIPS HUE • Philips Hue Bulbs • Philips Hue Lightstrips • Philips Hue Lamps & Fixtures PIONEER • Pioneer AV Receivers (2016+) RUSSOUND • Russound MCA-Series Controllers • Russound C-Series Controllers • Russound X5 Controllers SMART LIFE • Smart Life Light Bulbs • Smart Life Light Switches • Smart Life Smart Plugs • Smart Life Window Shades SMARTTHINGS • SmartThings Hub • SmartThings ADT Security Hub • SmartThings Wifi • SmartThings Link for NVIDIA SHIELD TV Sonos • Sonos Speakers • Sonos Connect • Sonos Port • Sonos Amp TUYA • Smart Life Light Bulbs • Smart Life Light Switches • Smart Life Smart Plugs • Smart Life Window Shades UPnP • UPnP Media Renderers • UPnP Media Servers • UPnP Binary Lights • UPnP Dimmable Lights VERA • Vera Edge • Vera Lite • Vera Plus • Vera Secure WEMO • Wemo Light Switch • Wemo Dimmer • Wemo Mini Smart Plug • Wemo Insight Smart Plug • Wemo Link LED Lighting WINK • Wink Hub • Wink Hub 2 YAMAHA • Yamaha AV Receivers • Yamaha MusicCast AV Receivers • Yamaha MusicCast Speakers ZIPATO • Zipato ZipaTile • Zipato Zipabox2

Screenshots

HomeSense4 screens
The Home Remote4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: HomeSense at 4.4 against The Home Remote's 3.8. The Home Remote's advantage is review sentiment (60% vs 50%) and iOS requirement (9.0 vs 17.0). On price, ratings volume, 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. HomeSense sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $2.99 per month and The Home Remote sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

HomeSense holds the better App Store score, 4.4 against 3.8. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 77 and 99 respectively. Written reviews complicate that: 50% of HomeSense's written reviews are positive against 60% of The Home Remote's, so the app with the better star average is not the one people write more warmly about.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

HomeSense ships an update every 5 weeks, The Home Remote every 3 weeks. The most recent releases landed on September 10, 2026 and July 5, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard3 real differences · 7 level
HomeSense versus The Home Remote: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterHomeSenseThe Home Remote
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.4 (77 ratings) — better3.8 (99 ratings)
Positive reviews50.0% of reviews60.5% of reviews — better
Number of ratings7799 — better
Update frequencyEvery 5 weeksEvery 3 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesYes
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS17.09.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size25 MB112 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperRevery CodesThe Home Remote LLC

Customer experience

HomeSense

All ratings77 ratings
Positive84.4%
Neutral2.6%
Negative13.0%
Written reviews4 reviews
Positive50.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative50.0%

The Home Remote

All ratings98 ratings
Positive67.3%
Neutral8.2%
Negative24.5%
Written reviews81 reviews
Positive60.5%
Neutral11.1%
Negative28.4%

In-app purchases

7 purchases

HomeSense

Subscriptions2
  • HomeSense One Monthly7 Days trial$2.991 Month
  • HomeSense One Yearly7 Days trial$19.991 Year
One-time5
  • Control Access for Honeywell Lyric$4.99
  • Control Access for Sonos$7.99
  • Control Access for Philips Hue$9.99
Show 2 more
  • Control Access for Lutron$19.99
  • Control Access for Caséta Wireless$19.99
1 purchases

The Home Remote

One-time1
  • Home Remote Pro$4.99

Questions

Is HomeSense free?
HomeSense is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is The Home Remote free?
The Home Remote is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, HomeSense or The Home Remote?
HomeSense is rated higher. HomeSense averages 4.4 out of 5 from 77 ratings, while The Home Remote averages 3.8 from 99 ratings.
Do HomeSense or The Home Remote have ads?
Neither HomeSense nor The Home Remote shows ads.
Which is updated more often, HomeSense or The Home Remote?
HomeSense ships an update every 5 weeks, and The Home Remote every 3 weeks. Most recently, HomeSense was updated on September 10, 2026 and The Home Remote on July 5, 2026.

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