I think if you read through the various threads you'll find lots of answers but basically what you get from upgrading are newer zigbee and zwave chipsets, external antennas (which provide much greater coverage), and built-in wifi. You also get the ability to back up and restore both the z-wave and zigbee databases, assuming you have hub protect. (Hub protect is not required for the migration though.)
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If you are happy with your C7:
- Never touch a running system!
- Buy the C8 as a hardware backup, put it in a safe place.
- Cloud backup regularly!
- In case of emergency: Easy migration...
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Latest z-wave chip (includes z-wave long range protocol) Faster processing speed)
Latest zigbee 3.0 chip (faster processing speed)
With antennas devices tend to connect straight to the hub making things faster
Does the C-8 help with Zigbee device conflict? I have contact sensors that constantly drop because of some outlets I have.... I'm too cheap tp just go get new outlets but I'll upgrade the hub. 
Might be needing a hub at a second location anyway so thinking I might migrate the C-7 and those outlets.
What outlets and what contact sensors? A new hub likely won't change that.
Aqara MCCGQ11LM contact sensors and ""Smart""Things outlet FS-OUT-V2. The contacts stayed up for days when I unplugged all the outlets. I started plugging them back in and my contacts started dropping within a couple hours.
Aqara tends to do that. It's why a lot of us don't use them. They do decently with ikea repeaters or using them through mqtt
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I have some Ikea outlets but they don't help with the ST outlets plugged in. With just the Ikea outlets they are solid. Is there a way to route them specifically though the Ikea plugs? And MQTT?
You would need to install an MQTT broker on lets say an rpi, then connect the aqara to that. My advice? Get anything besides aqara or xiaomi sensors/devices.
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I have 30 something I'd need to replace.....
I have a few Aqara contact sensors on my C7 & more on my C8. They stay connected reliably.
C7: The SonOff USB dongle P and the tiny Tuya USB repeater seem to do the majority of repeating on my C7.
C8: SonOff USB dongle P is a big repeater, 3210-L's and tiny Tuya as well.
I have achieved my best results on my C8 with all Zigbee devices connecting via repeaters, rather than directly to the hub. I have my C8 hub Zigbee power level set on 8, you could even try 4 to keep devices from connecting to it. (C7 hubs do not have a Zigbee power setting option.) I didn't plan it that way, but that's how it ended up. That might be something you could try to achieve and see if it helps you as well. Re-join the devices near repeaters/away from the hub to see if you can get them to choose a repeater to connect to.
But to reiterate, I am able to keep Aqara contact devices connected to my C7, so I don't think you need to change your hub necessarily.
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I'm not seeing where to adjust the power on the Zigbee radio on the C-7. I'm on the latest FW.
Yeah, sorry, I wasn't clear enough, as Robert says that's a C8 feature. I've updated my post so it's not confusing.
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Which driver are you using out of curiosity.
I'm mostly using this one at this point: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/waytotheweb/hubitat/main/drivers/Xiaomi_Aqara_Mijia_Sensors.groovy
Some sources:
Drivers really have no impact on the devices staying connected to the hub. So changing your driver won't affect them dropping off, unless you're using a very "bad" driver that might overload your hub and cause general issues.
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So here's the issue as I understand it -- Aqara ZigBee 1.2 devices only work with certain repeaters and not others. If you have only Aqara-friendly repeaters, you're fine. If you have any other repeaters, you'll have small or large problems.
If you have a lot of Aqara devices, it may be worthwhile to move them and some Aqara-friendly repeaters to a different Hub (whether Hubitat, HA, or something else with a Hubitat integration) on a different channel. I only had one Aqara device, so I returned it; I do have a separate network for the exceptionally chatty Tuya mmWave sensors, though.
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Sort of...I have a bunch of different repeaters around my house, both Zigbee 1.2 and 3.0, and I have not done anything in particular to try to force my Aqara devices to choose one or another. More a "just works" situation.
Again, sort of. If you have a "known friendly" setup you can put your Aqara devices on it, and of course you'd want any other secondary controller (whether 2nd Hubitat or another hub/device) to be on a different Zigbee channel than your hub. I have my Aqara devices on both my C7 and C8.
Aqara definitely are a YMMV device. I would not tell anyone to just buy a ton of them and you'll be fine...recommend starting slow and having a couple of repeaters like the SonOff USB dongle or the tiny Tuya USB repeaters which seem to work well w/them.
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Your mileage may vary. I have plenty of older Aqara sensors (contact sensors, temp/humidity sensors, PIR motion sensors, button devices, water leak sensors) Up to 33 of these older Aqara devices now on my C-5, mixed up with some IKEA devices and TUYA radar sensors and all is working great for me. No problems, generally all is rock solid in the ZigBee department. Now ZWave - that's a different story. I've had ZWave issues since day one and still continue to have them despite my best efforts to avoid problems.
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Can I trade Zigbee with you? As in you take my problems and I take your success? That way at least 1 of us will be happy....... I (KNOCK ON WOOD) have never had much of an issue with Z-Wave. Always Zigbee.
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