Seam and Staykey both sit between your software and a smart lock, but they're aimed at completely different people. Seam is a developer API — a single, unified way for software teams to read and write access codes across dozens of lock brands. Staykey is a turnkey product for hosts — you sign up, connect your booking calendar and your lock, and guest access just happens. If you're a developer building an app, Seam is excellent. If you run short-term rentals and want the problem solved rather than the toolkit to solve it, Staykey is the better fit.
This guide is an honest comparison of "API/platform vs finished host product" so you can tell which side of that line you're on.
Staykey vs Seam at a glance
| Seam | Staykey | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Developer API to control many lock brands from one interface | Turnkey host product for short-term rentals |
| Who it's for | Engineering teams building their own software | Hosts and property managers who want a ready-made tool |
| Setup | Write code, host an app, design the UX yourself | Connect calendar + lock; no code |
| Pricing model | Per connected device + usage, developer billing | Flat per-property: $15/mo (ProHost $25/mo), unlimited devices |
| Cloud dependency | Cloud API — calls route through Seam's servers | Local-first — automations execute on your hub, survive outages |
| Ecosystem | Lock-focused unified API across many brands | 1,000+ Home Assistant integrations (locks, thermostats, sensors) |
| Guest portal | You build it | Single guest link per stay — no app or account |
| Cleaning/turnover | You build it | Booking-aware cleaner access; ProHost adds crew management |
| Best for | Developers shipping access features inside another product | Hosts who want guest access solved end-to-end |
The rest of this guide unpacks what that difference means in practice.
API platform vs 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.
Staykey is the finished application. The work Seam 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.
So the honest framing isn't "which is better" — it's "are you building software, or running rentals?" If you're a platform company embedding smart-lock control into your own product, Seam is the right layer. If you're a host, you'd essentially be rebuilding Staykey on top of Seam.
Pricing
The pricing models follow the audience.
Seam bills per connected device per month, typically with usage-based components, to a developer account. 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. But for a host 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 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 and the price doesn't change. See the full breakdown on the pricing page.
Reliability: cloud API vs local-first
Architecture is where the two diverge most for the people who actually live with an outage at 1 a.m.
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. But it means your guest-access path depends on Seam being up, the lock vendor's cloud being up, and the property's internet being up — three clouds in series.
Staykey is local-first because it runs on Home Assistant. Access codes live on the lock, and the automation that honors a valid code executes on the hub physically present in your property. An internet outage — or a Staykey cloud hiccup — doesn't lock a guest out, because the decision is made locally on hardware you control. 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 inherits 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. 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.
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 guest access solved, not a toolkit to solve it.
- You don't want to write or maintain code — connect a calendar and a lock and you're done.
- Flat, predictable pricing matters 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.