Technical answers, no marketing fluff

All transport uses TLS 1.3 exclusively — older protocol versions are rejected at our edge load balancers. Gateways authenticate with mutual TLS using an X.25519 key pair stored in the device TPM, so a stolen gateway cannot impersonate your site. At rest, telemetry and automation history are encrypted with AES-256 using per-tenant data keys that rotate every 90 days. Encryption keys are held in EU-based HSMs and never leave European jurisdiction.

Your automations keep running. Every rule is mirrored to the gateway's local storage and executed on-device the moment its trigger fires — no cloud round-trip is involved in execution. Sensor data is buffered locally (up to 50,000 events) and replayed to the cloud with original timestamps once the WAN link returns, so your history stays complete. Remote access is the only feature that pauses during an outage, for obvious reasons.

Gateway Pro is a certified Matter 1.3 controller and Thread 1.3 border router, with Matter 1.4 features rolling out via signed firmware updates. Gateway Lite supports Matter 1.2 over Wi-Fi and Thread but does not act as a border router. Zigbee 3.0 is fully supported on both units via a coexistence-managed radio. Third-party Thread networks (e.g. Apple HomePod or Google Nest Hub as border router) can be joined — the gateway detects existing Thread credentials during onboarding.

All data is processed and stored exclusively in our EU-Central facilities in Frankfurt and Munich (primary) and Zurich (replica). We act as processor under Art. 28 GDPR; a signed Data Processing Agreement (DPA) is available for business customers on every plan, including Home. You can export or permanently delete all site data from the console at any time — deletion propagates to backups within 30 days. We do not use telemetry for advertising, we do not sell data, and we do not transfer anything outside the EU.

From device event to cloud visibility, the median is 38 ms across our EU-Central footprint (p95: 71 ms, p99: 120 ms). Local automations execute in under 15 ms since they never leave the gateway. WebSocket event fan-out to connected dashboards adds 5–25 ms within Europe. Our published status page and per-region latency figures are included in the footer of every page.

No. Every gateway works standalone with its local console and on-device automation engine, forever. The cloud subscription adds encrypted remote access, 30+ day telemetry history, multi-tenant access control and the REST/MQTT APIs. If you cancel, the hardware keeps working locally and your history export is available for 90 days after cancellation.

The bridge runtime can run on your own x86 or ARM hardware and speak to a local MQTT broker without any cloud involvement — this is a supported "private mode". However, features that require our infrastructure (remote access brokering, fleet OTA updates, cloud history) are only available through the AetherHome Cloud tiers, because they depend on our edge network and key management.

Annual billing charges 10× the monthly price (effectively 2 months free, ~17% saved) once per year in advance. You can switch between monthly and annual at any billing cycle boundary; unused annual time is credited pro-rata. All prices include 19% German VAT — reverse-charge applies for EU businesses with a valid VAT ID.