So I am one of the unfortunate Iris users. We have mostly liked Iris for the most part. Had some minor issues but eventually got it all working as we wanted. We only have about 8 devices total, lights, thermostat, garage door, and smart switches and our main goal is to be able to control these devices remotely from our phones as we dont have or use motion sensors or any kind of geofencing.
My concern with switching to this instead of ST would be the ability to open garage door , or turn lights on and off, and adjust thermostat when we are not at home. With all the reading I have done about users experiences and the lack of an app, will I be able to do this in any kind of a simple manner?
Full answer:
If the devices you have are on the compatible's list, then Joining/pairing will work pretty easily. Excluding ZWave is often the source of much frustration. The reason is, you're usually trying to Include the device and it is doing NOTHING. The Exclude didn't work so the device is not willing to Include.
You don't mention brands, or protocols, so it's difficult to be more specific.
As to the app.. The Mobile App I think you mean, you'll find that for 8 devices Hubitat's Dashboard will do what you want. You can have 8 dashboards, one per device or 1 dashboard and all your devices on one. Very customizable AND v2.0 is coming "soon" with, we're told, many more options for customization.
All "admin" is local. You must be on your home network to add devices, remove them, create or delete automations (routines), add applications, create and edit Dashboards.
"Using" is NOT limited to local. Once you create your Dashboard, it's available locally, of course, but also via the cloud/internet. If you take the step of adding the Dashboard to your mobile device, it looks and launches just like a Mobile App.
Thermostats are hard to talk about without knowing your brand and features BUT you can do what you need. Hubitat supports so many ways to do automations, it's hard to pick one to describe.
If those are your needs, and your needs for the near future - I would go with ST.
I've used and own both, and while I am solidly in the Hubitat camp for MY installation, if your needs are simple and remote access/control of devices is a primary need then ST simply does it better right now.
The device list and tiles on ST are vastly superior for individual device control than the ugly and hard to maintain HE dashboards.
EDIT: Now, you COULD use Hubitat + SharpTools for the remote control, which is very functional and nice to look at. SharpTools is not free after a certain number of devices/dashboards, but may be OK for your needs.
Truth be told, I find ST superior for any HA user that does not care about local control/cloud execution and execution speed. ST is cheap, dead simple to use, strongest automation ability via WebCore, highest # of compatible devices, largest user base/largest active user and developer community.
HE gives local execution / no cloud dependence and the speed of device response is much faster than ST. Those are important to me, which is why I use HE.
At this point in time and based on your stated primary requirement, I think you might be happier on SmartThings . . . However, I fully expect my recommendation to you will change in the near future. But for now, ST.
I have to agree with that as well. Hubitat dashboards are functional, albeit clunky, and do the job.. However they're not phone-friendly... at all.
If control via a mobile app is the the top concern, I agree that ST is currently the strongest choice. The migration path will be a bit smoother because of this as well.
As @csteele and @JasonJoelOld mention, it sounds like using either the built-in Hubitat Dashboards or SharpTools.io Dashboards would be your way to go for accessing things from your phones with Hubitat.
Here's an example of SharpTools.io dashboards on a phone:
Getting off topic.
Or just hold fire until the next iteration of 'Dashboards' comes out.
It might give you what you want, it may not, bit it might be worthwhile waiting.
Having been a former Smart Things owner I would say it depends on your level willingness to except a newer platform and the caveats that come it vs a more mature one. Both have learning curves and both have their eccentricities. For my taste it was being in control of my devices on my terms not Samsungs.
IF you keep things simple (and your setup appears to be such depending on your device compatibility of course) than HE ultimately has a greater "upside".. There is no obsolescence in "local" processing. The folks at Hubitat cannot "Iris" the platform - you would still be able to use all the devices and keep working for a long time afterwards.
Both ST and HE communities are excellent. Customer Support may be better with HE right now - they certainly seem to be more responsive.
On the Dev side - ST has more robust ways of doing things currently but the community here is really great and some of the former ST "stars" are here. Indeed a lot of things have been ported over.
Good luck with your decision!! You will likely be happy with whatever you choose.
Myself came over from Iris, I found out yesterday that Hubitat can be accessed remotely to do those simple things like turn on a light, adjust the Thermostat. This can be accomplished through the cloud. If you wanna set up rules for your system, you have to do that while on your network, being local. I was doing alot of reading on these forums and kept hearing about having to use VPN to access the hub. This is true if you wanna add or change rules, but not turn on or off lights or arm or disarm the alarm. The other thing I am going to like with this system compared to Iris is that this system is also Local which means if your internet goes out, your rules will still fire off.
I concur with the SmartThings recommendations. I started with Wink, upgraded to SmartThings, and then switched to Hubitat when I exceeded the maximum number of Lutron Caseta devices ST supports. I find Hubitat faster and more flexible than ST (and far more than Wink), but it's pretty rough at this point, and its Alexa integration isn't nearly as good as ST's. It's Hubitat is a much better tool for a hobbyist, but probably not if you have 8 devices and aren't trying to automate things.
It pains me to say this, but for your use case, ST may be the better choice, at least for now. I personally think HE is a better choice for a number of reasons, but from a User Interface perspective, and broad support of things like MyQ and Nest, ST is a bit ahead.
Not for long though, and you don't have the stupid classic and new bizarre apps on HE!
Go with Hubitat. Let's be honest everyone, you can't just have 8 devices and be done with it. In a year you'll have 16, then 32, and the limitations of Smart things will become painfully obvious as you learn more and more about what you have in your home. Futureproof your home with Hubitat and prepare for the inevitable.
The best thing I've experienced with Hubitat is that I've been out of the country for 2 weeks and using VPN to check on my system. Literally nothing has changed or hiccupped or gone awry since I left. Assuming the power doesn't go out, it'll just stay running solidly forever. That's what a home automation system should be. A permanent fixture that just does the job.
This defines everything if you need something for NOW than simple answer is ST. In a months time can be HE. Maybe.... As HE does not shares a roadmap so we can't tell you how long it will take. We know is coming but exactly when only staff can answer
I guess I must have had a better experience with ST than some... In the 2.5 years I used it, for me it worked 24/7 except maybe 3-4 times per year. That is still 99+% of the time (if the outages were whole days, which they never were)...
My experience wasn't that bad either. I ultimately gave up on ST because of the daily hub disconnections and no responses on the tickets related to it. The issue is now finally getting attention, 3 months later.
Good point. It's good advice to base the selection in what is available today, not what is promised for tomorrow. The history of Iris and even SmartThings is littered with vaporware and broken promises.
