I agree with this in principal but I've found a lot of my less technical clients (and even some that are!) are Apple-centric and prefer Apple Home to anything else.
EDIT: I've found I can STILL provide a great Apple experience with HE/HB/NR.
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I have this setup with no complaints so far. Even have custom homekit devices as certain HE devices suck i.e. thermostats
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@KarenAG - echoing what others have said - I have the same setup (HE->HB-HK). Before I started using Node-RED, all my "automations" were done in HE (Hubitat) Rules engine or simple automation. Apple Home was a way to give a better end user experience (turn on lights, open doors etc.) and also enable remote operation, but no automation. Since then, I have duplicated all my automations in Node-RED (they are currently disabled in HE) but still use Apple Home if I need to operate any of the devices while I am away.
The only "automation" that I have in Apple Home is to turn a virtual switch (Hubitat switch) on at night when my Ring Doorbell activates for motion. I then have Node-RED turn on outside lights.
Do you have native Apple Homekit devices that you want to control from either Node-RED or HE?
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Them's fightin' words 
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To be fair I did go back and correct that!!!! 
I have only recently (as of this year) gotten into the cult of Apple having gone from virtually no iGear to having iPads, Homepod Minis and an M1 Macbook Pro... you know for "testing" and to placate my SO. Family still on Android phones though much to the chagrin of my teenage daughter.
Interestingly I was using Homebridge before my Apple purchases. That sequence picture I posted has been active well before then...
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Apologies @KarenAG! Was getting a little off track. Here is my installation - you don't need to go with Ubuntu 64 or do the m.2 thing - just the standard Raspberry Pi OS Lite - recommend not installing the GUI as it adds overhead but you can if needed.
For the installation I used an RPi4 with 4 GB Memory. I am using a case called the Argon ONE m.2 and booting off an m.2 sata drive with the sdcard as backup.
My distribution is Ubuntu Server for RPi - 64 Bit.
I installed node-red and homebridge using the installation instructions here:
Node-RED
https://nodered.org/docs/getting-started/raspberrypi
HomeBridge - Note: I skipped "Step 1" since this was done with NR install.
For additional fun I also installed a local VPN called Wireguard using this awesome script:
Note: If you are into running Docker apps others can chime in on how to do that.
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Another plus point is that Homekit's dashboard is miles better than Hubitat's 
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@erktrek Thank you, Thank you for your links and guidance. Got my pi up and running with node red and homebridge. If ya lived near me I would buy you a beer 
or three
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@erktrek Been thinking about setting up a local box for this stuff since Docker Desktop on my laptop is pretty flaky and keeps locking up. Do you find the RPi is powerful / stable enough? I was thinking about an Intel NUC, but that's considerably more expensive.
I was also wondering about your flow above with the Ring doorbell going from HB to HE... Is there an advantage to hooking it into HB vs. the Ring integration in HE?
Yes the RPi is plenty powerful - I am running 3 different server apps on mine (Node-RED/HomeBridge/Wireguard and have had no performance issues. In fact the 4 GB model might even be overkill for this purpose but I like the extra memory.
In terms of my reasoning with that sequence.. I prefer to keep the resource usage as low as possible on the HE. This means keeping custom apps to a minimum if possible. On my C-7 I only have Homebridge V2, Package Manager, Z-Wave Mesh details and Maker running. All the rules etc live in NR.
My current resource usage on that hub:
Local apps: 18m 19s busy / 4d 15h 16m 52s total (0.3%)
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Cool, thanks! Got a recommendation for a RPi4 kit? There's lots out there. Do they all support m.2?
So the RPI accepts booting to a USB3.. which is what I am using in conjunction with this awesome but kinda pricey case:
For the m.2 - WARNING! only m.2 SATA only!!!!
And then just the basic PI is all you need..
If you want to backup to the SD Card try this:
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For that kind of price get a second hand Dell Optiplex Micro, More powerful
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Yep - My only issues there are the larger form factor and greater power draw but otherwise that can work as well. Another thought is an old laptop. Built in power protection.
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The dell micro is tiny and the power draw over the year is not that much extra cost wise and the pi is so slowwwww
Good news is PI4's speed is excellent for this purpose fortunately, have been running it for a year or so with no issues.
Because I was curious went on Amazon (US) and looked up - cheapest I could find was this refurbished unit:
https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Optiplex-Desktop-i3-4160T-2-9-Windows/dp/B07XM9DCBM/
Specs seem decent (US centric, sorry)
$195 - i3, 8GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, 11"x9"x2", 200 watts.
vs
New RPI with case:
$139 ARM Cortex-A72, 4 GB RAM, 120 GB M.2 Sata, 4.33" x 3.74" x 1", 6.4 watts
You might do better with an Intel Atom box like this:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07QY8LDGX/
But you'd still need a hard drive.
The name of the game with these kinds of units is efficiency vs raw computing power. If the server is just going to be sitting on a shelf "headless" and (semi)permanently the less power consumed and heat generated the better.
IF you really want to go down the rabbit hole there is the odroid..
@aaiyar "persuaded" me to get one of these (an N2) a while ago.. very powerful. It too runs really well but doesn't quite have the popular support that the RPi does and is more expensive. Still testing it though..
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Agreed. But I think that cost can be offset by aggregating more services/servers on an N2.
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Also with the addition of the Argon One case the price is comparable... but the m.2 is nice.
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200w PSU is not the micro. They usually come with a 60w brick. My 6th i5 ran about 10w idle. Price wise, yes more than a pi but worth the extra in my opinion. In a drawer now along with some pi's just in case I want to try something new.
Moved my setup from optiplex -> mac mini -> docker (synology nas).
