Here’s a link to the comparison table: bit.ly/3ba9o0p I wish there was a perfect hub but each has pros and cons. What’s running your smart home right now?
*I like the old style Echo Dot because it's small also **Newest.Technology**, gives out decent sound and doesn't take up a lot of shelf space if you want to put it on beam in the workshop or shed.*
Your videos are a large part of the reason I am now migrating to home assistant! The learning curve was very very steep, but I'm amazed by what it can do. Fully agree with this video's statement that I'm spending a lot of time on it. A bit concerned about home assistants future plans for supporting z-wave (with the sole developer being absent).
Great video as always, Reid! I was actually wondering "what might Rob say/think IF he saw this video?" while watching this video on my Android ShieldTV Pro. 😃 I am in the same boat - long time SmartThings user (starting with their version 1 on Kickstarter) but around Thanksgiving realized new ST hubs were nowhere to be found when I was looking to help a friend get started on his home automation journey and looking to migrate permanently to HA at home. This video helps fill in the gaps - interestingly though, looks like Aeotec's ST hub is not yet available for purchase in US? Maybe "formal" announcement at CES 2021? 😉
@@SmartHomeSolver I have a similar home assistant setup but with a m.2 ssd module bolted to the bottom of my Pi and using a PoE hat so I can just plug in a single Ethernet cable and it’s a great hub that runs really fast
The criticism of Home Assistant is very valid. It's not quite fully plug and play, but if you can get past the initial learning curve, it is so rewarding.
@@danialbucy6829 I recently installed Home Assistant in a local server to connect the ring camera to google hub, I don't think it is easy for the normal user to use it, I am a Full Stack Software Developer and I it was a little challenging to me, also I had to write code something that the normal user will not do.
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
Local ISP went out last night, for my whole area. I had no idea until someone told me this morning. All smarthome routines and automations continued as usual. Hubitat for speed, reliability, and little to no maintenance once it's set up.
I agree. And if you already have ST then like Reed is doing, use it on the side to complete the loop on compatible devices. That's my plan once I buy one.
I think in the past 3 months I've seen 90% of all your videos. My new home is going to mimic your home set up very closely. One of the best channels I've subscribed to.
I haven't gotten a hub yet, but I've been leaning towards getting smartthings. Up to now I've been doing everything via IFTTT or via Alexa routines. Watching this video has helped me decide smartthings is the best option for me. I like Homa Assistant but it seems like a huge time investment. (BTW everytime I hear someone say Home Assistant, I hear Paul saying it in my head.)
I would go with hubitat over smartthings. I've just moved from smartthings to hubitat mainly because I was losing internet connection every few weeks so lost control of all the lighting in my house which doesn't happen with hubitat as it's all locally controlled
If you have some spare time and wanna dip your toes in before you decide, homeassistant also runs on any pc I think. If you like it you can get for example a pi and of not then smart things =) But he warned, that running without internet / cloud is way more important than one would think. It's not often, but extremely annoying if the internet fails.
I’m excited to see you feature HA. I find your channel to be one of the best for beginners and non-techy people. I got talked into HA by Reddit and while I know it will be able to do what I want, I feel totally lost! All the time! I got it set up fine w/ tutorials but I didn’t have a lot of devices to start with and I just want simple explainers on how to integrate and control different types of devices properly (zigbee and zwave switches, sensors, bulbs, as well as speakers and cameras, smart washer/dryer, TV) and start simple automations. Oh, and also the UI. I don’t understand it and don’t know how to customize it. I know the info is out there but it’s all so dense and feels like a slog and a huge time commitment to sit down and read it with my devices at hand; if you search reddit or forums for the terms you want you get very advanced stuff or language that’s confusing to non-techy people. Video tutorials to follow along are tue easiest way to “get doing” and then I can learn by doing! Since you are getting more familiar with it, i’s love for you to fill that gap of the ultra-beginner explainers and tutorials!
Nice review. I migrated recently from Athom's Homey towards Home Assistant and I must say I like both. Homey has integrations with a lot of 3rd party vendors and has multiple solutions for Hue for example (use it with or without Hue Bridge) and it has almost all protocols available (Z-wave, IR, RF, BT and Zigbee). It is quite user friendly as well. Home Assistant on the other hand is complicated at first (even for someone with an IT background), but when you are used to it, it's great. If you combine it with Node-Red you get endless possibilities for automation.
was waiting for this video, thanks. just wanna add on that i'm a developer as well, but had a really big pain with home assistant. started on an rpi4, then bought a mini pc to host on as a vm, actually through a good from "The Hook Up", and while that worked, i've just had so many other issues with home assistant, such as stability, updates, and remaining active. i bought a used smartThings hub, and may go to hubitat, but i've put a lot of time and effort into home assistant to run into issues that require HOURS of my time. that said, i did enjoy using the wyze apps that people created to natively use wyze sensors or wyze bulbs in HA. the potential is amazing, but the ease of use/accessibility was almost nonexistant to me.
I’m really similar to you. Coming from a dev background as well, I especially hate the decision to use yaml over XML or json. Then on top of that, templating for more advanced scripting seems so archaic - other platforms are JS driven or at least using some language with more modern syntax while templating in home assistant seems like an old batch script littered with special characters and parameter stand ins.
@@geoken2 yeah if it was xml or json i might have had more encouragement, but it was just so much work. there was a lot of headaches with setting up systems and all. the initial setup wasn't too bad, it's everything afterwards that made it difficult lol.
One important local one you missed is OpenHab, I have both openhab and hassio running and find almost everything far easier and faster in OpenHab. You also get free access to their remote access bridge. The habpannel is a way to have pretty amazing UI customised for both mobile and desktop. I use the paper UI to setup all my devices, while I wish there was an easier was to batch add devices it's still simple but just repetitive.
Agree, I absolutely love OpenHab! Especially the new version 3 is just amazing. Only thing that isn't nice is the app, but I don't use it for more than notifications so I don't care.
I absolutely love this channel. It’s over the top descriptive and easy to follow for the average smart home user. I have recommended this channel to many of people with awesome feedbacks. #smarthomestrong!
Great and accurate review. I started with X10 and Homeseeer 15 years ago, moved to smartthings, then to Vera, quickly back to Smartthings which I still run but have mainly used HomeAssistant for past two years alongside ST. I'm not mega techy and your point about Home Automation becoming a chore is so true. The problem is it's also a drug, often not a fulfilling one.
I currently use SmartThings as my sole hub, but also use Alexa routines and Tasker tasks to automate various things. I just recently decided to take the dive into Home Assistant. I'm really intimidated by it, but the power, speed, and freedom it offers is just too tempting to say "no" to. Fortunately, I can take my time and switch over at whatever pace I need to, as all of my essential automation are already in-place through SmartThings, Alexa, and Tasker. There's no real rush. Oh, I've also ordered an Echo 4, so I can have some basic voice control even if my internet goes out - I know it's pretty barebones though.
Welcome to the club! oooohhh Home Assistant :) Take a look into setting up HA on a NUC or similar in virtualbox. Gives you the flexibility of running other things on a windows based machine, running your HA in VB and taking images in case you mess up (and not just snapshots through HA), running multiple VMs and so much more. Rpi has the benefit of the cost and low power but comes with some cons. Conbee II works great for your zigbee needs. Take your time, learn and you will find that it will be worth it. You will never want to go back to anything else. Cheers!
I wanna move from smartthings, but having to add a solid state drive and rasbery pi and this and that and script this to do this, is making me not want to. I want easy to use, I can buy it and not need to pay for a feature and something everyone can use, so I can recommend to friends and family with 100% of them arnt tech gurus (like my parents) and don't fully understand what a smart home is about yet. I don't think most people are going to get on board with this smart home stuff if it seems too hard and difficult to understand. Smartthings still seems like it's the best and easiest choice for me with just being simple, even if it has a discontinued line. Great video again! More please
Watching yours and Dr Zzs video got me into home automation and I jumped full force into home assistant. I got a Z-wave/Zigbee dongle and now it connects to 90% of the stuff in my house. I highly suggest Dr Zzs for home assistant setup videos, anytime I have a problem with it I go right to his channel first. Then it’s back here for reviews and automation ideas.
I used Vera years ago and because the lack of Alexa and Google Home support I dropped them because they had no clear line to support either. I switched to Samsung Smart Things. It worked when I had a handful of problems, but due to zigbee bulbs randomly turning on/off at 3am I'm dumping Smarthings for 100% local control Hubitat. I hope it works better in my new house!
I've stated using home assistent a little over a year ago. Before that time I had 8 different apps for all my different products. I first ran home assistent on a raspberry pi 3b. But I've started using it in a Unraid VM awhile ago. I'm using Unraid now because I can use it for torrent downloading and media streaming. It has been quite a challenge to start with home assistent but I had a lot of spare time because of covid. Pretty happy with my current setup and I can always expand anything I want.
Thank you for this video. I'm searching for how to automate my smart devices where I can add a lot of conditions. I think Home Assistant is the answer.
Being an Apple ecosystem, my first choice was HomeKit but Home Assistant is the one. I dropping the big $$ on the Blue. It has extra power over a Pi to include other applications.
I initially stated with Hubitat, but have moved to Home Assistant. I have integrated my Hubitat into HA so I do not have to re-discover all of my current devices. I will continue to work with HA to get all of my dashboards tightened and looking good.
I'm not a developer but I have been working in IT for 25+ years and I 100% agree with you. I got my first Rasberry PI 4, installed Home Assistant on it, have quite of few things working on it, but it's very frustrating when I cannot figure something out and typically the documentation is somewhat decent if you can fill in the missing components on what is documented. I've spent numerous hours working with it and still feel like I'm kind of lost. I agree, if automation becomes more of a chore trying to connect the dots between devices then it's not really worth it. I'm sure there are tons of people out there where this comes naturally to them. I'm not that person and having come from a Wink Hub that worked great when it did work to using IFFT or Goolge Home. I also bought the hubitat thats still in the box. I seek to find something that's easy to integrate and would wish that Wyze would be come more compatible with hubs. We are moving into a new house and I have bought pretty much every Wyze product because of their price and innovation.
I also cannot seem to gain full control on any of my Wyze products on any of the hubs yet, running Smartthings, Home assistant and Amazon, or at least not the automations I need. I am now reverting to running my Pan Cam from a Sonoff Micro so I can run an automation on a geofence for all the mobile devices in my household to be outside the geofence before switching on the Pan cam. Talking about hardware manupulation....
Great timing and awesome research and analysis Reed! Well done. I agree 100% with your analysis and it appears we have similar home automation journeys, also being a long time SmartThings user with the same concerns. Your vid convinced me to preorder the Home Assistant Blue hub to take my home automation hobby to the next level!
Hi, I have been using vera for about 8 years and it works great, In Mexico luxury houses are big and made of concrete and bricks, so sometimes I have to add 3 or four hubs, but Vera allows you to put salve hubs and wit that solution you can cover big areas. The UI is not that great, but you can use Roomie remote or Alexa and it works so good. Vera is compatible with 95% of the products on the market, at least with all that I have tested. There is a lot of information out there in case you need support. Customer Support is not that great, it takes days before they can solve a problem, but with the information that you can find on internet you can resolve almost all the issues.
Reed, Awesome video. I’ve been into home automation for the last 2 years and it’s been growing on me. In the past, I used just the echo hub and used some routines here and there, but since my email to you few weeks ago, I decided to go on eBay and get me smartthings. Didn’t mind paying the extra $30 (cuz it’s not available anywhere else) and boy I’m glad I did. I’m actually learning Python now and very interested in other languages too but now since you are a full stack yourself that motivates me even more! Great job sir and keep up the good work.
I’m interested in Hubitat in future but just not right now, like you said, I don’t want it to be a chore as I have a full time job that keeps me really busy
Hello, Very good comparison, and I agree with every words of you. I had used Smarthings V2 three years ago and I had changed to Openhab. That was the time that I had to choose between HA and OH and I lay down my vote to Openhab due to stability and better Zwave handling at this time although it was harder to config then Home Assistant. I'd like to suggest to check it now as OH3.0 is out and OH3.1 will be avaiable around 2021 March. New UI is much more user friendly and bulit in rule engine can be use without any programming skills. It is even better then Smartthings. You can use blocky if you have basic skills for example. So I would give my Vote to Openhab in 2021. If you would had asked my at early 2020 I would had given my vote to HA as well, but I think OH3.x will be the winner. As a background info development of the new UI was almost 2 yrs in the background.
I recently got a used 2nd gen Smartthings hub for £15!!! Had to email ST with model and serial number for the welcome code which was annoying. But now its up and running I love it, just wish it worked locally, and finding DTH was more streamlined. I get defeated every now and then, like when I got the £10 Lidl GU10 bulbs, took me all day sifting through forums to get them to work with ST. And am currently struggling to get my GLEDOPTO RGB-CCT controller to work with the 2id in ST. I wish I was technical enough to use home assistant. Love your videos! :)
Next iteration of this, I'd recommend you include the ISY &/or Polisy hubs/controllers from Universal Devices. My ISY has been performing flawlessly 24/7 for 8 years now. It never requires rebooting just to get it going again, comes back to life after sudden power outages (which are common in my area), and has awesome support. It can handle Z-Wave & Insteon (to name a couple), and a host of other more proprietary devices if you add the Polisy box. For example, I have 7 smart thermostats made by NuHeat that run my under-floor electric heat. (Shameless and uncompensated plug - these guys are awesome!) You could control those devices using their native app through the cloud, but my Polisy controls them directly without needing internet access, and integrates them into any other logic that I might fancy. Yep, these boys are a little more expensive than some of the others - but they are rock-solid pieces of machinery. I don't know where their motherboards are made, but the QC is top-notch.
Would love to see how you could some of the complicated Webcore processes into home assistant. Thanks for the video. Great Job. Love seeing the smart home community give shout outs to each other.
Hubitat is completely local, and Alexa is directly from the hub, not through Hubitat cloud, so everything except remote dashboards (local dashboards will still work) and cloud end points (local end points will work). And no updates will come, but the community can still develop smartapps
100% agree. I've found myself moving on a similar path. I'd already started with the ssd on HA, and now I've got the zigbee+zWave dongles and looking to remove smartthings. The smartthings app is so slow. I also use the Hue hub, i've had no issue with that so i'm not planning on removing it
I started with wink for simple things like bulbs and switches. Then I switched to hubitat, much faster a lot less issues and the community is great. I do a lot of simple automations and rule machine on there makes those easy. Also the interface is dated but you can spruce it up with skins, they are easy to find and simple to load. Makes it look a lot better.
I appreciate you coming out with this video right now. I'm currently right at the point you outlined. I'm using a Google Nest Audio in my living room and a couple of Nest minis in bedrooms and using them to control a few light strips, a couple of smart bulbs, a few smart plugs to control lamps,, and my Roku tv. I've got a couple of basic routines set up for when I come home or I'm leaving, or when I wake up or go to bed. Now I'm wanting to expand, but Hubitat seems a little too much for what I'm doing. SmartThings was the way I was headed until I discovered that SmartThings is in limbo for right now. I guess I'll just wait and see how all of that plays out.
Thanks for the info! I decided to go with HA and started second guessing my decision. But this video made me certain it's the right choice. What is the best hardware to turn Raspberry Pi into a hub? I went with RaspBee 2, but the compatibility list is not as long as you are saying. Is there a better option?
I started off with Smartthings and Alexa Guard. Both worked ok together but i wanted more. Thats when i found Home Assistant and I LOVE it. I'm not one for coding but with the help of their Discord I have a fully functioning smart home and alarm. The alarm is the part I am the most proud of as i dont pay a dime and it guards my home when im away. As i wanted to manually set and disarm the alarm it was hard to find one i like. Then I found Android MQTT Alarm Panel which works directly with Home Assistant. It has an alarm panel app that goes on almost any tablet including kindle fires(i have mine on a kindle in my living room and an acer android tablet in my bedroom). And to top it all off i will also display the front end or any other webpage you prefer. I personally dont like Home Assistants front end so i use AppDaemon/hadashboard. And to top off everything i love about the alarm panel the creator has a discord page where you can ask questions and get answer directly from him as well as get news on what upgrade he is working on next.
Hey Reed , I really loved this comparison! I run a full smartthings setup but I have a pi 4 model b laying around here somewhere . You have just made this week fun for me ! Thanks !
I have a couple year old Vera Lite and had another one before that. It does mostly operate locally however some device configuration requires you to authenticate to their corporate web / authentication services before being redirected back to your device. And at least in the past some functionality required a reverse SSH shell (device connects out to their servers via SSH and they can execute commands on your device.). I spent some time looking at alternatives recently (thank you for all the reviews you have!) and am sticking with it until it melts down. I'll probably either move away from Z-wave or fully move to Home Assistant (using it now as it has a nicer interface / mobile app than Mi Casa Verde) or something like Hubitat.
Happy new year! Please do an updated 2022 version of this great video. Very interested with how the Homey Pro stacks up, also does Smartthings still make sense in 2022 and how far has the Amazon Echo come? Will it "still" be the end of hubs, as some have suggested..?
right! I managers about 10 raspberry for several use, 3d Printing, monitoring, micro stations etc. I've spent hours on home assistant without find a way to use it easily...
Hello Reed. I run Home Assistant on a Pi4 and SSD. I used to have the same Canakit case as you have with a small fan which was fine after modding it to run slower on 5V. Just moved over to a lovely silent Flirc case and it hovers around 45-50c. Would highly recommend getting a Flirc case.
I use the Apple Homekit for my home automation and completely agree that the apple solution is too limiting. There is however other services such as Home+ 4 or Eve which allows for more detailed automatons for Homekit. I live in an apartment with no gas / all electric heating (single electric panels ) so I use the Home+ along with Eve smart plugs and Hue sensors to turn on rooms when the sensor is below / above a set temp along with other attributes such as only if someone is at home OR between set hours on a weekday.
I have a SST v2. Thinking of switching to another hub. Was looking at hubitat or home assistant to run more things local, faster, and more reliable. Idk. Just tinkering away. I think I just want GH to have more options and I would be happier. "Speaker companion" is a big one. I just can't seem to get home "security", my cameras, and the speakers to work right with automations. Tinkering gets frustrating and is very time consuming. Stupid hobbies! Lol
You didn’t mention the Insteon hub. Because the Insteon hub uses what they call dual band (RF + dual phase), it makes the system highly reliable, even in areas that not close to the hub. The reason why some home automation enthusiast don’t like the Insteon system is because you must use it’s own devices as it’s protocol works mostly within the Insteon universe. However, there are many many devices available within Insteon. So many, that the average user would not need anything else. But there is compatibility with some devices outside Insteon such as Amazon Alexa and HomeKit integration (with an added device). If you need to use devices across many different protocols such as Z wave, Echo, Sonos, ring etc. you can upgrade to an ISY hub which likely has more broad integrations than any hub device mentioned in this video.
I may try Home Assistant. I've handwritten basic, html, css and other small code jobs over the last 40 years, so if my head is still working ok, I may see what I can do. I have lots of time as I am retired and isolated. Thanks for the overview.
Hey Dave you will probably be fine figuring out Home Assistant if you’ve done any type of HTML. Figuring out Home Assistant requires searching online and following the help from the community when you run into something. So if you have the time it’s a lot of fun.
@@SmartHomeSolver My next step is to decide if this is something I really need. I'm happy with what I have so far, but I like to tinker. I don't want timed lights as my lights going on and off is the method that the neighbors know that I am still alive. :) I also use a Wyze door sensor and IFTTT to update Google Sheets that is available for view. To see that, go to my last name dot com and look for Dave's Activity at the top.
Home Assistant is not easy even though they've been trying to make things a little easier lately. On the other hand, there is a large community and you can always find someone/some tutorial to guide you through installation. If you have time on your hands, then you should definitely check it out. Its automations are just amazingly powerful, well for someone coming from the Amazon Alexa routines ;-)
I’m trying to switch from Smart Things to Home Kit, but I’m not enjoying it since there are so many limitations. I have a pi running Hassio but it tends to get to busy and hard to keep up with. Since I’m an Apple fan I’m hopeful they will devote more to home automation. I use EWeLink and IFTTT a lot but both require subscription and user fees. I’ve developed a product that uses a ring doorbell to open and it uses both EWeLink and IFTTT. But would love to have it more automated. Good video I appreciate your thoughts and you do an awesome job describing the facts and explaining! Thank you!
Thanks John! I feel you about HomeKit. I’ve tried to switch over to it before but the limitations held me back as well. I wish Apple would show it some more love because I would use it exclusively.
Fair assessment across the board. Home Assistant has definitely improved over time and I probably would go for it if I had to do all over again. I went with Homeseer a while back because I didn't want a light switch issue to be a severity 1 event with the family. :-)
I'm using Pimatic. It is so stable and easy to use. Requires no resources. It can be run on the old pies. But sadly development have halted a lot in the past year. It's the ideal solution, if only more developers were using it, as it is easy for even novice people to setup and run. It is very capable of integration with almost all platforms like home assistant, and no scripts required. Just if this then that, with limitless if conditions.
Just by looking at the first table with labels going "Hub A-G" (before looking at the timeline or anything else) figured that B was going to be Hubitat and C - Home Assistant :D
I prefer IoBroker on a Pi because simple, powerful and module based. In my opinion just easier to setup and configure. Openhab 3 was just released. Maybe this will be the future. ObenHab 3 >< IoBroker > HomeAssistant > Homekit
HomeKit with HomeBridge score 5/5 compatibility. HomeKit is clearly 5/5 Long Term. HomeKit have automation power but yeah is complicated. If Home Assistant is 30, HomeKit can equal 30 for me.
You could always link your Smartthings in Home Assistant as long as you've made your instance accessible remotely, its something I'm doing as it was able to get my Zigbee devices. I tried a Conbee II, but failed to get that working well, and so far I've been able to control my Zigbee devices just fine in Home Assistant.
Hey! I've been watching your videos for the last two weeks but my main question for starting a smart home in 2021 is: Should I go for Alexa or Google Home? What are the pros and cons of each platform going into 2021? I want basic automation like routines, couple of motion sensors and maybe door sensors, does motion sensors work to trigger Google Home Routines?
I’m going to be doing a more in-depth video on Alexa vs Google soon. I was going to do it in 2020 but I was waiting for Google to update their routines. They haven’t yet so it’s time I pulled the trigger on that video. If you want automation with routines then go with Alexa.
I recently started using Alexa after using Google Home exclusively for 2 years when I got the Ring system (as it works only with Alexa). I should have used Alexa sooner. It's light years ahead of Google when it comes to the Smart home and automation. However, I still like Google's hardware and assistant better than Alexa.
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #1 НАЧАЛО ПУТЕШЕСТВИЯ [Новый сезон] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/380Q7gLWGvk/mqdefault.jpg)
Here’s a link to the comparison table: bit.ly/3ba9o0p
I wish there was a perfect hub but each has pros and cons. What’s running your smart home right now?
SmartThings, but I've been thinking about switching to home assistant for more features
@Evan Ackert yeah that could be good to do when I move into our house. I’ll have wiring for poe cameras so I’m looking forward to finding the best.
@Evan Ackert security systems video could be good too.
@Evan Ackert well it’s still going to be a few months until I’m in my house and from there hopefully I can get to it soon.
Home Assistant!! Home Assistant!! Home Assistant!!
*I like the old style Echo Dot because it's small also **Newest.Technology**, gives out decent sound and doesn't take up a lot of shelf space if you want to put it on beam in the workshop or shed.*
ONE OF US! ONE OF US!
I have a lot of your videos I need to watch to get up to speed!
Welcome to the club, we got t-shirts! (customizable of course)
Your videos are a large part of the reason I am now migrating to home assistant! The learning curve was very very steep, but I'm amazed by what it can do. Fully agree with this video's statement that I'm spending a lot of time on it. A bit concerned about home assistants future plans for supporting z-wave (with the sole developer being absent).
Great video as always, Reid! I was actually wondering "what might Rob say/think IF he saw this video?" while watching this video on my Android ShieldTV Pro. 😃 I am in the same boat - long time SmartThings user (starting with their version 1 on Kickstarter) but around Thanksgiving realized new ST hubs were nowhere to be found when I was looking to help a friend get started on his home automation journey and looking to migrate permanently to HA at home. This video helps fill in the gaps - interestingly though, looks like Aeotec's ST hub is not yet available for purchase in US? Maybe "formal" announcement at CES 2021? 😉
@@SmartHomeSolver I have a similar home assistant setup but with a m.2 ssd module bolted to the bottom of my Pi and using a PoE hat so I can just plug in a single Ethernet cable and it’s a great hub that runs really fast
The criticism of Home Assistant is very valid. It's not quite fully plug and play, but if you can get past the initial learning curve, it is so rewarding.
I am so incredibly happy that you started discussing home assistant!!
This video is amazing. Beautifully shot, and great advice. Your photography skills make me sick. Thanks for the shout out dude. ❤️
I appreciate it Paul! Your hip thrusts are legendary.
You two need to do a collab
@@SmartHomeSolver amazing video thanks for it now I know which hub I should get
@@SmartHomeSolver Why you guys have never tried the future home hub. It’s great, you’d ditch the other hubs once you use it. Waiting for a review
You made the right decision. Home Assistant! Home Assistant! HOME ASSISTANT!!!
OOOOOOOOOOHH THE HOME ASSISTANT!
Switching all my stuff over to home assistant on a jetson nano from smart things right now. So much better already.
Welcome to the Home Assistant community. It can sometimes be a struggle, but it gives so much joy it definitely is worth the time and efforts 🙂
Loved seeing Hibbert’s Hip Thrust, and I love y’all’s banter with each other!
Could you do a whole beginners setup video for home assistant?
Agreed, homeassistant isnt too bad if there are video tutorials available
@@danialbucy6829 I recently installed Home Assistant in a local server to connect the ring camera to google hub, I don't think it is easy for the normal user to use it, I am a Full Stack Software Developer and I it was a little challenging to me, also I had to write code something that the normal user will not do.
like the features, setup was difficult for some of my devices (August Door lock, ua-cam.com/users/postUgkxhB5YOMNj04GuoAosExygP4cH-dKeb4aB Bose speaker)... but all switches and outlets (5), thermostat, tankless water heater. Unfortunately all I can do is turn on/off Bose. It doesn't support volume or changing channels, but I believe that is due to the particular speaker I have.... Worth getting if you already have other devices to use it with... I don't sit around and ask Alexa questions much so that doesn't really matter to me....
Local ISP went out last night, for my whole area. I had no idea until someone told me this morning. All smarthome routines and automations continued as usual. Hubitat for speed, reliability, and little to no maintenance once it's set up.
I agree. And if you already have ST then like Reed is doing, use it on the side to complete the loop on compatible devices. That's my plan once I buy one.
"You're giving me the it's not you it's me routine? I invented the it's not you it's me!"
-George Costanza
Just switched from HomeSeer to Home Assistant and couldn't be happier.
I think in the past 3 months I've seen 90% of all your videos. My new home is going to mimic your home set up very closely. One of the best channels I've subscribed to.
I haven't gotten a hub yet, but I've been leaning towards getting smartthings. Up to now I've been doing everything via IFTTT or via Alexa routines. Watching this video has helped me decide smartthings is the best option for me. I like Homa Assistant but it seems like a huge time investment. (BTW everytime I hear someone say Home Assistant, I hear Paul saying it in my head.)
Haha yeah Zigbee and Home Assistant are trigger words for Pauls voice going into my head. Glad to hear you found this video helpful!
Oh the Zigbee 😁
Corporate Greed!
I would go with hubitat over smartthings. I've just moved from smartthings to hubitat mainly because I was losing internet connection every few weeks so lost control of all the lighting in my house which doesn't happen with hubitat as it's all locally controlled
If you have some spare time and wanna dip your toes in before you decide, homeassistant also runs on any pc I think. If you like it you can get for example a pi and of not then smart things =)
But he warned, that running without internet / cloud is way more important than one would think. It's not often, but extremely annoying if the internet fails.
I’m excited to see more home assistant content as I wish to get into it, and your delivery is what I like
I’m excited to see you feature HA. I find your channel to be one of the best for beginners and non-techy people. I got talked into HA by Reddit and while I know it will be able to do what I want, I feel totally lost! All the time! I got it set up fine w/ tutorials but I didn’t have a lot of devices to start with and I just want simple explainers on how to integrate and control different types of devices properly (zigbee and zwave switches, sensors, bulbs, as well as speakers and cameras, smart washer/dryer, TV) and start simple automations. Oh, and also the UI. I don’t understand it and don’t know how to customize it.
I know the info is out there but it’s all so dense and feels like a slog and a huge time commitment to sit down and read it with my devices at hand; if you search reddit or forums for the terms you want you get very advanced stuff or language that’s confusing to non-techy people. Video tutorials to follow along are tue easiest way to “get doing” and then I can learn by doing!
Since you are getting more familiar with it, i’s love for you to fill that gap of the ultra-beginner explainers and tutorials!
Will you be making a video on how to setup Home Assistant?
Excellent video, my new go to when people ask for a comparison! 👌
OH MY GOD!! This is the video I NEEDED!! I was just looking into getting a hub but have no idea which direction to go!! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!!
Nice review. I migrated recently from Athom's Homey towards Home Assistant and I must say I like both. Homey has integrations with a lot of 3rd party vendors and has multiple solutions for Hue for example (use it with or without Hue Bridge) and it has almost all protocols available (Z-wave, IR, RF, BT and Zigbee). It is quite user friendly as well. Home Assistant on the other hand is complicated at first (even for someone with an IT background), but when you are used to it, it's great. If you combine it with Node-Red you get endless possibilities for automation.
was waiting for this video, thanks. just wanna add on that i'm a developer as well, but had a really big pain with home assistant. started on an rpi4, then bought a mini pc to host on as a vm, actually through a good from "The Hook Up", and while that worked, i've just had so many other issues with home assistant, such as stability, updates, and remaining active. i bought a used smartThings hub, and may go to hubitat, but i've put a lot of time and effort into home assistant to run into issues that require HOURS of my time.
that said, i did enjoy using the wyze apps that people created to natively use wyze sensors or wyze bulbs in HA. the potential is amazing, but the ease of use/accessibility was almost nonexistant to me.
I’m really similar to you. Coming from a dev background as well, I especially hate the decision to use yaml over XML or json. Then on top of that, templating for more advanced scripting seems so archaic - other platforms are JS driven or at least using some language with more modern syntax while templating in home assistant seems like an old batch script littered with special characters and parameter stand ins.
@@geoken2 yeah if it was xml or json i might have had more encouragement, but it was just so much work. there was a lot of headaches with setting up systems and all. the initial setup wasn't too bad, it's everything afterwards that made it difficult lol.
Wow, nice graphs, makes it so easy and fast to compare! Would be cool to get a comparison split screen in the end.
I really like the charts you add for each device in your recent videos, it makes things easier to understand.
One important local one you missed is OpenHab, I have both openhab and hassio running and find almost everything far easier and faster in OpenHab. You also get free access to their remote access bridge.
The habpannel is a way to have pretty amazing UI customised for both mobile and desktop. I use the paper UI to setup all my devices, while I wish there was an easier was to batch add devices it's still simple but just repetitive.
Agree, I absolutely love OpenHab! Especially the new version 3 is just amazing. Only thing that isn't nice is the app, but I don't use it for more than notifications so I don't care.
@@PyxelFox I have to spin up a VM and install openhab 3, just had a look at it compared to 2.x and seems a lot more consolidated.
I'm Happy That Smart Home Solver is Back for 2021. 😄😊
Happy New Year Reed. 🎆🎉🎊🥳
Thanks Jeremy! Happy New Year to you as well!
@@SmartHomeSolver Thank You Reed. ❤
I absolutely love this channel. It’s over the top descriptive and easy to follow for the average smart home user. I have recommended this channel to many of people with awesome feedbacks. #smarthomestrong!
Great and accurate review. I started with X10 and Homeseeer 15 years ago, moved to smartthings, then to Vera, quickly back to Smartthings which I still run but have mainly used HomeAssistant for past two years alongside ST. I'm not mega techy and your point about Home Automation becoming a chore is so true. The problem is it's also a drug, often not a fulfilling one.
Wow! I just Started out with Home Assistant and it's so good to see it score the Best. I would really like a full tutorial on it.
I currently use SmartThings as my sole hub, but also use Alexa routines and Tasker tasks to automate various things. I just recently decided to take the dive into Home Assistant. I'm really intimidated by it, but the power, speed, and freedom it offers is just too tempting to say "no" to. Fortunately, I can take my time and switch over at whatever pace I need to, as all of my essential automation are already in-place through SmartThings, Alexa, and Tasker. There's no real rush. Oh, I've also ordered an Echo 4, so I can have some basic voice control even if my internet goes out - I know it's pretty barebones though.
What about homey? Love to hear your thoughts on it.
Welcome to the club! oooohhh Home Assistant :) Take a look into setting up HA on a NUC or similar in virtualbox. Gives you the flexibility of running other things on a windows based machine, running your HA in VB and taking images in case you mess up (and not just snapshots through HA), running multiple VMs and so much more. Rpi has the benefit of the cost and low power but comes with some cons. Conbee II works great for your zigbee needs. Take your time, learn and you will find that it will be worth it. You will never want to go back to anything else. Cheers!
I wanna move from smartthings, but having to add a solid state drive and rasbery pi and this and that and script this to do this, is making me not want to. I want easy to use, I can buy it and not need to pay for a feature and something everyone can use, so I can recommend to friends and family with 100% of them arnt tech gurus (like my parents) and don't fully understand what a smart home is about yet. I don't think most people are going to get on board with this smart home stuff if it seems too hard and difficult to understand. Smartthings still seems like it's the best and easiest choice for me with just being simple, even if it has a discontinued line. Great video again! More please
Watching yours and Dr Zzs video got me into home automation and I jumped full force into home assistant. I got a Z-wave/Zigbee dongle and now it connects to 90% of the stuff in my house. I highly suggest Dr Zzs for home assistant setup videos, anytime I have a problem with it I go right to his channel first. Then it’s back here for reviews and automation ideas.
Got my smartthings hub for 20 bucks. Controlling hue bulbs without having to buy a hue bridge. That's brilliant
I used Vera years ago and because the lack of Alexa and Google Home support I dropped them because they had no clear line to support either. I switched to Samsung Smart Things. It worked when I had a handful of problems, but due to zigbee bulbs randomly turning on/off at 3am I'm dumping Smarthings for 100% local control Hubitat. I hope it works better in my new house!
I miss the Homey from Athom. I use it for my own house. Great video!
That's definitely a good alternative to SmartThings!
You are correct in the hubs selection decides how ppls collect their lives, so technically you can proceed anything smartly enough.
If you’re using Home Assistant, I recommend the Argon One M.2 case. It has a beautiful metal build, a slot for an M.2 SSD, and it’s only $25
Oh sweet I’ll have to check that out. I do need a better solution for the dangling SSD drive right now.
I can see a Paul's fan here. OH THE ZIGBEE!! As always great video, Thanks I was looking for this topic.
I've stated using home assistent a little over a year ago. Before that time I had 8 different apps for all my different products. I first ran home assistent on a raspberry pi 3b. But I've started using it in a Unraid VM awhile ago. I'm using Unraid now because I can use it for torrent downloading and media streaming. It has been quite a challenge to start with home assistent but I had a lot of spare time because of covid. Pretty happy with my current setup and I can always expand anything I want.
Thank you for this video.
I'm searching for how to automate my smart devices where I can add a lot of conditions.
I think Home Assistant is the answer.
Nice review Reed. You did an excellent and concise overview of the major hubs. This is why you are the Smart Home King! 👏
What about Fibaro Home Center 3?
Being an Apple ecosystem, my first choice was HomeKit but Home Assistant is the one. I dropping the big $$ on the Blue. It has extra power over a Pi to include other applications.
I initially stated with Hubitat, but have moved to Home Assistant. I have integrated my Hubitat into HA so I do not have to re-discover all of my current devices. I will continue to work with HA to get all of my dashboards tightened and looking good.
Would've loved to see homey in this comparison, I personally love it.
I agree!
Not sold (or likely supported) anywhere in North America so it isn't something that he is going to be able to compare.
I'm not a developer but I have been working in IT for 25+ years and I 100% agree with you. I got my first Rasberry PI 4, installed Home Assistant on it, have quite of few things working on it, but it's very frustrating when I cannot figure something out and typically the documentation is somewhat decent if you can fill in the missing components on what is documented. I've spent numerous hours working with it and still feel like I'm kind of lost. I agree, if automation becomes more of a chore trying to connect the dots between devices then it's not really worth it. I'm sure there are tons of people out there where this comes naturally to them. I'm not that person and having come from a Wink Hub that worked great when it did work to using IFFT or Goolge Home. I also bought the hubitat thats still in the box. I seek to find something that's easy to integrate and would wish that Wyze would be come more compatible with hubs. We are moving into a new house and I have bought pretty much every Wyze product because of their price and innovation.
I also cannot seem to gain full control on any
of my Wyze products on any of the hubs yet, running Smartthings, Home assistant and Amazon, or at least not the automations I need. I am now reverting to running my Pan Cam from a Sonoff Micro so I can run an automation on a geofence for all the mobile devices in my household to be outside the geofence before switching on the Pan cam. Talking about hardware manupulation....
Great timing and awesome research and analysis Reed! Well done. I agree 100% with your analysis and it appears we have similar home automation journeys, also being a long time SmartThings user with the same concerns. Your vid convinced me to preorder the Home Assistant Blue hub to take my home automation hobby to the next level!
Great video! Bought the CanaKit and SSD. Had HA up and running in a hour and haven't looked back!
As always, nice video Reed.
I believe the Hubitat speed should be considered a bit faster though.
Hi, I have been using vera for about 8 years and it works great, In Mexico luxury houses are big and made of concrete and bricks, so sometimes I have to add 3 or four hubs, but Vera allows you to put salve hubs and wit that solution you can cover big areas. The UI is not that great, but you can use Roomie remote or Alexa and it works so good. Vera is compatible with 95% of the products on the market, at least with all that I have tested. There is a lot of information out there in case you need support. Customer Support is not that great, it takes days before they can solve a problem, but with the information that you can find on internet you can resolve almost all the issues.
Reed,
Awesome video. I’ve been into home automation for the last 2 years and it’s been growing on me. In the past, I used just the echo hub and used some routines here and there, but since my email to you few weeks ago, I decided to go on eBay and get me smartthings. Didn’t mind paying the extra $30 (cuz it’s not available anywhere else) and boy I’m glad I did. I’m actually learning Python now and very interested in other languages too but now since you are a full stack yourself that motivates me even more! Great job sir and keep up the good work.
I’m interested in Hubitat in future but just not right now, like you said, I don’t want it to be a chore as I have a full time job that keeps me really busy
I too have disconnected my ST in the last two weeks and migrated to HA. Learning curve is steep, but worth it!
I don't know what you're saying! I am so out of touch with techy stuff. But if i did know, you did a great job on comparisons.
I would like to hear more about Aeotec.
Keep on and move along...
Moved from ST to HA, couldn't be happier.
Thanks a lot! How about a video for motion sensors comparison in 2021?
Hello, Very good comparison, and I agree with every words of you. I had used Smarthings V2 three years ago and I had changed to Openhab. That was the time that I had to choose between HA and OH and I lay down my vote to Openhab due to stability and better Zwave handling at this time although it was harder to config then Home Assistant. I'd like to suggest to check it now as OH3.0 is out and OH3.1 will be avaiable around 2021 March. New UI is much more user friendly and bulit in rule engine can be use without any programming skills. It is even better then Smartthings. You can use blocky if you have basic skills for example. So I would give my Vote to Openhab in 2021. If you would had asked my at early 2020 I would had given my vote to HA as well, but I think OH3.x will be the winner. As a background info development of the new UI was almost 2 yrs in the background.
I recently got a used 2nd gen Smartthings hub for £15!!! Had to email ST with model and serial number for the welcome code which was annoying. But now its up and running I love it, just wish it worked locally, and finding DTH was more streamlined.
I get defeated every now and then, like when I got the £10 Lidl GU10 bulbs, took me all day sifting through forums to get them to work with ST. And am currently struggling to get my GLEDOPTO RGB-CCT controller to work with the 2id in ST.
I wish I was technical enough to use home assistant.
Love your videos! :)
Next iteration of this, I'd recommend you include the ISY &/or Polisy hubs/controllers from Universal Devices. My ISY has been performing flawlessly 24/7 for 8 years now. It never requires rebooting just to get it going again, comes back to life after sudden power outages (which are common in my area), and has awesome support. It can handle Z-Wave & Insteon (to name a couple), and a host of other more proprietary devices if you add the Polisy box. For example, I have 7 smart thermostats made by NuHeat that run my under-floor electric heat. (Shameless and uncompensated plug - these guys are awesome!) You could control those devices using their native app through the cloud, but my Polisy controls them directly without needing internet access, and integrates them into any other logic that I might fancy.
Yep, these boys are a little more expensive than some of the others - but they are rock-solid pieces of machinery. I don't know where their motherboards are made, but the QC is top-notch.
Would love to see how you could some of the complicated Webcore processes into home assistant. Thanks for the video. Great Job. Love seeing the smart home community give shout outs to each other.
You should do an updated smart hub video. Lots have changed with each of these in two years!!
Hubitat is completely local, and Alexa is directly from the hub, not through Hubitat cloud, so everything except remote dashboards (local dashboards will still work) and cloud end points (local end points will work). And no updates will come, but the community can still develop smartapps
I use Openhab.
Me too didn't even get a mention
100% agree. I've found myself moving on a similar path. I'd already started with the ssd on HA, and now I've got the zigbee+zWave dongles and looking to remove smartthings. The smartthings app is so slow. I also use the Hue hub, i've had no issue with that so i'm not planning on removing it
I started with wink for simple things like bulbs and switches. Then I switched to hubitat, much faster a lot less issues and the community is great. I do a lot of simple automations and rule machine on there makes those easy. Also the interface is dated but you can spruce it up with skins, they are easy to find and simple to load. Makes it look a lot better.
I’m still using Wink mostly because I don’t want to migrate to another hub. I have been replacing the Zwave stuff with Wi-Fi .
I appreciate you coming out with this video right now. I'm currently right at the point you outlined. I'm using a Google Nest Audio in my living room and a couple of Nest minis in bedrooms and using them to control a few light strips, a couple of smart bulbs, a few smart plugs to control lamps,, and my Roku tv. I've got a couple of basic routines set up for when I come home or I'm leaving, or when I wake up or go to bed. Now I'm wanting to expand, but Hubitat seems a little too much for what I'm doing. SmartThings was the way I was headed until I discovered that SmartThings is in limbo for right now. I guess I'll just wait and see how all of that plays out.
u in the future home assistant = heaven
Thanks for the info! I decided to go with HA and started second guessing my decision. But this video made me certain it's the right choice. What is the best hardware to turn Raspberry Pi into a hub? I went with RaspBee 2, but the compatibility list is not as long as you are saying. Is there a better option?
I still hope to see the Hibbert Hipshake for Domoticz, my hub of choice.
Hibbert hipshake hahaha
I started off with Smartthings and Alexa Guard. Both worked ok together but i wanted more. Thats when i found Home Assistant and I LOVE it. I'm not one for coding but with the help of their Discord I have a fully functioning smart home and alarm. The alarm is the part I am the most proud of as i dont pay a dime and it guards my home when im away. As i wanted to manually set and disarm the alarm it was hard to find one i like. Then I found Android MQTT Alarm Panel which works directly with Home Assistant. It has an alarm panel app that goes on almost any tablet including kindle fires(i have mine on a kindle in my living room and an acer android tablet in my bedroom). And to top it all off i will also display the front end or any other webpage you prefer. I personally dont like Home Assistants front end so i use AppDaemon/hadashboard. And to top off everything i love about the alarm panel the creator has a discord page where you can ask questions and get answer directly from him as well as get news on what upgrade he is working on next.
The Universal Devices Polisy (formerly ISY-994i) is the way to go. Most powerful automations and no cloud required.
Hey Reed , I really loved this comparison! I run a full smartthings setup but I have a pi 4 model b laying around here somewhere . You have just made this week fun for me ! Thanks !
Glad to hear you loved the comparison! Awesome, well have fun!
Install Home Assistant on your Pi, you won't regret it. Automations are the bomb !
I have a couple year old Vera Lite and had another one before that. It does mostly operate locally however some device configuration requires you to authenticate to their corporate web / authentication services before being redirected back to your device. And at least in the past some functionality required a reverse SSH shell (device connects out to their servers via SSH and they can execute commands on your device.). I spent some time looking at alternatives recently (thank you for all the reviews you have!) and am sticking with it until it melts down. I'll probably either move away from Z-wave or fully move to Home Assistant (using it now as it has a nicer interface / mobile app than Mi Casa Verde) or something like Hubitat.
Happy new year! Please do an updated 2022 version of this great video. Very interested with how the Homey Pro stacks up, also does Smartthings still make sense in 2022 and how far has the Amazon Echo come? Will it "still" be the end of hubs, as some have suggested..?
right! I managers about 10 raspberry for several use, 3d Printing, monitoring, micro stations etc. I've spent hours on home assistant without find a way to use it easily...
Hello Reed. I run Home Assistant on a Pi4 and SSD. I used to have the same Canakit case as you have with a small fan which was fine after modding it to run slower on 5V. Just moved over to a lovely silent Flirc case and it hovers around 45-50c. Would highly recommend getting a Flirc case.
I use the Apple Homekit for my home automation and completely agree that the apple solution is too limiting. There is however other services such as Home+ 4 or Eve which allows for more detailed automatons for Homekit. I live in an apartment with no gas / all electric heating (single electric panels ) so I use the Home+ along with Eve smart plugs and Hue sensors to turn on rooms when the sensor is below / above a set temp along with other attributes such as only if someone is at home OR between set hours on a weekday.
I have a SST v2. Thinking of switching to another hub. Was looking at hubitat or home assistant to run more things local, faster, and more reliable. Idk. Just tinkering away. I think I just want GH to have more options and I would be happier. "Speaker companion" is a big one. I just can't seem to get home "security", my cameras, and the speakers to work right with automations. Tinkering gets frustrating and is very time consuming. Stupid hobbies! Lol
Bro, this is one of the best videos I've seen on your channel❤️❤️❤️
You didn’t mention the Insteon hub. Because the Insteon hub uses what they call dual band (RF + dual phase), it makes the system highly reliable, even in areas that not close to the hub. The reason why some home automation enthusiast don’t like the Insteon system is because you must use it’s own devices as it’s protocol works mostly within the Insteon universe. However, there are many many devices available within Insteon. So many, that the average user would not need anything else. But there is compatibility with some devices outside Insteon such as Amazon Alexa and HomeKit integration (with an added device). If you need to use devices across many different protocols such as Z wave, Echo, Sonos, ring etc. you can upgrade to an ISY hub which likely has more broad integrations than any hub device mentioned in this video.
I may try Home Assistant. I've handwritten basic, html, css and other small code jobs over the last 40 years, so if my head is still working ok, I may see what I can do. I have lots of time as I am retired and isolated. Thanks for the overview.
Reed says that HA is easy to use. Believe me from what I have read it is not. Beware
Hey Dave you will probably be fine figuring out Home Assistant if you’ve done any type of HTML. Figuring out Home Assistant requires searching online and following the help from the community when you run into something. So if you have the time it’s a lot of fun.
@@SmartHomeSolver My next step is to decide if this is something I really need. I'm happy with what I have so far, but I like to tinker.
I don't want timed lights as my lights going on and off is the method that the neighbors know that I am still alive. :)
I also use a Wyze door sensor and IFTTT to update Google Sheets that is available for view. To see that, go to my last name dot com and look for Dave's Activity at the top.
Home Assistant is not easy even though they've been trying to make things a little easier lately.
On the other hand, there is a large community and you can always find someone/some tutorial to guide you through installation.
If you have time on your hands, then you should definitely check it out.
Its automations are just amazingly powerful, well for someone coming from the Amazon Alexa routines ;-)
I’m trying to switch from Smart Things to Home Kit, but I’m not enjoying it since there are so many limitations. I have a pi running Hassio but it tends to get to busy and hard to keep up with. Since I’m an Apple fan I’m hopeful they will devote more to home automation. I use EWeLink and IFTTT a lot but both require subscription and user fees. I’ve developed a product that uses a ring doorbell to open and it uses both EWeLink and IFTTT. But would love to have it more automated. Good video I appreciate your thoughts and you do an awesome job describing the facts and explaining! Thank you!
Thanks John! I feel you about HomeKit. I’ve tried to switch over to it before but the limitations held me back as well. I wish Apple would show it some more love because I would use it exclusively.
Man...you're awsome! Many thanks for your nice and full of info videos :)
SmartThings is where it’s at for me. Love the UI. Aotech have the ‘identical’ SmartThings hub.
Fair assessment across the board. Home Assistant has definitely improved over time and I probably would go for it if I had to do all over again. I went with Homeseer a while back because I didn't want a light switch issue to be a severity 1 event with the family. :-)
Lol love the Paul Camo I was thinking of that as soon as you said Home assistant !
Have you tried OpenHAB? I found it easier to use than home assistant.
I'm using Pimatic. It is so stable and easy to use. Requires no resources. It can be run on the old pies. But sadly development have halted a lot in the past year. It's the ideal solution, if only more developers were using it, as it is easy for even novice people to setup and run. It is very capable of integration with almost all platforms like home assistant, and no scripts required. Just if this then that, with limitless if conditions.
Just by looking at the first table with labels going "Hub A-G" (before looking at the timeline or anything else) figured that B was going to be Hubitat and C - Home Assistant :D
Great video @smart home solver! What Pi you using with SSD? Can you recommend a guide?
I prefer IoBroker on a Pi because simple, powerful and module based. In my opinion just easier to setup and configure. Openhab 3 was just released. Maybe this will be the future. ObenHab 3 >< IoBroker > HomeAssistant > Homekit
HomeKit with HomeBridge score 5/5 compatibility. HomeKit is clearly 5/5 Long Term. HomeKit have automation power but yeah is complicated. If Home Assistant is 30, HomeKit can equal 30 for me.
Double Like! Thanks Reed!!! Love the channel and the advise!
You could always link your Smartthings in Home Assistant as long as you've made your instance accessible remotely, its something I'm doing as it was able to get my Zigbee devices. I tried a Conbee II, but failed to get that working well, and so far I've been able to control my Zigbee devices just fine in Home Assistant.
Hey! I've been watching your videos for the last two weeks but my main question for starting a smart home in 2021 is: Should I go for Alexa or Google Home? What are the pros and cons of each platform going into 2021? I want basic automation like routines, couple of motion sensors and maybe door sensors, does motion sensors work to trigger Google Home Routines?
I’m going to be doing a more in-depth video on Alexa vs Google soon. I was going to do it in 2020 but I was waiting for Google to update their routines. They haven’t yet so it’s time I pulled the trigger on that video. If you want automation with routines then go with Alexa.
I recently started using Alexa after using Google Home exclusively for 2 years when I got the Ring system (as it works only with Alexa). I should have used Alexa sooner. It's light years ahead of Google when it comes to the Smart home and automation. However, I still like Google's hardware and assistant better than Alexa.