Vulpo 1.4Updated
Vulpo vs the official Home Assistant Companion app
Vulpo and the official Home Assistant Companion app both connect an iPhone to a Home Assistant server, but they take different approaches. The official app embeds the Home Assistant web frontend in a web view and adds native features around it. Vulpo renders every screen natively in SwiftUI and does not use web views at all. The table below compares the two as of Vulpo 1.4 and the official app in October 2026.
Vulpo 1.4
Joshua Dessol, independent
- Native SwiftUI on iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch
- Widgets, Control Center, Live Activities, Siri
- Direct connection, no account, free with Pro
Home Assistant Companion
Open Home Foundation, official
- Web frontend in a web view, any Lovelace dashboard
- iOS, Android, CarPlay, Apple Watch actions
- Free, open source, full device sensors
Feature comparison
Vulpo 1.4 and the official app as of October 2026.
Platform and rendering
Vulpo 1.4
Official appRendering
Fully native SwiftUI on every screen; no web views
Home Assistant web frontend (Lovelace) inside a web view, plus native settings
Dashboards
Built in the app from 40+ native card types, drag to reorder, synced through iCloud
Your existing Lovelace dashboards, configured in Home Assistant (UI editor or YAML)
Automations
Native editor on iPhone, iPad and Mac: canvas, step list and YAML over one automation, touch forms, live runs and replay, and drafts from a sentence (on-device, Private Cloud Compute, or Vulpo Intelligence with Pro)
The Home Assistant web automation editor (visual and YAML) inside the web view
Custom Lovelace cards (HACS)
Not rendered; Vulpo has its own card set
Rendered, because the web frontend runs as-is
Platforms
iPhone, iPad, Mac (native), Apple Watch
iPhone, iPad, Mac (Catalyst), Apple Watch, CarPlay, plus a separate Android app
Apple integrations
Vulpo 1.4Official appApple Watch
Full native app: entity control, Glances, scenes, sensor history, complications, standalone over Wi-Fi/LTE
Actions and assist; complications with limited data
Home Screen and Lock Screen widgets
Eight widget types incl. group, camera, chart, solar, lock, cover, person
Assist, scripts, sensors, open page, gauge, details, energy, calendar and custom (beta) widgets
Control Center
Controls for lights, switches, covers, scenes and scripts, plus a launcher
Assist, toggle light, run script, activate scene and open page
Live Activities
Five ready-made monitors (appliances, vacuums, solar, climate, people) with pause, resume and adjust buttons, started from automations (Pro)
Since September 2026: any content you send as a notification with live_update and a tag; iPhone only, iOS 17.2 and Home Assistant 2026.7 or newer
Siri and Shortcuts
Home reports (security, climate, energy, presence), natural questions, "turn this off" on the device on screen, scene and toggle intents, and Vulpo search in Siri and Spotlight
Run actions, call services, get entity state, Assist
iPhone Duo
Ready for launch day since Vulpo 1.4: dashboards in columns on the inner display, a card's controls on the other half in book and tabletop, cameras, Lumen, Energy and the player split across the fold, Split View
Adapting in its October 2026 releases: native screens such as onboarding and Assist use the side bar, and new hinge angle and status sensors report to Home Assistant; dashboards keep the web frontend's own responsive layout
CarPlay
Not available
Available
Data and devices
Vulpo 1.4Official appPush notifications
Via the mobile_app integration: standard and image notifications
Via the mobile_app integration: standard, image, actionable, critical, and command notifications
Device sensors reported to Home Assistant
Opt-in location reporting and an app version sensor
Location plus a wide set of device sensors (battery, activity, connectivity, focus, storage, and hinge angle on folding iPhones)
Cameras
WebRTC with HLS fallback, stills fallback, camera widget, a camera column to switch cameras in place with 24 hours of motion, and Snapshot for every camera
As rendered by the web frontend
Music and media
Native player and media library with the whole Music Assistant and Sonos queue, speaker groups with a volume slider per speaker, synced lyrics (Pro), a full-screen player on iPad and Mac, and Now Playing on the Lock Screen (iOS 27)
The web frontend's media cards and media browser, and Music Assistant's own web panel inside the app
Intercom
Record up to 30 seconds and play it on the Home Assistant speakers you choose, with live on-device captions and a delivery report per speaker (Pro)
No built-in intercom; Assist talks to Home Assistant's voice assistant, and spoken announcements come from scripts with text-to-speech
Energy
Native Energy tab with a 3D scene, per-device costs (Vulpo Labs, Pro)
The web Energy dashboard
3D room view
Vulpo Lumen: LiDAR scan, furniture catalog, entity linking, path tracing
Not available
Access, price and source
Vulpo 1.4Official appRemote access
One server with internal and external URL, automatic switching and failover; works with Nabu Casa, own domain, VPN
Internal and external URL with automatic switching; works with Nabu Casa, own domain, VPN
Server requirements
Any Home Assistant installation; no add-on or custom integration
Any Home Assistant installation
Price
Free core app; Vulpo Pro $4.99/month, $29.99/year or $59.99 one-time
Free
Source code
Closed source, independent developer
Open source (Apache 2.0), maintained by the Open Home Foundation community
Which one fits
When Vulpo is the better fit
- You want dashboards that feel like an iOS app: native cards, controls, haptics and animations instead of a web page.
- You want ready-made Live Activities with buttons, widgets that toggle entities and a standalone Apple Watch app, without writing notification payloads.
- You do not want to maintain Lovelace YAML or card configurations; Vulpo builds cards from your entities.
- You use a Mac and want a real Mac app rather than an iPad port.
- You want a 3D view of your home linked to your devices.
- You want to build and edit automations on your phone or Mac with native forms, or just describe them in a sentence.
- You have an iPhone Duo and want an app laid out for both displays and every pose.
When the official app is the better fit
- You rely on custom Lovelace cards from HACS or heavily customized dashboards.
- You need the full set of device sensors reported to Home Assistant (battery, activity, focus mode, connectivity).
- You need CarPlay or an Android app.
- You want an open-source client.
The official app is the reference client: open source, free, on Android and CarPlay, and it shows any Lovelace dashboard exactly as the browser does. Vulpo is a native alternative for Apple devices that trades Lovelace compatibility for purpose-built cards, widgets, Control Center controls, Live Activities, a full Apple Watch app, a native Mac app and a 3D room view. Both can be installed side by side.
Summary
Questions
Can Vulpo and the official Home Assistant app be installed at the same time?
Yes. Vulpo and the official Home Assistant Companion app register as separate mobile_app devices in Home Assistant and do not interfere with each other. Many users keep the official app for device sensors and use Vulpo for daily control, widgets and the watch.
Does Vulpo show my existing Lovelace dashboards?
No. Vulpo does not render the Home Assistant web frontend. It builds its own dashboards from your entities using native cards, and syncs those dashboards between your Apple devices via iCloud. Your Lovelace dashboards stay untouched and remain available in the browser and in the official app.
Do notifications from Home Assistant work in Vulpo?
Yes. Vulpo registers with the mobile_app integration, so Home Assistant automations can send push notifications and image notifications to Vulpo using the notify.mobile_app_* service created for it, exactly as they would for the official app. Actionable notifications with buttons are not supported yet.
Is Vulpo an official Home Assistant app?
No. Vulpo is an independent, third-party app developed by Joshua Dessol. Home Assistant is a trademark of the Open Home Foundation, and Vulpo is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by the Open Home Foundation or Nabu Casa.
Home Assistant is a trademark of the Open Home Foundation. Details about the official app are taken from its public documentation at companion.home-assistant.io and may change with new releases. Corrections: josh@vulpo.app.