Homemanager 5: Public Beta available!

Dear Homemanager community,

the time has come: the Homemanager 5 public beta is now available via TestFlight! 🚀

Since our first announcement, over 1,900 submissions from you have come in over the past year, with lots of wishes, feedback, and prioritization suggestions. Over the past months, around 500 selected testers have already tested the alpha. That’s why we can finally start the public beta.

And just like since the first Homemanager version around 6 years ago: your feedback is the most important part of development.

Please test in everyday use, try things out, and give us feedback on UX, features, and bugs — ideally directly via the feedback function in the app or via TestFlight.

👉 Test now: https://testflight.apple.com/join/JrP5UQhg

🗓️ Final release target: January or February 2026
‍

For everyone who wants more details: the most important new features…

• 🛒 Integration Store: a new in-house “plugin store” with categories, filters, favorites, search history, trends & compatibility checks. This is made possible thanks to our own cloud infrastructure, which analyzes available plugins multiple times a day and provides prepared information.
• 🧩 Interactive configuration: now even more intuitive thanks to full support for Homebridge’s schema layout standard.
• 🧱 Hybrid editor: a hybrid view for fast, mobile-optimized editing along the JSON structure (including full-text search).
• 📦 System updates: Node and Homebridge updates (if supported by the system) directly from within the app.
• 📊 New dashboard & 🌐 platform overview: important info, warnings, and updates at a glance.
• 🌉 Bridge management: child bridges and regular bridges are handled uniformly and can be managed more intuitively.
• 📝 Logs & Terminal: terminal access directly in the app + improved log view.
• 🧠 SmartDetect 2: invalid “config snippets” are analyzed and repaired more intelligently, allowing you to continue editing directly in the graphical editor.
• ✏️ Change management: changes remain stored locally and can be uploaded individually / in bulk once you’re done editing. Switching between systems / bridges remains possible at any time.
• 🔄 Pairing & cache: granular HomeKit cache and pairing management is now supported as well.

Planned shortly after release

• 🔁 Backup management: more than just “.zip management”. These functions are already marked in a few places in the app.
• 🧩 Widgets: long requested and planned for one of the next updates.

Financials

For many, the financial side is probably of interest. We want to loosen up the pricing model that has remained unchanged since 2019 and supports the development of Homemanager with v5, to enable cost-effective use for even more users.

Starting with version 5, the app can be used completely free of charge with basic functions for small systems. Advanced features can then be purchased as usual via lifetime licenses. Users who purchased a license years ago will continue to receive the feature set of that license and can optionally switch to one of the new licenses by paying a small price difference. Users who have already invested in “old” licenses since the Homemanager 5 announcement will receive new licenses at no extra cost as a thank you.
‍

Thank you for your patience, your trust, and above all for your feedback, which has made Homemanager better and better over the years. ❤️

‍

We’re looking forward to your feedback on the public beta!
Hannes & Ron from ParceApp