Hive vs Tado: Showdown for Ultimate Home Comfort

Are you ready for the ultimate clash between Hive vs Tado?

I sure hope so because I’ve spent many hours researching smart thermostats to bring you this comprehensive comparison review.

First, we got Hive – the invention by British Gas that’s big on energy production. They guarantee an easy setup, great features, and a brilliant ecosystem. And then we have Tado – with a more minimalistic look yet still keeps heating & cooling fresh, but they don’t lose track of design or convenience either.

Alright, so which one will come out the winner?

We’ll explore their smart tech features and ecosystems in-depth to give you an idea of what differentiates them.

Quick Verdict: Hive or Tado?

For me, smart devices are all about smart features and making your life more convenient, and smart thermostats are no different. Both the Tado and Hive smart thermostats are priced similarly, so your decision should come down to which device offers the smart features that best suit your needs.

If energy efficiency and saving money on your electricity bills are your top priorities, the Tado Smart Thermostat is an excellent choice. Its open window detection feature can automatically turn off your heating when it detects an open window, preventing energy waste. Additionally, its weather adaptation technology ensures that your heating system is only active when necessary, based on current weather conditions.

Tado’s ability to connect up to 25 smart heating devices makes it a fantastic option for larger households. However, it’s worth noting that Tado’s smart radiator valves are slightly more expensive, at £69.99, compared to Hive’s at £53.99.

If you prioritize user-friendliness and a wide range of features, the Hive Smart Thermostat is a serious contender. Its Frost Protection feature ensures that your pipes won’t freeze during cold winter months, giving you peace of mind. Plus, the convenient Heating Boost function allows you to warm up your home quickly whenever needed. The Hive thermostat can also integrate with various smart home hubs like SmartThings, making it the perfect choice if you value a connected and cohesive smart home setup.

Design and Build Quality

Design: The tado° thermostat has an elegant, modern design with a minimalist aesthetic. It features a square shape with rounded corners and a glossy white finish. On the other hand, Hive has a contemporary, circular design with a mirror-finish display and a silver or copper-colored bezel, depending on the model.
Display: Hive features a full-color LCD touchscreen display that allows easy navigation and control. The display is bright, clear, and easy to read. Tado° has a clear, easy-to-read LED matrix display but no color display or touchscreen functionality.
Information on the screen: The Tado’s display shows the current room temperature, set temperature, and heating status (e.g., heating, cooling, or off). It also displays symbols for connection status and battery level. The Hive display shows the current temperature, target temperature, and heating status. When connected to Wi-Fi, it also displays outdoor weather information, such as temperature and weather conditions. The touchscreen allows users to adjust settings directly on the device.
Materials: The Hive thermostat is made of high-quality plastic with a durable mirror-finish display. Depending on the model, the bezel is available in either silver or copper, which adds to its premium appearance. The Tado is made of high-quality plastic with a glossy finish, giving it a premium look and feel.

Smart Platforms and Devices Ecosystem

Compatibility with other home devices is crucial when choosing a smart thermostat. This ensures seamless integration and a cohesive smart home setup. Let’s compare the compatibility and ecosystems of Hive and Tado.

Hive offers a wide range of products that integrate smoothly with its smart thermostats, including sensors, smart lights, and smart plugs. The Hive app provides centralized control for all smart devices, and compatibility with popular platforms like Google Home and Amazon Echo enables voice commands. Hive also works with automation systems like SmartThings and Fibaro.

Tado focuses more on heating and cooling solutions, such as Smart AC Control and individual radiator valves, rather than offering a wide range of home automation devices. While compatible with major smart home systems like Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, and Google Home, Tado may not provide the same centralized control as Hive, potentially limiting your ability to manage all devices from a single app.

Hive might be the better choice if you prioritize a wide range of compatible smart devices and centralized control. However, if your focus is primarily on advanced heating and cooling solutions, Tado could be the way to go. Before deciding, ensure you understand the features that matter most to you and any potential limitations of each platform.

Key Features Comparison

Temperature Control and Scheduling

Both Hive and Tado feature user-friendly apps for temperature control and scheduling. You can quickly set timers, create schedules, or adjust your heating settings on the device itself or remotely via a phone on the mobile app. Other convenient features, like frost protection for Hive or Weather Adaptation for Tado, make these thermostats practical and energy efficient, ultimately saving home heating bills.

Geofencing and Location-Based Features

The Tado heating system’s geofencing technology lets it know when you’re home or away, adjusting the temperature accordingly. Using your smartphone’s GPS location, Tado can turn down the heating when nobody’s home and start warming up the house when it detects you’re on your way back. This feature ensures a comfortable temperature upon your arrival and helps save energy by not heating an empty house.

Hive also offers geofencing and location-based features, but they work slightly differently than Tado. With Hive, you can set up a geofence around your home using the Hive app. When your phone crosses the geofence boundary, Hive automatically adjusts the temperature based on preset preferences. For example, when you leave the geofenced area, Hive can switch to Away Mode, lowering the temperature to save energy. When you re-enter the geofence, Hive will start heating your home to your desired comfort level.

The key difference is that Tado’s geofencing is more dynamic and adjusts based on your real-time location. It starts heating your home when it detects you’re on your way back, while Hive relies on a preset geofence boundary and only begins adjusting the temperature once you enter the geofenced area.

Voice Assistant Integration

Tado smart thermostats seamlessly integrate with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple’s Siri.

With Alexa and Google Assistant, you can use voice commands to set the temperature, adjust heating schedules, and check the current temperature in your home. For example, you can say, “Alexa, set the living room temperature to 22 degrees,” or “Hey, Google, what’s the current temperature in the bedroom?”

Tado also supports Apple’s HomeKit, allowing you to control your central heating system using Siri on your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or HomePod.

Hive smart thermostats also integrate with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, enabling you to control your heating system using voice commands. With Alexa or Google Assistant, you can set the temperature, check the current temperature, and adjust your heating schedule hands-free.

However, unlike Tado, Hive does not support Apple’s HomeKit or Siri integration. If you’re an iPhone user or have other HomeKit-enabled devices, you won’t be able to control your Hive thermostat using Siri or create HomeKit scenes that include your heating system.

Energy Efficiency and Reporting

A big benefit of smart thermostats is their energy efficiency, as it can aid people to reduce money spent on electric bills plus lessen environmental impact. Tado places great focus on energy conservation here — they give tools and services that allow users to optimize their power consumption while reducing wastefulness.

One of Tado’s greatest assets is its exact reporting on energy costs. Through the Tado app, users can get a complete picture of their energy usage, how much energy they’ve used, and how much money they’ve saved compared to a traditional thermostat.

Tado also offers a unique feature called “Care & Protect,” which monitors your heating system’s performance and alerts you to potential issues or inefficiencies. This proactive approach helps you maintain your heating system’s optimal performance and avoid costly repairs.

In addition, Tado also offers suggestions. For example, the app may propose adjusting temperature settings to be more effective with your utility bill or suggest ways you could help reduce consumption while nobody’s home.

Hive also offers location-based heating controls and scheduling options to help optimize your heating system’s performance. The Hive app provides a monthly report showing your central heating usage and how much energy you’ve saved compared to a standard thermostat. While its reporting may not be as comprehensive as Tado’s, the Hive app still provides some essential insight into your usage—though it might not be as comprehensive or adjustable as what Tado offers.

Multi-zone Control

Both Tado and Hive support multi-zone control capabilities – a great feature that allows you to independently adjust temperatures in different parts of your home depending on where you need heat at any given moment.

Tado offers wireless smart radiator thermostats that replace your existing radiator valves. These thermostats communicate wirelessly with your main Tado thermostat, allowing you to control the temperature in each room separately. You can set different temperatures and schedules for each room, ensuring optimal comfort and energy efficiency.

Hive also offers multi-zone control, which allows you to control the temperature in different areas of your home independently. However, its multi-zone system is limited to controlling up to three zones.

Using multi-zone control, homeowners can keep the perfect temperature in every part of their place with separate settings for each zone. For instance, you could turn down the heat in your bedrooms while raising it when people use the living room during daylight hours – this way, you’ll save some money on energy bills.

You can enjoy huge energy savings by heating only those rooms that need attention at any moment.

Installation and Compatibility

The setup process for Tado and Hive smart thermostats may differ. The Tado is easier to install, so it could be a big deal if you’re looking to save money on hiring a professional installer. Both models are compatible with most boiler systems.

On the contrary, installing Hive might take some more effort because, if you choose its wired version, there has to be a physical connection between your central heating system, which slightly complicates things.

Devices Ecosystem and Paid Subscription Plans

Hive Pricing & Hive Heating Plus

Hive Heating Plus

Hive Heating Plus offers an optional subscription plan at 3.99£ per month. The service estimates the cost of your heating needs based on your past usage, energy efficiency, and energy tariff. If you inform the app how much savings you would like to achieve, it can help create a monthly budget.

Here are some extra features you get with the subscription:

Detailed energy reports showing heating usage and costs to help maximize savings
Heating efficiency score with tips to improve efficiency
Extended 5-year warranty on Hive heating devices (vs 1-year standard)
Freeze protection to prevent pipes from freezing when away
24/7 efficiency monitoring with alerts if issues are detected

Tado Pricing

Tado Auto Assist

For an extra 2.99 per month, you can get the optional Auto Assist, which gives you access to additional functions like open window detections and monitoring of your electricity expenses with Energy IQ’s thorough breakdown of costs and usage info—also the monthly comparison for better control and visibility.

Here are the extra Tado Auto-Assist features:

Automated open window detection to prevent heating when windows are open
Early on/off optimization to reach desired temps at scheduled times
Automated geofencing to turn down heating when nobody is home
Automated weather adaptation to adjust heating based on weather forecasts
Air comfort skill to factor in humidity levels

Hive vs Tado – Benefits and Drawbacks

Hive Pros and Cons

Here’s what to know when considering if it’s right for you:

One of the best-looking controllers with easy-to-use application interface
The Hive mobile app is praised for its user-friendly interface, making it easy to control your heating remotely
Slightly cheaper smart radiator valves
Lower price point compared to some competitors
Compatibility with various smart home systems such as SmartThings through 3rd party custom implementations

However, there are also a few drawbacks to using Hive:

Installation can take longer depending on the heating system
Limited reporting compared to competitors
Some advanced features, such as detailed energy reports and efficiency monitoring, require the paid Hive Heating Plus subscription

Tado Pros and Cons

The Tado has several key advantages that make it an appealing choice:

Modern design with an inconspicuous display that is very easy to use.
Tado offers many intelligent features, such as open window detection, presence detection (geofencing), weather adaptation, and air comfort optimization.
Compatibility with smart home systems like Amazon Alexa and Google Home
Optional Auto-Assist subscription fully automates many smart features, taking the burden off users

Nonetheless, Tado also has a few downsides to consider:

It relies on cloud automation, so if the internet goes down, it will cause operational issues.
Limited product range focused on energy and home environment control
Tado smart radiator valves are also more expensive
Requires paid subscription for Auto Assist for Geofencing and Open window detection