Smart Home
Wyze
Budget smart-home cameras and starter kits for short-term rental exteriors
Best Value
Cheapest credible way to get exterior cameras and a smart-home starter kit on a rental
From $2.99 • No free trial
Comparison
Wyze vs ecobee
Pricing, pros and cons, and buyer-fit side-by-side. Pick the one that matches your operation — or see why neither should.
Smart Home
ecobee
Smart thermostats and connected-home hardware for short-term rentals
Solid Option
A solid thermostat for STRs, but reach the PMS through Minut or Hospitable
From $139.99 • No free trial
Pricing Side-by-Side
Wyze
Full pricing →From $2.99 • No free trial
Cam Plus Monthly
$2.99/mo per camera
- Person, vehicle, pet, package detection
- Full-length video recordings (up to 5 min)
- AI smart alerts
- Cloud storage of event clips
Cam Plus Annual
$29.99/year per camera
- All Cam Plus Monthly features
- Annual billing (price increasing March 2026)
- Multi-camera discount available
ecobee
Full pricing →From $139.99 • No free trial
Smart Thermostat Essential
$139.99 one-time
- Thermostat hardware
Smart Thermostat Enhanced
$199.99 one-time
- Thermostat hardware
Smart Thermostat Premium
$259.99 one-time
- Thermostat hardware
What each tool does well — and where it falls short
What Wyze does well
Cameras are about a fifth the price of comparable Nest Cams
Security.org's 2026 review says Wyze delivers more capability per dollar than any other brand in the budget segment, with cameras starting at $36 versus similarly-featured competitors.
Free tier is genuinely usable
Security.org notes microSD local recording, live view, and basic motion alerts all work without paying for Cam Plus — hosts can start with no recurring cost.
Dedicated Airbnb Side-Hustle Starter Pack
SafeHome.org's 2026 pricing analysis confirms the $189.99 bundle includes a video doorbell, smart lock box, keypad, two smart plugs and three night lights in a single purchase.
Cam Plus subscription stays cheap
Cam Plus is $2.99/month per camera; even the annual plan rises only to $29.99 in March 2026, which remains among the most affordable cloud-recording options on the market.
What ecobee does well
Broad smart-home interoperability with HomeKit, Alexa, and Google Assistant
The Home Assistant integration exposes Away, Home, and Sleep presets and lets hosts automate climate around stays, and ecobee's product pages market the thermostats as working with Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant for guest-facing voice control.
Dedicated STR partnership with Minut covering Airbnb and 25+ PMSs
Minut's announcement says property managers can synchronize Minut devices with ecobee thermostats through Airbnb, over 25 PMSs, or by manually entering guest schedules — automating guest, eco, and pre-arrival states.
SmartBuildings multifamily API expanded in February 2026
A February 2, 2026 PR Newswire release quotes ecobee VP of Revenue Audra Kinsley saying the SmartBuildings API 'fundamentally improves how property teams manage building operations,' signaling continued investment in the multifamily/portfolio path.
Where Wyze falls short
Motion alerts have a couple of seconds of delay
CheckmateRentals' Airbnb camera guide flags that Wyze takes a couple of seconds to notify on movement, which matters when you're trying to catch real-time activity at a property.
WiFi connectivity can be flaky
The same CheckmateRentals review reports occasional WiFi connectivity issues that can impact real-time streaming quality, leaving properties temporarily unmonitored.
No PMS integrations
Research across Wyze's own integrations page and PMS partner directories returned insufficient data for Hostfully, Hostaway, Guesty or similar — official integrations are limited to Alexa, Google Assistant and IFTTT.
No official public API
Only unofficial community projects like SecKatie/ha-wyzeapi bridge Wyze into Home Assistant; there is no vendor-supported API for property management or enterprise workflows.
Where ecobee falls short
Direct developer API onboarding closed in March 2024
Home Assistant's documentation notes that as of March 28, 2024 ecobee stopped accepting new developer subscriptions or API keys — pushing new STR operators toward HomeKit, Matter, or partner middleware rather than a direct ecobee integration.
No native first-party connectors to Hostaway, Guesty, or OwnerRez
Hospitable's launch page confirms ecobee support, but ecobee's STR-PMS reach flows through partners like Hospitable and Minut rather than a native connector to the dominant STR PMSs.
Smart Security and SmartBuildings pricing is not transparently published
ecobee.com/pricing returned HTTP 404 on 2026-04-25 and the SmartBuildings landing page surfaces no rate card, so operators evaluating bulk multifamily or Smart Security must contact sales or rely on third-party reviews.
Which Should You Pick
Pick Wyze if
Budget-conscious hosts who want affordable exterior monitoring that complies with Airbnb's indoor camera restrictions while keeping basic property protection in place.
Skip Wyze if
You need real-time alerts, deep third-party PMS integrations, or enterprise-grade notification reliability.
Pick ecobee if
Owner-operators of one to a handful of premium STRs who want occupancy-aware HVAC, energy-savings reporting, and native voice control across Apple Home, Alexa, and Google Assistant.
Skip ecobee if
You manage a large portfolio that needs deep, native PMS-driven thermostat orchestration with no third-party middleware — ecobee's commercial offering targets multifamily buildings and direct STR-PMS connectors are not natively documented.
Keep Digging
Wyze
Cheapest credible way to get exterior cameras and a smart-home starter kit on a rental
ecobee
A solid thermostat for STRs, but reach the PMS through Minut or Hospitable