This post can be useful for someone, who is considering a change of hub J
I love home automation and tent to try always new devices/hubs. First of all, I have to say I’m very positive about Homey. It can provide full automation and integration without the necessity of technical knowledge. I am using it for almost 2 years and everything works with only some minor issues.
From my curiosity, I decided to test Hubitat C7 Hub. I bought it new for 110€, which is compared to Homey, very positive price. I was surprised with size of the Hub, smaller than a cigarettes pack J. After initial test I was quite disappointed by the user interface and the way how to deal with devices, drivers, apps… I turned the Hub off and continued to use Homey. But then, I experienced internet outage for over a day and I wasn’t able to access Homey because of it. Homey started to have also problems with wifi connectivity and this kicked myself to give to Hubitat second try (Its fully local solution without need of internet access with cable LAN connectivity).
Step by step I was moving devices to Hubitat. I was very surprised, once you learn how to use it, how fast and effective you can be. Rule Machine is providing endless possibilities for “flows” logic to be designed. This way, I was able to replace for e.g. 5 flows in Homey with one logic defined in RM. No timers, countdowns etc needed, because it’s included already in rule machine. Logical conditional structures enable to make complex “flows” in one place. I started with in my case more complex logic – heating. If this will work in HE, I will be able to do everything else. So far, it seems to work perfectly, changing heating plans according to presence, controlling heating zones, using various temp sensors etc. Then I moved to other devices and now Im almost 80% done with migration (70 devices so far).
Zigbee and zwave connectivity: another positive surprise so far is zigbee and zwave performance. Compared to Homey, response is much faster, no problem with reception/range so far. Zigbee is providing also group control functionality – all devices from group reacts immediately at once to commands. Also logging is available, so you can see what is happening in hub. Response to triggers is much faster than on Homey (e.g. it took 2-3 seconds to turn zigbee light on based on wifi switch status in Homey, in Hubitat its instant). Time will show how stable connections will be and whether device drops (especially zigbee battery devices) will occur.
User interface: as already mentioned, this is more “technical” compared to Homey or Fibaro. However, once you get used to it, its pretty fast and from usability perspective (when defining rules and conditions for home automation) much better. One downside is, direct device control without creating of dashboards. You need to either create dashboards to access devices and control them, or to access them directly over “technical interface” which is not so comfortable for direct control. My ambition is to have basic controls available over the dashboards, rest should be automated or controlled over remotes/buttons if needed.
To sum it up, I’m very surprised how such a small device can perform. There is still some work to be done to fully replace Homey, but I’m very positive that with big community knowledge it should be feasible.
Let me know if you are interested in more detailed info, or specific topic on HE.
I should try it myself or read more about it to see what is supported. I have a mixture of devices. I am using HA with its benefits right now but homey is also doing its thing right now. Still searching for the best (as possible) system. They all have their pros and cons.
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