[_mlbt]

I highly recommend Ecobee if you want an alternative to Google Nest.

[emchammer]

Does Ecobee require an app and account to be activated, or is it something that HomeKit just detects on the LAN?

[sanex]

I know they used to be Home Assistant capable but required an API key which they will no longer give out. Seems like no fully local control to me. I believe my app stops working when the Internet goes out but it's been a bit.

[themerone]

I've had both and am much happier with Ecobee.

[jjtheblunt]

same here. had 2 nests and 2 ecobees. the only ecobee quirk i find after 9 years of ecobees is that the weather calculation is way off if you live near microclimates. i'm not sure if they use your postal zipcode, or use a map from IP address to more accurate weather, but it's normally showing weather from 10 miles away.

[dasmoop]

I was really disappointed with the lack of analytics / historical data.

Thankfully the open source beetstat makes ecobee a lot more useful, with full history and graphs for heat/cool runtime, aux heat, indoor/outdoor humdity, etc