I bought my HE about three months ago and quickly set it up -- and unplugged it about a month ago. I think perhaps I made a mistake by buying it in the first place. My needs are apparently too simple: turns out I can do -- more or less -- all I need to with Google Home and Homekit/Homebridge, both of which I currently have running. I use Google Home to tell me if my Wyze sensors (windows, doors) are open or closed, and to turn on various lights, and in order to control my Nest thermostat. To tell the truth, I'm not sure why I bother to keep Homekit/Homebridge running, since almost everything I want to do, I can do with Google Home. I used Eve to create some automations for Homekit to run (if any window or door sensors are open, then turn on/keep on a light to alert me to that fact) -- that's about it. I can't yet look at my Wyze cam pictures (except by smart casting to my Visio TV) but perhaps I could if I were smarter, and willing to spend more time setting that up. What's my point? My point is that Hubitat seems most relevant to people with a lot of Zigbee or Z-Wave devices, and I don't have any of those, nor do I think I'm likely to acquire any, with my more basic needs. It could be that I'm really missing something here about Hubitat, and if you think I am, please tell me.
You may well be right for your needs/expectations at the end of the day. Suggest one approach could be to explore the forum here a bit and see what other people are doing, then decide if you want to join us down the rabbit hole. Or remain blissfully unaware and keep talking to Google Home instead!
This may also give you some ideas and inspiration...
Did you have any specific goals/needs in mind when you purchased the hub?
Edit: to elaborate a bit, I don’t necessarily mean a goal like “it should work with Nest.” I’m thinking more along the lines of, “I want the lights to turn on and off automatically as I move through my home when it’s dark out.”
I made a conscious decision to go Z-Wave as much as possible to get my IOT stuff off the IP network.
The thing I like about Hubitat is its local control and not cloud based. I don't have to worry about things working if my modem goes down. The other guys make that difficult.
Now yes I can use Alexa to talk to Hubitat and I do do that but my automations all run locally.
Hubitat having a developer community has made it easy for me to hook in my security system, Ecobee sensors, Ring motion sensors, Ceiling Fans and I do integrate them all such as turning on Ceiling Fans if its too hot.
I also don't trust Google much at all not so much that they have a big brother about them but because they seem to never commit. How many products have they created that were Beta and got tossed eventually. They just dumped making their own shows and sent Cobra Kai over to Netflix as an example.
I suppose this means you own some iOS devices?
The primary reason to use homebridge is to get non-HomeKit supported devices (like hubitat and everything directly paired to it) to show up in the Home app on an iPhone or iPad, and enable Siri-based voice control.
If you have a spare RPi or a *nix machine you can use, I would highly suggest using [RELEASE] Alpha WyzeSense Integration. I use this for my WyzeSense devices and it is instant and flawless for me. For my specific needs, I did have to make a few changes to things, which I've noted in the comments of the thread, but if you're integrating into other things to then integrate into HE, cut out the middle services and just integrate directly into HE
Not sure what all HB will do. But with HE, how about adding water leak sensors with a main valve shutoff in case of an event?
HE has so many great people on the forum to assist with any issue. Seems like a new app or device is added to the list every week.
Hubitat supports these two and also two other connectivity methods, local IP and cloud IP. You don’t have to use more than one to benefit.
Yes it’s true a lot of people use Z-Wave and Zigbee because they are an easy retrofit and work well with battery power. I personally predominantly favour local IP with Z radio networks as a fallback where appropriate. Just because you don’t have a need for ZigBee or Z-Wave yet don’t worry.. that time will likely come.
But if you don’t see any expansion in the future then likely you don’t need HE.