An extra hub?

If they did fold I'd just pickup the next shiney thing I came across.

Agreed, while I "could" build my own Alexa skill and all that kind of stuff... why would I want to? I'd move on to the new latest and greatest. I wouldn't try to force my HE to work forever.

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It depends on what you want to accomplish for your home automation.

You invest a certain amount of money for your devices and system and get things working the way you want - why should you have to change that just because a company went away/changed direction/got bought out?

Of course to your point trying to keep the existing system functioning by hacking custom apps/drivers etc is not something people might not want to spend time on especially if something newer fills the need better with less work.

A compromise solution would be to run some sort of "meta" controller that allowed you to incorporate both old and newer system(s) and provide a standardized method of control across each. This is one of the main reasons why I use Node-RED with HE.

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The only way that you could write another version of the Google, Amazon or IFTTT integration is to stand up your own cloud server to redirect the traffic to your hub. That's how the messages from Amazon and Google get to your hub...via the Hubitat cloud servers. That's why you don't have to expose anything on your hub directly to the internet. So, someone would have to pay for that setup or each user would have to stand up their own, including all the Oauth and account verification services that each requires. It's not just figuring out the code in the Amazon or Google cloud. There's a lot more that goes into them.

Using any cloud service carries potential risks. Terms/API's can change, services can be cancelled etc etc. Also the data collection/privacy (especially for those of us in the US) is problematic as well.

In my setup my Alexa service is a "convenience" function not a "core" one. If it went away I would not miss much and everything would continue to function.

It all depends on how you've set things up and what your goals/expectations are. I do not really "trust" anything outside of my home devices and local network..

I don't trust anything in my network. I treat my wife's stuff like an active attacker. She gets soooo many viruses on her computer from all the stupid games she plays.

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Excellent point!

It appears that you would be better of with viruses that using smartthings

Same here, except mine is all original AlertMe gear here in the UK. They're great devices and being able to develop my own drivers for them has been great. They work better with more features now than they did on the original platform. :slight_smile:

If a company goes under, the platform will die (sooner or later). I think the issue with SmartThings is that they can turn it off, or cripple it. That can't happen with Hubitat, unless/until they implement automatic updates. The same thing applies for the other options like HASS or OpenHAB. Being open source, they're probably a bit more future-proof, but they could still hypothetically sell out or fail to compete.

Honestly, I wouldn't sweat it so much. Stick to Zigbee and Z-Wave devices, and the hub is almost incidental. I just paid almost a hundred for one smart relay. My locks were over a hundred, times two. Light bulbs, $20 to $40, times 20. etc. If $125 for a hub makes you worried for the future, then stick with SmartThings. Same thing with migration. An hour/couple hours to switch to a new platform isn't really a big deal compared to sourcing smart devices, installing them, and designing automation routines.

The other issue is the time spent creating code. If you're a developer of apps, then all the code being useless some day is a concern, but at the same time, the switch to Hubitat is a no-brainer. All the groovy code will transfer with a few changes. edit: Migrating rule machines usually isn't a big deal unless you have many hubs (ie AirBnB units) or you're doing some really advanced stuff. /edit

Point being, let's keep some perspective. Google's and Amazon's planned IP protocol may make Zigbee and Z-Wave niche products. If it does, worry about it when it happens.

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