Comparison

Onelink Thermostat vs Controller for HomeKit

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

Head to head
About

Onelink Thermostat

Remotely monitor and adjust your home's heating and cooling systems from your mobile device. Control multiple locations and thermostats, view weather forecasts, and track energy usage. Receive alerts and send personalized messages to your thermostat's display.

Highlights
  • Remote thermostat control
  • Multi-location management
  • Weather and forecast display
  • Energy usage monitoring
  • Personalized thermostat messaging
  • Temperature alerts
  • Programming and vacation settings
Features
Read full description

The Onelink Thermostat app allows users to remotely monitor and control their heating and cooling systems. From the couch to across town with Comfort Control you may control up to 10 locations with up to 10 thermostats at each location from your mobile device. Control features include: - Simple, easy to use control of the thermostat. - Current weather and forecast is displayed for each location. - Monitor energy use. - Send personal texts directly to the thermostat’s display, such as: "I will be home at 6pm for dinner". - Receive alerts when the space where the thermostat is located is too hot or cold. - Turn on/off time period programming or vacation settings. - Emails may be configured to go to your HVAC service provider when service is needed.

About

Controller for HomeKit

Enhance your smart home experience with advanced control and automation. Visualize your home with floor plans, track device performance with charts, and create complex automations tailored to your needs. Organize devices, store setup codes, and monitor your entire smart home ecosystem.

Highlights
  • Floor plan visualization with LiDAR
  • Device performance charts
  • Complex automations and workflows
  • Custom notifications
  • Smart folders and filters
  • Setup code storage
  • Device maintenance and logs
Features
Read full description

Get more out of your smart home. Your HomeKit and Matter devices can do more than on and off: Controller for HomeKit gives you dashboards you build yourself, workflows that run over several steps, months of history, and a floor plan you control directly. YOUR OWN DASHBOARD Your devices sit where you need them, instead of in a list. - Views you compose yourself from tiles: per home, per person, and if you want, per device. One for the iPad on the wall, one for the iPhone in your pocket. - More than 25 tile variants: devices, scenes, workflows, time, weather, calendar, charts, battery warnings. - Five standard sizes, or drag your own size on the grid. - Visibility conditions: a tile or a whole section appears only when you need it. - Plus widgets for your Home Screen and a view of your own on Apple Watch. CONTROLLER AI Describe what you need in plain language: a dashboard, a scene, an automation or a workflow. Controller builds it, and you adjust it however you like afterwards. MORE THAN A SCHEDULE Two devices become a sequence that thinks along. - Workflows: multiple steps, conditions and branches for sequences a single automation cannot express. - Automations with advanced triggers and conditions. - States: virtual switches that capture how your home currently stands and drive your workflows accordingly. - Custom notifications for anything you want to know about. - NFC tags: one tap and the workflow runs. YOUR SENSORS ARE ALREADY MEASURING Controller remembers the values and makes them readable. - Charts: see how temperature, humidity or battery level develop over weeks and months, across every device and brand. - Maintenance: which battery is empty, which device is unreachable, which automation is broken. - Logs: every activity and every change, traceable. - Smart folders: devices and automations grouped by filters you define. - Floor Plan: scan your home with the LiDAR sensor of your iPhone or iPad and control your devices right on the plan. - Controller Hub: a dedicated iPhone, iPad, Apple TV or Mac runs your workflows automatically. Charts and States require Controller Hub. SHARE THE WORK, NOT JUST THE SWITCHES - Home Sharing: pass your entire setup to the people you live with. For each person you choose between the whole app or only the dashboards you share with them. - Setup codes: your HomeKit and Matter codes stay safe in the app and never get lost. - Backups: save your setup and restore it whenever you need to. TRY IT FREE FOR 7 DAYS A week in your own home tells you more than any screenshot. Choose a yearly subscription to Controller Essentials or Controller Plus: the first 7 days are free, so you can see what Controller gets out of your devices. Rather pay once? Controller Lifetime gives you everything in Controller Plus, forever, with no subscription. Controller for HomeKit runs on iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch and Apple TV. You already own the devices. Controller for HomeKit brings out what is in them. More on our website: https://www.controllerforhomekit.com Privacy Policy: https://controllerforhomekit.com/privacy/ Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Screenshots

Onelink Thermostat4 screens
Controller for HomeKit4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Onelink Thermostat at none against Controller for HomeKit's 10. Onelink Thermostat also leads on iOS requirement (15.6 vs 17.0). Controller for HomeKit's advantage is update cadence (every 2 weeks vs every 8 months) and ratings volume (2.8K vs 109). On price, rating, review sentiment 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. Controller for HomeKit sells 7 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Onelink Thermostat asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.2 for Onelink Thermostat against 4.1 for Controller for HomeKit. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Controller for HomeKit has 2.8K ratings behind it against 109, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 33% of Onelink Thermostat's written reviews are positive against 28% of Controller for HomeKit's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Onelink Thermostat ships an update every 8 months, Controller for HomeKit every 2 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 21, 2026 and October 29, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard6 real differences · 4 level
Onelink Thermostat versus Controller for HomeKit: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterOnelink ThermostatController for HomeKit
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.2 (109 ratings) — better4.1 (2.8K ratings)
Positive reviews33.3% of reviews — better28.4% of reviews
Number of ratings1092.8K — better
Update frequencyEvery 8 monthsEvery 2 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFree — betterFree with in-app purchases
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPodiPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple TV, Apple Watch — better
Requires iOS15.6 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size65 MB219 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperSkyport Labs, LLCacasa Software GmbH

Customer experience

Onelink Thermostat

All ratings90 ratings
Positive75.6%
Neutral5.6%
Negative18.9%
Written reviews18 reviews
Positive33.3%
Neutral22.2%
Negative44.4%

Controller for HomeKit

All ratings2,765 ratings
Positive76.2%
Neutral4.7%
Negative19.1%
Written reviews486 reviews
Positive28.4%
Neutral9.7%
Negative61.9%

Bugs and requests

Onelink Thermostat

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Controller for HomeKit

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Backup and restore issues
  • Disappearing automations and accessories
  • Compatibility problems with iOS 16.2
  • Slow performance and unresponsiveness

Requested features

4 requests
  • Improved documentation and tutorials
  • Better integration with Apple Home app
  • Support for more HomeKit device types
  • Ability to customize automation triggers

In-app purchases

None

Onelink Thermostat

No in-app purchases

7 purchases

Controller for HomeKit

Subscriptions6
  • Controller Essentials2 variants$4.991 Month
  • Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon$4.991 Month
  • Controller Plus$8.991 Month
Show 3 more
  • Essentials Lifetime - Plus Addon3 Months trial$39.991 Year
  • Controller Essentials7 Days trial2 variants$39.991 Year
  • Controller Plus7 Days trial$79.991 Year
One-time1
  • Controller Plus Lifetime2 variants$179.99

Questions

Is Onelink Thermostat free?
Onelink Thermostat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Controller for HomeKit free?
Controller for HomeKit is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, Onelink Thermostat or Controller for HomeKit?
Onelink Thermostat is rated higher. Onelink Thermostat averages 4.2 out of 5 from 109 ratings, while Controller for HomeKit averages 4.1 from 2.8K ratings.
Do Onelink Thermostat or Controller for HomeKit have ads?
Neither Onelink Thermostat nor Controller for HomeKit shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Onelink Thermostat or Controller for HomeKit?
Onelink Thermostat ships an update every 8 months, and Controller for HomeKit every 2 weeks. Most recently, Onelink Thermostat was updated on October 21, 2026 and Controller for HomeKit on October 29, 2026.

Other comparisons