I jist purchased a C8 based on a couple of video reviews stating that its much better than Home Assistant for managing devices. I don't have any Z-wave devices, I have some Zigbee devices and quite a few WIfi devices. These are Tuya devices, Broadlink and Sonoff mainly.
I'm sure it will handle the Zigbee devices better than my HA, but if that's all it will do it's a very expensive option. I have managed to integrate some of the Wifi devices, the Tuya ones, but its pretty painful process compared to HA, and haven't got my head around complex Tuya devices like RGB smart lights yet. I cant see where the benefits are in my setup.
Have I made a mistake, should I send it back? What will it do better than HA other than Zigbee?
It depends.... Hubitat is designed for local control.... Most wifi devices are cloud based so there is no "native" integration. HE leaves it to the community to create those integrations. Now that is not to say that Hubitat doesn't some Wifi stuff natively. Lifx, Shelley, Rachio are but a few. Those devices though are 100% locally controlled though. (Meaning if you cut hubitat off from the internet, everything works hunky dory)
Now the preferred devices for HE are Z-wave and Zigbee (and I'll also say Lutron). These devices maintain local control and communications. Cloud based control (as "most wifi" is) is very undesirable with home automation. Why? Speed, lack of control when internet is out or devices servers are down. Your data being sent to a company so they can sell it...etc etc...
Tuya makes lots of zigbee devices if you want to use them, In the end I would recommend dumping any cloud based devices.
The C8 hub is still a work in progress. The hardware is very good, but the software is still being modified to address issues that users discover with the various setups out there. Fortunately, both the Hubitat Elevation staff and community developers work hard to resolve issues. There are new firmware updates every few days.
I have around 150 devices on my C8. I have a variety of Lutron Caseta, Hue. Zigbee, Z-wave, and WiFi devices on my hub. Initially, I had some issues with some Zigbee devices, but mine have been working well through the past several updates. There are many variables that can affect your Zigbee mesh.
Wi-Fi devices must have a public local or a cloud API. Local API integrations receive higher priority, whereas cloud based integrations have a low priority. With that being said, if devices using cloud are highly popular, they may receive engineering resources allocated much faster - some examples of cloud based integrations are Rachio, Ecobee, and other popular brands.
We are very fortunate that this awesome community often steps in and fills the gap where our engineering resources may be scarce. For complete list of compatible devices that have been tested by our engineers, please check out this document: List of Compatible Devices | Hubitat Documentation
Thanks for all the replies. Most of the wifi devices are Tuya, and I can control them locally as I have the keys, and the integration seems ok. Have had problems getting a few generic Zigbee devices to pair, I don't think they want to unpair from my Home Assistant setup.
Maybe i'll persevere and see how it goes, can sell on eBay if it doesn't add value,
Give us some details on these Zigbee devices that do not pair (or pair, but don't work?) in HE.
A screenshot from the Z2M / ZHA device detail page may help.
I'm slowly working through the devices in my house. Struggling with a Tuya Zigbee PIR at the moment, not sure what I can show you. HE detects it but can never complete the pairing.
