Apple Home vs SmartThings
Apple Home and SmartThings are both home automation software. Apple Home is a commercial product from Apple Inc. SmartThings is a commercial product from Samsung Electronics.
Which to pick
- Pick Apple Home when
- Everyone in the house uses Apple devices and you value privacy and local control.
- Pick SmartThings when
- You own Samsung appliances or TVs and want broad device support from a mainstream app.
Side by side
Apple's Home app and HomeKit platform for controlling Matter and HomeKit devices, with local automations through a HomePod or Apple TV hub.
Samsung's smart home platform and app for controlling and automating Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter and Wi-Fi devices, often via Samsung TVs and hubs.
Needs an Apple hub for automations, has no Android app, and automation logic is limited.
Most automations rely on Samsung's cloud, and past platform changes broke custom integrations.
Production-ready (both)
Mobile app and desktop app
Cloud service and mobile app
Not published (both)
Closed source, sold by Apple Inc.
Closed source, sold by Samsung Electronics
Closed source: you use it under the maker's terms and cannot change or resell the code. (both)
1.7k Wikipedia readers a month on phones
486 Wikipedia readers a month on phones
Other comparisons
More home automation platforms
Both sides were judged on 2026-11-03 from makers' descriptions, Wikipedia, READMEs and GitHub data. License, age and popularity lines are worked out directly.