Seam and Staykey both get codes onto a smart lock, but they're aimed at completely different people. Seam is first a developer API — a single, unified way for software teams to read and write access codes across dozens of lock brands — and it also offers a no-code dashboard where a host can sync bookings and get a code per stay. Staykey is a turnkey product for hosts — you sign up, connect your booking calendar and your lock, and the whole stay is handled: codes, a guest portal, cleaners, and more. If you're a developer building an app, Seam is excellent. If you run short-term rentals and want more than codes on the lock, Staykey is the better fit.
Full disclosure: Staykey uses Seam. Staykey's cloud accounts, the no-hub way to connect a lock through its maker's app, are built on Seam's API. So the real comparison isn't Staykey's locks versus Seam's locks. It's how Staykey's stay and automation features compare to what you get from Seam directly: its API, which you build on, and its dashboard, which handles codes per stay. This guide walks through that difference so you can tell which fits.
Staykey vs Seam at a glance
| Seam | Staykey | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Developer API to control many lock brands, plus a no-code host dashboard | Turnkey host product for short-term rentals |
| Who it's for | Engineering teams building their own software; hosts who mainly need codes on their locks | Hosts and property managers who want the whole stay handled |
| Setup | API: write code, host an app, design the UX yourself. Dashboard: connect bookings and locks | Connect calendar + lock; no code |
| Booking automation | Dashboard: a code per stay from an iCal feed or PMS | Codes created and removed from your bookings |
| Pricing model | Per connected device + usage, developer billing | Flat per-property: $15/mo (ProHost $25/mo), unlimited devices via Home Assistant |
| Cloud dependency | Cloud API — calls route through Seam's servers | Your choice: a cloud account (built on Seam, no hub), or local-first on a Home Assistant hub |
| Ecosystem | Lock-focused unified API across many brands | Lock brands such as Yale, Schlage, Kwikset and August through cloud accounts built on Seam, plus 1,000+ Home Assistant integrations (locks, thermostats, sensors) |
| Guest portal | With the API, you build it | Single guest link per stay — no app or account |
| Cleaning/turnover | With the API, you build it | Booking-aware cleaner access; ProHost adds crew management |
| Best for | Developers shipping access features inside another product, or a host who only needs codes | Hosts who want guest access, guests, and turnovers solved end-to-end |
The rest of this guide unpacks what that difference means in practice.
API, dashboard, or finished product
This is the whole story, so it's worth being precise.
Seam gives you a unified API. Instead of learning the quirks of August, Yale, Schlage, Kwikset, and a dozen commercial access systems individually, you integrate Seam once and call a consistent set of endpoints to create codes, read lock state, and receive events. That's genuinely valuable — but it's a building block. You still have to write the application that calls it, host that application, design the guest-facing experience, connect it to your booking source, and maintain all of it as lock firmware and APIs change.
Seam also has a no-code dashboard for short-term rental hosts. It syncs bookings from an iCal feed or a PMS, picks the right lock, sets a code per stay, and shows lock status and battery across your properties. If a code on the door is all you need, it's a real option. Its focus is the lock and the code.
Staykey is the finished application around the whole stay. The work Seam's API expects you to do — connecting bookings, generating codes on the right schedule, building a guest portal, handling cleaner access — is already done. You connect your Airbnb or VRBO calendar, point Staykey at your lock, and per-stay codes and a guest portal appear without you writing a line of code. For locks connected through a cloud account, Staykey is itself built on Seam, so you get Seam's lock coverage without touching the API.
So the honest framing isn't "which is better" — it's "what do you need?" If you're a platform company embedding smart-lock control into your own product, Seam's API is the right layer. If you're a host who only needs a code per stay, Seam's dashboard can do that. If you want the whole stay handled, you'd essentially be rebuilding Staykey on top of Seam, which is what we've already done.
Pricing
The pricing models follow the audience.
Seam bills per connected device per month, with usage limits on its lower tier. That's standard infrastructure pricing — predictable for a software team budgeting an API line item, and it sits underneath whatever you charge your own users. For a host building on the API, it's only part of the true cost: the bigger expense is the engineering time to build and maintain the application around it.
Staykey is a flat $15/mo per property ($25/mo for ProHost), with unlimited Home Assistant devices included and a 30-day free trial. There's no separate hosting bill and no engineering time, because there's nothing to build. Add a second lock, a thermostat, and a noise sensor to the same property's hub and the price doesn't change. A device connected through a cloud account instead is included once per property, then $6/month each. See the full breakdown on the pricing page.
Reliability: cloud or local-first
For the people who actually live with an outage at 1 a.m., the question is where code changes and automations run.
Seam is a cloud API. Every code you create and every lock command you send routes through Seam's servers and the lock vendor's cloud. When everything is healthy, it's clean and consistent.
Staykey gives you the choice. A lock connected through a cloud account goes through Seam and the maker's cloud, just like Seam's own dashboard or an app built on its API: codes already on the lock keep working if the internet drops, and changes wait until it's back. With Home Assistant, Staykey is local-first: the automations run on a hub physically present in your property and keep going through an internet outage or a Staykey cloud hiccup. We explain the reasoning in why we built Staykey on Home Assistant.
Ecosystem and device support
Seam is deliberately lock-centric: a broad, unified API across many lock brands, plus some adjacent access hardware. That focus is a strength if locks are all you need to control.
Staykey uses Seam for its cloud accounts, connecting locks from brands such as Yale, Schlage, Kwikset and August through their makers' apps, and adds the Home Assistant ecosystem — Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, and most Wi-Fi locks, plus 1,000+ integrations for thermostats, leak sensors, noise monitors, and garage openers. Your access tool can grow into full property automation without bolting on another vendor. With Home Assistant there's no lock-in: the hub is yours, and the integrations are open.
When Seam is the better choice
We'd genuinely point you to Seam when:
- You're building software, not running rentals. If you're a PMS, a co-hosting platform, or any product that needs to control locks for your own customers, Seam is the right abstraction layer to build on.
- You want one API across many lock brands and you have the engineering capacity to integrate and maintain it.
- You need to own the end-to-end UX for branding or product reasons, and a turnkey tool would get in the way.
- Access is a feature inside a bigger product, not the product itself.
- All you need is a code per stay. For a host who doesn't need a guest portal or a cleaner workflow, Seam's dashboard can set codes from your booking calendar without any code.
If that's you, Seam is a well-designed platform and the right call.
When Staykey is the better choice
Staykey is the better fit when:
- You run short-term rentals and want the whole stay handled — codes, the guest portal, cleaners — not just codes on the lock.
- You don't want to write or maintain code — connect a calendar and a lock and you're done.
- You want Seam's lock coverage plus the rest of the stay. Staykey's cloud accounts are built on Seam, with the booking, guest, and cleaner features already on top.
- Flat, predictable pricing matters (unlimited devices through Home Assistant) and you'd rather not budget engineering time around an API.
- Local-first reliability matters — you want access to keep working through an internet or cloud outage.
- You want room to grow into thermostats, sensors, and turnover automation on an open ecosystem.
If you recognize yourself there, Staykey was built for you. For a different angle on the build-vs-buy trade-off, see Staykey vs rolling your own Home Assistant automations and Staykey vs RemoteLock.
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, no code and no engineering required. No surprise charges, cancel anytime. When you're ready, start your trial.