Published August 2026
Published 16 August 2026 · every rating, price and ads label read from the app’s own Play listing on that date · no app here was installed on a phone.
Smart thermostat apps are compared here on what a store page can prove: price and the in-app purchase range, the Contains ads label, the rating with the date it was read, and which hardware each one actually drives. What no comparison of this kind can honestly promise is that the app will still be there in ten years, so the last two sections deal with the savings claims and with what happens when a maker walks away.
Nest Thermostat and Learning 4th gen
Almost every disappointment in this category comes from one misunderstanding: the app is not talking to your thermostat. It is talking to the manufacturer’s servers, and those servers talk to your thermostat.
That layout explains the behaviour people find surprising. When your broadband drops, or the maker has an outage, the house does not go cold: the unit on the wall holds its own schedule and keeps running it. What you lose is everything that needed the round trip, which is remote control, geofencing and any change made while you are out.
It also explains why none of these apps controls a rival’s thermostat. Each one is a client for one company’s cloud. The hub apps at the bottom of the table are the exception, and they work by holding accounts with several makers at once rather than by talking to the hardware directly.
Before any of this matters you need three things: the matching hardware, an account with that maker, and on many North American systems a C wire to give the thermostat constant power. Google documents a consequence of that last one worth knowing, which is that a Nest thermostat will refuse to join Wi-Fi when its internal battery is low, and on an install with no C wire that is the usual cause.
Google now ships two apps, and which one you need is decided by the generation printed on the box rather than by preference.
Google states the Nest Thermostat and the Nest Learning Thermostat 4th generation can only be set up in the Google Home app. The older units, the Learning Thermostat 3rd generation and earlier and the Thermostat E, are documented as controllable from either app, and Google describes moving to Google Home as optional rather than forced.
The practical advice is short: open the listing for the exact model you are about to buy and read which app it names. Nothing else on the shelf tells you, and the two apps are different products with different ratings.
1B+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $0.05 to $999.99 per item · no ads · by Google LLC · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.0 stars from 3,648,686 reviews · read 16 August 2026
Google publishes this as the app for its current thermostats, and for the newer models it is not optional: Google states the Nest Thermostat and the Nest Learning Thermostat 4th generation can only be set up in the Google Home app.
It is a whole-home hub rather than a thermostat app, so it installs and opens with no Google hardware at all and will talk to Matter devices from other makers. Google documents no demo mode, so with nothing paired there is nothing to look at.
Learning 3rd gen and earlier
10M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · by Google LLC · listing last updated about 3 months ago · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 3.8 stars from 446,808 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The app Nest owners have used for years is still alive and Google says moving to Google Home is optional, not forced. What it covers is a fixed list: the Nest Learning Thermostat 3rd generation or earlier, and the Nest Thermostat E.
Read this first. It will not set up the models Google sells now. If you buy a current Nest thermostat expecting the app you already know, it will not do the job, and that mismatch is the single most common surprise in this category.
ecobee owners
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · by ecobee inc. · listing updated this month · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.4 stars from 40,913 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The highest rated app published by an actual thermostat maker here, and the only vendor in this research that publicly admits the limits of its own savings figure.
ecobee claims up to 26 percent off heating and cooling costs, and then undercuts its own headline in footnote 1 by stating the methodology has not been independently verified. That is a more honest disclosure than any other vendor on this page manages.
A cheaper US thermostat
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing updated this month · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.4 stars from 48,250 reviews · read 16 August 2026
Sensi rates as well as ecobee on more reviews and attracts a fraction of the attention. The hardware is the budget end of the American market and the app reflects that: it does the job and stops.
One trap worth knowing if you go looking for the vendor: the old sensi.emerson.com address no longer resolves, the brand now sits under Copeland at sensi.copeland.com, and sensi.com is an unrelated footwear shop. None of that means the app is dead.
European homes
1M+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $3.99 to $29.99 per item · no ads · listing updated this month · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 3.8 stars from 68,871 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The most widely used option in Europe, where the American brands barely reach, and the one on this page whose radiator valve approach suits older housing stock that has no central zoning.
Netatmo owners
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing last updated about 4 months ago · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.0 stars from 23,157 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The Legrand-owned European option, competent and unremarkable, with a thermostat and radiator valves aimed at the same homes tado° targets.
New Honeywell Home buyers
100K+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $4.49 to $149.99 per item · no ads · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.5 stars from 4,282 reviews · read 16 August 2026
Honeywell Home is a brand rather than a company these days, and its own storefront now points homeowners at this app rather than the one carrying the Honeywell name.
Read this first. Three different apps carry Honeywell thermostats depending on how old yours is, and the naming gives you no help at all. This one is the current path; the Resideo app below is the legacy one it replaces; Total Connect Comfort covers the older Wi-Fi models.
Existing Lyric owners
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing updated about a month ago · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 3.6 stars from 32,591 reviews · read 16 August 2026
Published by Resideo as the app formerly called Honeywell Home, and still listed today, but its own maker documents moving users off it and onto First Alert.
RTH9580WF and similar
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing last updated about 9 months ago · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 4.2 stars from 90,369 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The third Honeywell app, and the one that covers the older Wi-Fi thermostats such as the RTH6580WF and RTH9580WF that are still on plenty of walls.
Read this first. The listing has not been touched in about nine months, the longest gap on this page. That is not the same as abandoned, but on a cloud-dependent product it is the number to watch, because the app is the part the maker can retire.
Controlling an existing AC
100K+ installs · free to install · in-app purchases $2.99 to $34.99 per item · no ads · listing updated about a month ago · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 3.9 stars from 3,542 reviews · read 16 August 2026
A different proposition to everything else here: instead of replacing your thermostat, Sensibo hardware sits beside an existing air conditioner or heat pump and pretends to be its remote.
Existing Hive owners only
1M+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing updated this month · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 2.0 stars from 50,029 reviews · read 16 August 2026
The British Gas smart heating app, and the lowest rated app of any kind that this site has put in a comparison table.
Read this first. A 2.0 rating from 50,029 reviews is not a handful of angry people; it is a settled verdict from a large sample. We looked for a documented cause in Hive’s own material rather than repeating user reviews, and did not find one we could cite. Treat the rating as the fact and the reason as unknown.
Electric baseboard homes
100K+ installs · free to install · no in-app purchases · no ads · listing updated this month · checked 16 August 2026
Google Play listing · 2.6 stars from 984 reviews · read 16 August 2026
Mysa covers a corner nobody else on this page serves properly, high-voltage electric baseboard and in-floor heating, which matters in Canada and parts of the northern United States.
Several makers at once
These are not thermostat apps. They hold accounts with several makers and present the results in one place, which is the only way to run a mixed house without juggling four apps.
The catch is that a hub adds a second company between you and your heating, and a second account that can be retired. For the thermostat itself the maker’s own app remains the one that gets new features first.
Every maker on this page advertises a saving, and the numbers disagree by a factor of three. They are not equally well evidenced, so rank them rather than averaging them.
The honest reading is that a smart thermostat saves real but modest money, that most of the saving comes from finally running a sensible schedule, and that any single-digit percentage is swamped by how well your house holds heat.
This is the part of the category that buying guides skip, and it is the reason the app deserves as much attention as the hardware.
It has already happened, twice, to thermostats. Google ended support on 25 October 2025 for the Nest Learning Thermostat 1st generation from 2011, the 2nd generation from 2012, and the 2nd generation European model from 2014. ecobee ended server connectivity on 31 July 2024 for its Smart Thermostat from 2009 and its EMS from 2010.
What survives, in both makers’ own words. The house still gets heat. Google states the pre-set schedules keep running uninterrupted and full control at the thermostat itself remains. ecobee states the unit still runs the heating and cooling, and that temperature, mode and schedules all continue to work at the wall. Neither product was bricked; each degraded into a decent conventional programmable thermostat.
What dies. The device is unpaired from the app and every cloud feature goes with it. Two consequences deserve more attention than they get. Google documents that the link to a Nest Protect, which shuts the furnace down when the alarm detects carbon monoxide or smoke, stops working; that is a safety feature, not a convenience. And Google warns that the retired units stop receiving software and security updates while remaining installed, powered and attached to your home network.
Two further pieces of history belong here. Google shut the Works with Nest integration platform on 29 September 2023, breaking existing third-party connections. And rather than offer European owners of the retired models a Nest replacement, Google pointed them at a competitor’s hardware at a discount, which tells you something about long-term commitment to that market.
Whether a full brick is possible is a separate question, and the honest answer is that it has happened in smart home hardware, though not to these thermostats: Revolv, a hub Nest itself had acquired, was switched off dead with nothing surviving locally. The lesson to carry into a purchase is narrower and more useful than fear. Ask what the thermostat does with no cloud at all, prefer hardware that keeps a schedule on the device, and treat the app as the part with the shortest expected life.
It depends on the generation. Google states the Nest Thermostat and the Nest Learning Thermostat 4th generation can only be set up in the Google Home app. The Learning Thermostat 3rd generation and earlier, and the Thermostat E, work in either the Nest app or Google Home, and Google describes moving as optional. Check the model before you buy, because the box does not tell you. Checked 16 August 2026.
Not for any app on this page. Remote control of a Nest thermostat is free and Google mentions no subscription for it. Google Home Premium, at $10 a month or $100 a year, buys camera and doorbell features and adds nothing to a thermostat. tado, Sensibo and the two Resideo apps sell in-app purchases, so read what your model includes before buying hardware. Checked 16 August 2026.
No. The thermostat on the wall keeps running the schedule it already holds, and both Google and ecobee state this in their own documentation. What stops is the phone: remote control, geofencing and any change you make while away from home. This is also why an app outage is an inconvenience rather than an emergency. Checked 16 August 2026.
The best evidenced figure is about 8 percent of heating and cooling costs, roughly 50 dollars a year, which comes from the US Environmental Protection Agency method that uses a year of real data from hundreds of homes. Nest claims 10 to 12 percent on heating and 15 percent on cooling but names no study. ecobee claims up to 26 percent and states in its own footnote that the methodology has not been independently verified. Checked 16 August 2026.
It can end support, and it has. Google ended support for three Nest thermostat models on 25 October 2025 and ecobee cut server connectivity to two models on 31 July 2024. In both cases the unit kept heating the house and kept its schedule; what went was the app connection, all cloud features, and in the Nest case the link that shuts the furnace down when a Nest Protect detects carbon monoxide. Retired units also stop getting security updates. Checked 16 August 2026.
We can report the rating but not the reason. Hive sits at 2.0 stars from 50,029 reviews, which is a settled verdict from a large sample rather than a handful of complaints. We looked for a documented cause in Hive's own material rather than repeating user reviews, and did not find one we could cite. Checked 16 August 2026.
Not the manufacturer apps. Each one is a client for its own company's servers. Hub apps such as SmartThings and Amazon Alexa can present several makers in one place because they hold accounts with each, but they add another company and another account between you and your heating. Checked 16 August 2026.
Published 16 August 2026: new page. Sixteen apps were read against their own Play listings and twelve thermostat apps plus four hub apps are presented here. Package names were taken from each manufacturer’s own website or help centre rather than from a store search: that step corrected Google Home, which is com.google.android.apps.chromecast.app and not the shorter name a search suggests, and it resolved three separate Honeywell apps that the branding does not distinguish. Two vendors publish no Play link at all on their own sites, and Drayton tells owners to search by name instead, so its entry rests on Schneider Electric’s published documentation for the shared Wiser Home app. No app on this page was installed: Play installs on our emulator are currently blocked and none of these apps exists outside Play, so the page carries two diagrams of our own rather than screenshots we could not honestly take. Savings claims are reported with their evidence rather than averaged, and the end of support dates for Nest and ecobee come from those companies’ own notices.