Smart Cat Flaps: The Complete UK Buyer's Guide (2026)

• You want reliable app control, curfews and activity logs → SureFlap / Sure Petcare Connect with the Hub. The most mature app, the most cats supported, the easiest to get parts for.
• Your cat brings prey indoors → OnlyCat. It uses a camera and AI to detect what the cat is carrying and holds the door shut. Nothing else on the UK market does this.
• You mainly want curfew timing, not full smart features → a timer or 4-way manual lock microchip flap costs far less and needs no hub.
• You want feeding control as well → pair a standard microchip flap with a microchip feeder rather than paying for a smarter flap.

Every smart flap still reads your cat's existing microchip, so no collar is required.

Prices are typical UK retail at time of writing and move around; fitting is separate. See our OnlyCat specialist page if prey detection is your main reason for upgrading.

In practice there are four features worth paying for:

1. Remote locking. Vet in the morning? Lock the flap from bed the night before rather than chasing the cat at 7am.
2. Curfews. Automatic overnight lock-in — the single biggest reduction in road-traffic risk for outdoor cats, and it happens whether you're home or not.
3. Activity logs. You can see exactly when your cat last came in. For older or unwell cats this is genuinely useful data, and it's the first sign something's wrong when a routine changes.
4. Per-cat rules (DualScan and similar). One cat allowed out, another kept in — impossible with a standard flap.

What it does not get you: extra security. A smart flap is no more or less secure than a standard microchip flap of the same build quality.

Smart flaps run on batteries in the flap itself and talk to a hub plugged into your router, not directly to Wi-Fi. That matters for two reasons:

• The hub has a range limit — roughly 10m through a couple of internal walls. A flap in a back door with the router at the front of the house is the most common cause of dropouts. A hub extender or moving the hub solves it.
• Batteries last around 6–12 months with four C or AA cells depending on model, and less if the flap is busy or in a cold, exposed door. Use good alkaline cells; cheap ones sag in winter and cause false 'low battery' locks.

When batteries die, the flaps do not slam shut — they revert to unlocked or their last state depending on the model. Check the manual for yours.

App-connected flaps log entry and exit times to the manufacturer's cloud, and camera-based flaps like OnlyCat upload clips. If that concerns you, consider:

• A non-connected microchip flap with a manual 4-way lock does 80% of the job with zero data leaving the house.
• Camera flaps point outwards at your own doorstep, but they do record it. Worth knowing if the door faces a shared path.

There's no subscription required for basic app features on the main UK brands at time of writing.

Smart flaps are physically larger than basic manual flaps, and that's where installs go wrong. The tunnel is deeper and the surrounds are wider, so:

• uPVC and composite doors: fine in nearly all cases, but the flap must sit within the flat panel area with clearance from the frame, hinges and lock.
• Glass doors and windows: the flap goes into a brand-new toughened panel with the hole pre-cut. Existing toughened glass cannot be cut. A 170mm hole is standard; OnlyCat needs 212mm, which rules out some narrow panels.
• Wooden and aluminium doors: possible; aluminium needs the right cutting technique to avoid a ragged edge.

Check yours in seconds with our Will It Fit tool, read the microchip compatibility checker to confirm your cat's chip type, or see cat flap installation costs.

If you'd use the curfew, yes. Overnight lock-in is the feature owners keep, long after the novelty of the app wears off. If you only ever wanted to stop the neighbour's cat coming in, a standard microchip flap at £60–£90 does exactly that and the smart version adds nothing.

We fit all the models above across Cheshire, Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Lancashire, Staffordshire, Yorkshire and North Wales. Request a free quote and tell us the door type — we'll tell you honestly whether the smart version is worth it for your setup.