If you want a single-vendor system you never have to think about, and you're comfortable paying per door for that convenience, RemoteLock is a reasonable, well-supported choice. If you'd rather own your setup, keep the locks you already have, run on an open ecosystem, and pay one flat price per property, Staykey — built on Home Assistant — is the better fit. This guide lays out the real trade-offs so you can pick honestly.
Both tools solve the same core problem: getting guests through the door without you handing over a physical key. They just take very different paths to get there.
Staykey vs RemoteLock at a glance
| RemoteLock | Staykey | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-door subscription, scales with feature add-ons | Flat per-property: $15/mo (ProHost $25/mo), unlimited devices |
| Lock support | Curated list of supported locks and RemoteLock-branded hardware | Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, and most Wi-Fi locks via Home Assistant |
| Cloud dependency | Cloud-dependent — automations run through RemoteLock's servers | Local-first — automations execute on your hub, survive outages |
| Device ecosystem | Access control plus a defined set of integrations | 1,000+ Home Assistant integrations (locks, thermostats, sensors, more) |
| Guest portal | Access codes and instructions, vendor-managed | Single guest-link portal with check-in info, codes, and house details |
| Turnover/cleaning | Scheduled access credentials for staff | Booking-aware cleaner access tied to your calendar |
| Best for | Hands-off hosts who want one vendor and managed support | Hosts who want local control, an open stack, and flat pricing |
The rest of this guide unpacks the rows that matter most.
Pricing: flat per-property vs per-door
The biggest practical difference shows up on your monthly bill.
RemoteLock prices primarily per door. A single lock at a single property is inexpensive, and for a one-door condo the math is fine. But the model scales with both the number of doors and the features you turn on — additional credentials, integrations, and management capabilities can layer on. A host with a multi-entry property (front door, garage, pool gate) or a growing portfolio watches that per-door line item add up month after month.
Staykey is a flat fee per property: $15/mo on the standard plan, $25/mo for ProHost, with unlimited devices included. Add a second lock, a thermostat, and a noise sensor to the same property and your bill doesn't move. You also own the Home Assistant hub outright — it's a one-time hardware cost, not a recurring rental.
For a single-door, single-property host, the two can land close. For anyone with multiple doors per property or more than a handful of properties, flat per-property pricing usually wins over time. We break down our plans on the pricing page.
Lock and device support
RemoteLock supports a curated list of locks plus its own RemoteLock-branded hardware. That curation is a feature for some hosts: anything on the list is known to work, and support has seen it before. The cost is flexibility — if your preferred lock or a new device category isn't on the list, you're waiting on the vendor.
Staykey inherits the Home Assistant ecosystem, which means Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, and most Wi-Fi locks work, alongside 1,000+ integrations for thermostats, leak sensors, noise monitors, garage openers, and more. If you already own smart locks, there's a good chance they transfer — see our migration walkthrough at switching from RemoteLock, August, or PointCentral to Staykey for exactly what moves over and what doesn't.
The honest caveat: closed, RemoteLock-branded hardware (certain LS and RG series locks) is built to stay inside RemoteLock's ecosystem and generally won't talk to Home Assistant. If that's what's on your doors today, budget for a lock swap as part of any migration. Standard Z-Wave and Zigbee deadbolts keep working.
Reliability: local-first vs cloud-dependent
This is the architectural difference, and it's the one hosts feel at 1 a.m.
RemoteLock is cloud-dependent. Codes are managed in RemoteLock's cloud, and the path from "guest arrives" to "door opens" routes through their servers and your internet connection. When everything is up, it's smooth. When the vendor's cloud has an incident, or your property's internet drops, the dependency becomes a single point of failure for guest access.
Staykey is local-first because it runs on Home Assistant. Access codes live on the lock and the automations execute on the hub sitting in your property. An internet outage — or a Staykey cloud hiccup — doesn't lock a guest out, because the decision to honor a valid code is made locally on hardware you control. The cloud is used to sync bookings and manage the experience, not as a gatekeeper standing between the guest and the door.
We go deep on why we chose this architecture in why we built Staykey on Home Assistant. If reliability through outages is a priority for you, this is the row that should weigh most.
When RemoteLock is the better choice
We'd genuinely point some hosts to RemoteLock. It's the better fit when:
- You want one vendor for everything. RemoteLock sells the hardware, the software, and the support as a single package. If you value a single throat to choke and don't want to assemble a system, that bundle is real value.
- You don't want to manage a hub. Staykey asks you to run a Home Assistant hub (we make it easy, but it's still a device in your property). RemoteLock's more managed model means less for you to own and maintain.
- You're standardizing on RemoteLock hardware anyway. If you're outfitting new doors from scratch and happy with their locks, staying in one ecosystem keeps things simple.
- You operate in a commercial or multi-family context where RemoteLock's access-control heritage and enterprise features line up with your needs better than a short-term-rental-focused tool.
If those describe you, RemoteLock is a solid, mature product and you'll be well served.
When Staykey is the better choice
Staykey is the better fit when:
- You want flat, predictable pricing that doesn't climb every time you add a door or a device.
- You already own smart locks and don't want to re-buy hardware to fit a vendor's catalog.
- Local-first reliability matters — you want guest access to keep working through an internet or cloud outage.
- You want an open ecosystem. Home Assistant's 1,000+ integrations mean your access platform can grow into full property automation (thermostats, sensors, energy) instead of staying boxed into access alone.
- You're scaling a short-term-rental portfolio and want booking-aware guest portals and cleaner access tied directly to your Airbnb and VRBO calendars.
If you recognize yourself in that list, Staykey was built for you.
Try it before you commit
You don't have to take any of this on faith. Staykey offers a free 30-day trial — connect a property, point it at your existing locks, and watch a real guest code program onto the door before you cancel anything you're paying for today. No surprise charges, cancel anytime. If you're coming from RemoteLock specifically, start with the migration guide so you can switch without a single guest noticing, then start your trial when you're ready.