It is normal to want to make things easier and more convenient to do. So, if you are one of those people who always forget to lock up and leave the garage door open, smart garage door openers is the solution you are waiting for.
There are two smart garage door openers that come highly recommended: Gogogate 2 and MyQ Garage.
But which one is better?
About the Gogogate 2
The Gogogate 2 is a wireless garage door opener that uses a smartphone app. It is fully programmable and will make you rethink what a garage door opener can do. Gogogate 2 can control up to three garage doors or gates. It alerts you when your garage door is open or closed, or if you leave it open.
Easily share access with anyone
Getting Gogogate 2 means you never have to worry about garage access management. Like other smart garage door openers, you can open the garage door for any member of your family, for visitors, or even for the delivery guy so he can drop off a package.
You can also share access privileges with other people. For instance, if you are a property owner and you want your tenants to be able to park their cars in the garage, you can give them access using the mobile app.  Or if you are having a little party at home and are expecting guests, you can just share access with them so that you wouldn’t have to stand by your phone the entire time – especially when you’re busy preparing.
Gogogate 2 is perfect for those days when you are busy at the office.
You can give other people temporary or total access, even setting the time when they could get into your garage, and, of course, revoke access when afterward.
See your garage anywhere
When you connect your Gogogate 2 with a compatible IP camera, you can use the Gogogate 2 mobile app to see what is happening to your garage instead of launching a separate mobile app. You can even have it capture a photo or record a video and store it.
You can view these clips at a later time using a calendar view, thus letting you know when your garage door has been opened or closed and what transpired after, even when you are not home.
You can connect up to three IP cameras to your Gogogate 2 device, allowing you to monitor different parts of your garage, gate and driveway.
Smartwatch compatible and temperature sensors
The good thing about Gogogate 2 is that you can use it with a smartwatch. If you do not own a smartwatch, no problem! You can get on a laptop or desktop computer and control your garage door from there.
It comes with temperature sensors, too, so that you would know how hot or cold it is inside the garage. The mobile app also shows you the battery level of your sensors for you to know when to replace it.
Works with IFTTT
IFTTT compatibility allows you to do more with IFTTT, such as automatically turning on the lights and the air conditioning, unlocking your doors, or playing your playlist when you open the garage door.
It also allows you to automatically open or close your garage door when you get home or when you leave. There are several recipes that you can easily add so that you would not need to learn any programming. This allows you to do more with your Gogogate 2 and control more appliances without launching different apps.
What’s in the box
- Gogogate 2 device
- SD card adaptor
- USB Wi-Fi adaptor
- MicroSD card
- Power supply
- Cables
- Cable connectors
- Dual sided tape
Pros of the Gogogate 2
- Good Backup for Internet Outages: As a garage door opener, the Gogogate 2 works as it should and works perfectly. If the Internet is down, the device will create its own Wi-Fi network, so that you can open and close your garage doors without connecting to the Internet.
- Can Choose Wired vs Wireless Connection: You can also choose to have a wired connection using an Ethernet cable, which you connect to your router.  Or you can go completely wireless when you connect it to your Wi-Fi. Gogogate 2 is perfect for big houses with several gates and garage doors because it can control up to three gates and garage doors with just one app.
- Mobile Control:Â Gogogate 2 also allows you to control other devices using only one mobile app and you can even use a smartwatch to do it.
- Alarm System:Â It also has an audible alarm as well as three LED lights that will flash when the garage door is closed remotely.
- Simple Installation: And all of these are yours after a very simple installation process.  You just unbox your Gogogate 2 and pair it with your smartphone. All your preferences and programs are done on your phone.
What could be better – Cons
- No Built in Camera:Â The ability to watch your garage door from any location, as well as record videos for later viewing, is only available when you connect your Gogogate 2 with any one of the compatible or recommended IP cameras, including specific models from Dropcam, D-Link, Foscam, Insteon, and TP-Link. It would have been much if the camera were built into the device itself.
- Subscription Required for Real Time Monitoring:Â What’s more, you would need to pay a subscription fee for three years, and that will be good for 1 gigabyte of real time video monitoring and another gigabyte of renewable video storage. Â The subscription fee is not refundable, so you should always check out the 30-day trial to see if the service is good enough for you.
MyQ Garage
A noteworthy competitor for Gogogate 2, MyQ Garage is one of the most affordable garage door openers that you can control with your smartphone (read my original review here).
Easy to install
Installation only takes minutes, and that includes using your home Wi-Fi to pair it with your smartphone.
Wide range of compatible devices
You can use MyQ Garage to control your existing garage door openers, provided that they are from any of these manufacturers: Chamberlain, Genie, Linear, LiftMaster, Craftsman, Raynor, Overhead Door, Wayne Dalton, Stanley, and several other brands manufactured after 1993.
There is also a growing list of connected home devices that you can use with MyQ Garage, such as Nest Learning Thermostat and Wink Hub.
Other nice features
When you close the door remotely, it will sound an alarm for 15 seconds to ensure that nobody gets crushed under the door.
Mobile app
The Chamberlain MyQ Home Control mobile app allows you to tweak with the setting. You can set it in a way that it notifies you for a specific time period, like 45 minutes, when the garage door is opened or closed. You can also set it to send you a notification if somebody else is opening or closing your garage doors.
You can also view a history of events that happened in your garage area.
What’s in the box
- The Wi-Fi hub
- Door sensor
- Wi-Fi hub bracket
- Power Supply
- 5/32″ short screws
- 5/32″ long screws
- Fastening strips
- User guide and warning placard
Things to like about the MyQ Garage
- Works for Multiple Garage Doors:Â MyQ Garage can control two garage doors, but you would need to buy the additional door sensor for the second.
- Strong WiFi Receiver: The Wi-Fi hub receiver is pretty adequate in getting Wi-Fi signals. While your smartphone might have only two bars, the Wi-Fi receiver will have no problem.
- Simple to Install:Â The installation process is also very easy and quick, as promised.
What could be better
- Power Outlet Needed:Â There is no option for a truly wireless installation, so you would need to ensure that there is a power outlet nearby.
- Only Works with Sectional Doors:Â Also, MyQ Garage only works with sectional garage doors and will not work with one-piece doors.
- Not Compatible with Some Key Smart Home Players: While MyQ Garage is quite smart and works well as a garage door opener, it has very limited support for other connected devices. For one, the promised HomeKit integration in 2014 has not been rolled out. It is not compatible with SmartThings or IFTTT. It also does not have a built-in camera that would allow you to see things and visually confirm that the door was either open or closed. UPDATE: The MyQ now FINALLY works with AppleWatch!
Gogogate 2 vs MyQ Garage: Which should you buy?
As a garage door opener that you can control from your smartphone, both MyQ Garage and Gogogate 2 work equally well. Really, it comes down to some personal needs and preferences.
Side-by-side comparison: Gogogate 2 vs MyQ Garage
| Â | Gogogate 2 | MyQ Garage |
| Price | Check here for latest price | Check here for latest price |
| Can control | 3 doors | 2 doors |
| Built-in camera? | No | No |
| IFTTT compatible? | Yes | No |
| Smartwatch compatible | Yes | Yes* |
| Easy to install? | Yes | Yes |
*Recently gained Smartwatch capability!
Neither the Gogogate 2 nor the MyQ Garage aims to replace your clickers or remotes. It would still be easier to use your remote to open your garage door when you arrive home than to reach for your smartphone, launch the app and open the door.
However, both of these smart garage door openers are pretty useful in letting you open or close the garage door when you are not home – perhaps to let family members and other expected guests in – or to close it when you forgot to.
GoGoGate Has Better Integrations: However, with Gogogate’s IFTTT compatibility, you might find yourself using the remote less. You can use an IFTTT recipe that would automatically open your garage door when you get within a certain number of miles from your house. This recipe uses your car’s GPS and determines when you are arriving home. In this regard, the Gogogate 2 has an edge over MyQ Garage.
GoGoGate Can Control More Doors:Â Gogogate 2 can also control 3Â doors with just one device, allowing you to save if you do have numerous garage doors.
GoGoGate Can Provide Live Feed Monitoring: Plus, when you connect an IP camera, the Gogogate 2 mobile app allows you to see live feeds from within the app, saving you the trouble of launching a separate app to see what is happening in your garage. The Gogogate 2 video monitoring and storage service, however, does come with a reasonable subscription.
If you want to get a garage door opener that has a camera, then you can choose the Asante Garage Door Opener (check here for latest pricing).
Meanwhile, if you are looking for more integration, then check out Garageio, which works with IFTTT devices and Amazon Echo.
While the Gogogate 2 has more features and connectivity options, you might be able to save with the MyQ Garage, which is available at this pricing. Â It also works with Nest thermostats, which makes it a better choice if you have Nest.
Bottom Line:Â If I had to choose again, I’d probably go with the GoGoGate 2.
Further read, The Best Automatic Gate Openers
I have the MyQ system but not the one listed which is the 821LM, I have the 828LM. Since my openers were already MyQ capable, I have need the MyQ Internet Gateway which is the 828LM. It comes with a power adapter and then actual MyQ Internet Gateway is a small little box; much smaller than the pictures of it would have you believe. The price is also about half of what the 821LM goes for. There are two lights on it to tell you the status, like if it has network connectivity which is the green LED. The blue LED tells you at least one MyQ enabled device has been programmed.
There is no WiFi (WLAN) on the 828LM, it uses a wired Ethernet connection. Being in IT and very tech savvy, my house is wired for the future. I placed the MyQ Internet Gateway in the attic and then used a PoE splitter to provide power to it, so I didn’t actually need to worry about being near a power outlet. The power comes from my network switch and is sent over the Ethernet connection to the PoE splitter. The PoE splitter than provides power to MyQ Internet Gateway as well as the data connection which is a pass-through from the network switch. To set it up, all you do is install the app, create a MyQ account and tell it the device ID of the MyQ Internet Gateway. Then you go to the openers of which I have a total of two in two different garages and you follow the same procedure you would to add another remote or keypad. I’ve used the gateway for the past 18 months and have never had an issue with it and has a fairly decent range. It was further away from the openers in the beginning and was inside the house before being relocated to the attic.
Pros:
Easy installation and setup. No additional sensors need to be installed or used.
Fairly decent reporting options based upon time of day or just how long the door has been opened. It can send an alert on the app which will show up on the phone or tablet. You can even have it send an email as well. I have it do both. In my case if the door has been opened for more than 5 minutes, I get an alert and an email. The same will occur if the door is open after 10pm until 7am.
Supports up to 16 MyQ enabled devices
You can also use a web browser to control it
It can integrate with Nest Thermostats.
When closing the door, the garage door opener system emits the audible tone for several seconds before the door starts closing. In my case, the wall console is what emits the tone. So the MyQ Internet Gateway integrates better with the door opener than the GoGoGate2. It also doesn’t require any sensors like the GoGoGate2 does because the opener already knows if the door is opened or closed.
Cons:
Native PoE support would be nice
The interface is 10mps half-duplex. While it doesn’t need a high speed network connection, 10-half is well, rather pathetic mainly the half-duplex. Full duplex would be much more preferred and probably 100Mbps even though it isn’t needed for what it does.
An email address is used for the login information. So if you want to share the use of it, the same account information needs to be used. This allows anyone with access to make changes. It would be nice to have an admin account and then allow subaccounts to be created where they can control the MyQ devices but not make changes.
The Nest integration really just means that on the MyQ app or site, you can see your Thermostat. Nest Protects are not shown.
Summary
All in all, it does work. I do think that LiftMaster could do more with it though and make it more useful. If you have a MyQ compatible garage or gate opener, the 828LM could be a better option than the 821LM. The 828LM is also easier to install and setup than the GoGoGate2.
Good information, thanks (again) Lance!
Pretty cool. Old post but I’m looking into the 828LM and I have a POE switch. Could you direct me to the POE splitter you ended up using?
Thanks.