Tools that do the arithmetic for you
Six calculators for the decisions that are genuinely hard to eyeball. All of them run in your browser, and nothing you enter is sent anywhere.
The tools#
- Smart home platform pickerAnswer six questions and see which of the seven smart home platforms fits your household, with the reasoning and the trade-offs shown.
- Smart home compatibility checkerCheck whether a device will work with your platform before you buy: what connects natively, what needs a bridge, and what you lose in the middle.
- 2.4 GHz channel plannerEnter the Wi-Fi channels in use around you and get the Zigbee and Thread channels that stay clear of them, with the frequency math shown.
- Internet outage auditCheck what in your smart home keeps working when the internet goes down, device by device, with the reason for each verdict.
- Thread border router finderFilter every shipping Thread border router by ecosystem, Thread version and hardware, including the models people buy by mistake.
- Platform exit cost calculatorEstimate what leaving your smart home platform would cost in hardware and hours, based on which devices travel and which are stranded.
Why these six#
Most smart home advice fails at the same point: it gives you a general answer to a specific question. Whether you need a hub depends on which radios your devices use. Whether Thread will work depends on which box you already own. Whether a channel change will help depends on which Wi-Fi channels your neighbors are sitting on.
Each of these tools takes the small number of inputs that actually change the answer, applies a rule we have written down elsewhere on the site, and shows its reasoning rather than just a verdict. Where a tool uses one of our datasets, the dataset is published as JSON under a Creative Commons license, and the methodology page documents the scoring.
How they handle your data#
Everything happens in your browser using JavaScript. There is no server component, no account, no analytics event carrying your answers, and no way for us to see what you entered. Some tools remember your last inputs in your browser's local storage so you can come back to them, and clearing site data removes that. The privacy policy has the full detail.
Are these tools free?
Yes, all six, with no account, no email address and no usage limit. They are part of the reference material rather than a lead magnet.
How current is the data behind them?
Each dataset carries a version and an update date, shown at the bottom of the tools that use one. The platform and border router data was last verified in September 2026. Firmware moves quickly, so treat the result as a starting point and confirm anything expensive against the manufacturer's current documentation.
Can I use the data in my own project?
Yes. The datasets are published under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0, so you may use and adapt them if you credit Smart Living Web and link back. See the data license.
Do the tools work offline?
Once a page has loaded, most of the interaction happens locally, but the datasets are fetched when the tool starts, so the first load needs a connection. There is a certain irony in that, and it is on the list to improve.