'Smart' heater vs heater with wifi controller?

[Crofter]

I'd like to add a simple wall mounted panel heater to our holiday cottage, so that we can keep it at a reasonable temperature when nobody is there, using the off peak overnight rate. At the moment we leave the heated towel rail on when the weather is cold, which is probably not the most cost effective method.

I was thinking of just buying a hardwired wifi relay (e.g. a 25A one from Shelly) but then I came across heaters with Wifi functionality built in. That's quite appealing because it would allow people in the cottage to use the heater as well.

I'm a bit worried about the longevity of any built in 'smart' technology though. Having owned an early Smart TV which after a couple of years was no longer supported, I feel that it's easy for the app to be updated and suddenly older tech no longer works. Maybe this could happen to the Shelly relay too, but at least in that case I only have to replace that one small component.

 

Any thoughts? And any recommendations?