Both tado° and Hive replace your old thermostat and programmer to let you control your heating from anywhere via your smartphone. Both work with most UK boilers. Both have decent apps. But there are differences worth understanding before you choose.
What differentiates tado° and Hive?
| Category |
tado° |
Hive |
| Temperature precision |
0.5°C |
1°C |
| Free app includes |
Remote control, Smart Schedules per room, Room Link, Quick Actions |
Remote control, scheduling, heating boost, Quick Actions |
| Subscription |
AI Assist: £29.99/year |
Hive+: £39.90/year |
| What the subscription adds |
Geofencing, Preheat Before Arrival, Open Window Detection, Adaptive Heating, Automated Flow Temperature Optimization, Holiday Mode, Energy IQ, Care & Protect, Air Comfort, Climate Report |
Away Mode, Saver Mode, Budget Tracker, Schedule Assist, Remote diagnostics |
| Heat pump support |
Thermostats work with heat pumps + dedicated Heat Pump Optimizer |
Thermostats work with heat pumps + offers 3rd party heat pumps and installation via British Gas |
| Open Window Detection |
Automatically with AI Assist |
Requires additional physical sensors |
| AC control |
Yes |
No |
| Smart home standard |
Matter |
No Matter support |
| Connectivity protocol |
Thread |
Zigbee |
| Radiator valves |
USB-C rechargeable |
Standard batteries |
Comparison of tado° vs Hive
Heating system compatablity
tado° is compatible with 95% of heating systems – gas boilers, heat pumps, water-based underfloor heating, and even air conditioning units. One tado° Smart Thermostat X covers Relay, OpenTherm, and S-Plan configurations – all in one device.
Hive covers similar ground overall, but with different products. Hive sells two separate thermostat models to choose between, the Hive Thermostat and the Hive Thermostat Mini, and its OpenTherm mode only works for single-zone systems: multizone homes and Hive Radiator Valve users run on Relay mode instead, with a separate Multizone kit required for anything beyond one zone.
It’s important to note that neither system supports electric underfloor heating or standalone electric heaters.
One meaningful difference for heat pump owners is depth. Hive also offers to installs heat pumps and manages them through the app. tado° goes further with the Heat Pump Optimizer X – a dedicated product for air-to-water, water-to-water, and ground-to-water heat pumps – that can shift heat pump operation based on your dynamic electricity tariff, outdoor temperature, and solar (PV) production.
For air conditioning, tado° is the only option of the two offering a Smart AC Control.
tado° tip
Not sure if tado° works with your heating system? Use our product finder to check compatability for your specific model.
Difference in temperature control
Of course, both are perfectly capable of setting and controlling the temperature. The difference is in precision:
tado° Smart Thermostats X and Smart Radiator Thermostats X control temperature to 0.5°C. Hive's radiator valves work in 1°C increments. If you want your bedroom at 17.5° or your living room at exactly 20.5°, tado° can offer that precision.
How does multi-room heating and zoning work?
Both tado° and Hive let you add smart radiator valves to individual rooms and set per-room temperatures and schedules.
Room Link, from tado°, activates the boiler only when a room has actual demand. Hive's equivalent, Heat on Demand, works similarly: a radiator valve calls the boiler until the room hits target temperature, then stops.
Lots of UK homes, however, have heating zones instead of individually heated rooms. In that scenario, the tado° device that acts as the main controller of a heating zone is called the Zone Controller. This role is assigned to a Smart Thermostat X or a Wireless Receiver X through the app, not a separate piece of hardware. Other tado° devices, such as Smart Radiator Thermostats or Wireless Temperature Sensors, communicate with the Zone Controller to request heat.
Hive's version of zoning is Hive Multizone, which uses a smart thermostat for each zone, for example one upstairs and one downstairs, each linked to its own zone valve. Hive recommends professional installation for a multizone thermostat setup, carried out by a British Gas engineer.
What do you get for free, and what needs a subscription?
The free tado° app includes remote control, Smart Schedules per room, and Room Link. That's included with any tado° hardware, with no ongoing cost.
tado° AI Assist (£29.99/year) adds the automation layer on top of the already-capable free app: Geofencing, Preheat Before Arrival, Open Window Detection, Adaptive Heating, Automated Flow Temperature Optimization, Holiday Mode, Energy IQ, Care & Protect, Air Comfort, and Climate Report.
The free Hive app covers scheduling, heating boost, and Quick Actions. Away Mode (automatic heating reduction when you leave), Budget Tracker, Schedule Assist, and Saver Mode all require the £39.90/year Hive+ subscription. Note that Schedule Assist and Saver Mode are currently not compatible with multi-zone setups or Hive Radiator Valves.
Integration with other smart home platforms
tado° X uses Thread, part of the Matter smart home standard, and connects natively with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings. Matter is backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung, among others, which in practice means a tado° X device keeps working with whichever of those platforms you use, and with new ones that adopt the standard, without a separate proprietary hub. Both tado° and Hive have official Home Assistant integrations.
Hive supports Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and Apple Home, but does not currently support Matter, so each of those integrations runs on that platform's own connection rather than one shared standard.
tado° tip
If you already have a Matter-based smart home setup, tado° integrates seamlessly with it – so you can even control your heating using voice controls on your smart speaker.
Installation
tado° devices are designed for DIY installation: the app provides step-by-step visual guides tailored to your exact system. However, due to the complexity of UK heating setups, we recommend a professional installation.
Hive's installation guides are written for professional installers, and a British Gas engineer typically handles the job.
Radiator valves are the exception. tado° Smart Radiator Thermostats fit onto your existing valve body in minutes, with no wiring and no access to the boiler needed, so most people install these themselves.
Which smart thermostat is the right choice for you?
tado° is the better fit if you:
- Want smart automations that increase your comfort and energy savings, like Geofencing, Open Window Detection, and pre-heating before you arrive
- Have a heat pump and want a dedicated optimizer that adjusts based on your electricity tariff, outdoor temperature, and solar production
- Have an air conditioning unit you want to control from the same app as your heating
- Want one thermostat that covers Relay, OpenTherm, or S-Plan systems, rather than a different model for each
- Want radiator-by-radiator control with easy DIY installation: Smart Radiator Thermostats X fit straight onto your existing valve bodies
- Want Matter and Thread support built in, so your setup works natively with Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa, and Samsung SmartThings
- Want 0.5°C temperature precision in every room
Hive is the better fit if you:
- Want installation and after-care tied specifically to British Gas
- Want heating, solar, and smart lights from one supplier and app family
- Don't need Matter or cross-brand smart home integration
Explore the tado° X range and find the setup that fits your system.
