I just happened to come across this thread and figured I would respond.
"A company like that "
We are a small company. I develop every Herpstat from writing the code, circuit layout, all design. There is no large team of developers and I am limited by my abilities and time. :^)
Why did I go with a web interface?
Because with the web interface it works on iphone/android/pc and mac. If a change is made it happens once and effects all platforms. Plus then after updates you don't have to run full testing for each platform. I do not have the ability to write apps for apple/android so its a "stay in your lane" situation. This was an ambitious project and did involve advice from others that helped it grow. As far as I know there is no other dedicated reptile thermostat with wifi and its always tough to be first but the decisions I made were the best options for the product so that it could be supported and work for the most amount of people.
One of the other comments: "if someone were to use multiple herpstats if they could connect them all to that one app."
When you set the spyderwebs to upload to our herpstat.com site and use the same email/password for each one they are all grouped with a drop down box so that you can select which device you want to view. So it sort of has this as far as viewing stats.
Being able to control it remotely (outside your local network) is possible but its not a recommended solution. Unfortunately the safety of the device to be open up the world would always be a concern. Currently you can easily remotely view the status and if someone hacked our site there isn't a way for them to tweak your settings. I have always tried to error on the side of safety with my designs. I also feel that if you are making changes you should be where you can get to the device if there is a problem. Maybe at some point there will be better solutions for control remotely but for these new designs I would rather proceed with caution.
I know this is a old thread but maybe it will help explain to others the direction and reasons to anyone else to see's it. As always I am very grateful to the community for the suggestions and love to implement things when I can improve the products.
-Dion Brewington
Owner, Spyder Robotics LLC