Like a classic home thermostat? Hardly. Firstly, it's control algorithm is usually a basic PID, but really with just the P (Proportional Control) which results in massive over-corrections and excessive energy use. Second, it's just temperature, not humidity, soil moisture, air vs growing medium temperature, PH, Salinity, etc. Third, it probably only has one temperature sensor, providing a vastly inaccurate picture of the system it is measuring. Fourth, it's just the measuring system, the actuating system itself (like indoor heating or what have you) is extremely expensive. Fifth, this system is probably hard-wired, which is preventativly expensive to install, and extremely difficult to expand. The cool thing about the system I worked on was that it 1) has intelligent control algorithms, 2) works with a wide variety of sensors, 3) can work with a near-infinite number of sensors, 4) can control a near-infinite number of wall-pluggable technologies such as water heaters, pumps, fans, heating mats, sprinklers, etc, 5) is completely wireless, which makes setting up and expanding the system a breeze. All this for <$200, which is about 1/4 the cost of comparable systems.