I was a very early adopter of SmartThings. In the early years they did some cool things like live video conferences for developers and they were pretty responsive. After the Samsung buyout it seemed to go downhill . . . or maybe it just went "corporate".
Technically my beef was latency. One of my most important rules is to make sure the front porch lights come on so I can see to unlock the door (it's a mortise lock, so automating it would be a major project). With SmartThings I never knew if it was going to work or how long it might take.
Also, I had phantom lights that would turn on and off for no apparent reason.
I had a couple of simple integrations that I ended up having to write myself. This meant they ran in the cloud and thus were subject to outages.
Lastly, I was sick and tired of Samsung deciding when they were going to push updates and releases (invariably when I was out-of-town) and never knowing whether they would screw something up (they often did).
Hubitat addressed these concerns. My apps now run locally. A couple of months after coming on board, I posted an enhancement request to take care of the automation that was cloud based on SmartThings (I was able to port it to Hubitat but I really wanted to do it within the confines of their built-in and supported apps). The next release of Rule Machine after that request provided the capability I needed (and more).
I don't miss anything about SmartThings. I do like their sensors - their motion and door/window contact sensors are some of the best.
I carefully planned my migration and then, in the midst of day one, I accidentally deleted a whole group of devices from SmartThings. Without a backup I could restore (I didn't mention that, did I?) I decided to just jump in with both feet. I finished the critical devices that day and the rest of the transition the next day.
The biggest pain point was trying to get Z-Wave devices to exclude from SmartThings (this is not their fault, it is the endpoint manufacturers, IMO). GE Z-Wave switches were a pain to exclude until I realized that I had and could use an Aeon Labs Minimote to exclude Z-Wave devices. Also, Sensative Strips door/window sensors are a pain to exclude because they are entirely sealed and you have to learn the pattern to wave the magic magnet to signal them (in lieu of a button press).
I don't use Geofencing.
I was not aware of how far I would end up taking my automation. With SmartThings it was cool to be able to turn things on and off with a smartphone app. The Hubitat Team really lives and breathes the idea of actually automating stuff. It's contagious. Most of the lights in my house now go on and off without any manual intervention. For outdoor lights this is done with a combination of time schedules, lighting (lux) readings, and motion sensors. For indoor lights it is done with a combination of (mostly) motion sensors and door (contact) sensors.
Responsiveness for new devices? Do you mean Hubitat supporting them? I would say they are very good but the community developers are even better (sorry Hubitat). The community comes up with solutions incredibly quickly. The Hubitat Team takes a little longer. Work with Mike Maxwell to get new devices recognized, figure out if they need their own driver or can use an existing one, and get the driver development in queue (if it is needed).
There are glitches. Locks have been a sore point. Some people are experiencing slowness. I don't have the ticket data to tell you percentages. I can say I have had one self-inflicted wound (combined with a sensor that was going bad and I didn't realize it). I have had one hardware failure (the power brick died, I was able to order a replacement from Amazon for next day delivery and less than ten dollars). I had one "crash". Support (BobbyD) suggested I pause the Beta Chromecast app because it appeared to be throwing a large number of errors. I paused it and have not had a problem since (that was about nine months ago).
I don't have an alarm system, I don't have a garage, I don't have any Nest (other than Google Home devices which I believe are now branded Nest) devices, and no Alexa (I have a bunch of Google Home speakers and displays). I have several Graber (Somfy) Z-Wave shades - they work well.
Major releases seem to come every four to six weeks. There are often a handful of follow-up patch releases after a major release. You can choose when to update and you can backup whenever you want. The system retains a small number of backups but also allows you to download them.
Good luck . . . however you decide to proceed!
