Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential vs Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium wins overall, adding built-in voice control, a speaker, air-quality (TVOC and CO2) sensing, occupancy sensing, a bundled remote sensor and wider integrations, all with a higher owner rating. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential is the more affordable option with a lighter feature set.

Sensing and audio. The Premium adds TVOC and CO2 air-quality sensors with alerts, occupancy sensing, a built-in speaker and on-device voice control, plus a bundled remote sensor. The Essential shares the same touchscreen and humidity sensing but omits all of those.

The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium includes TVOC and CO2 sensing with air-quality alerts and filter reminders. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential does not have air-quality sensing.

No. The Ecobee Smart Thermostat Premium ships with a remote sensor and a trim plate, while the Ecobee Smart Thermostat Essential includes neither, though it supports adding remote sensors.

Buyers who want Ecobee's color touchscreen, humidity sensing and wide platform support for less money, and who do not need air-quality monitoring, occupancy sensing, a speaker or voice control.

Anyone wanting the flagship with air-quality and CO2 sensing, occupancy detection, a built-in speaker, on-device voice control and a bundled remote sensor, and willing to pay more for that top-tier feature set.