I am currently a Smartthings user for over 4y. Over time it’s true they’ve gotten better. But in my opinion their design is flawed. It just bothers me that every time I turn on a light, open a door or set off a sensor, some remote server gets notified and a record is kept. I’m not a paranoid person and really I don’t care that much... but that’s really messed up! Not only that ... I have no control over when firmware is released. This is scary to me because they’ve bricked their hub once with a flawed release. Considering my remote property is over 900mi away I can’t pick up and go! So to be sure this never happened again I used an Ethernet based switch to reset the hub in case this happened again !! What a hack!
In fact I am so bothered by that design I considered implementing my own hub and as an experienced developer with in depth knowledge I could. But life is short and time is precious ....
So, despite investing in 2+ Smartthings hubs I was excited to discover Hubitat!
Hubitat is EXACTLY how I would have designed my perfect home automation hub!! Not only that ... ALL MY DEVICES PORTED OVER... no problem!!
So I want to thank you ... all of you ... for your intellect, attention to detail, your perfect documentation. As a computer professional with over 30y coding experience I know talent and I tip my hat to yours!
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Lots of people here moved from SmartThings (including most or all of the staff), and the paradigm is quite similar, so you should feel right at home! SmartApps = apps, Things = devices (shocking!), Device Type Handlers = drivers, administration is done via the locally served web UI (yay!) rather than a mobile app, and ... I think I found my way around quite easily once I know that. On the back-end, the event-based model is the same, and if you've ever used custom code, the Groovy sandbox is shockingly similar. There are tons of helpful people in the Community if you're ever looking for ideas or get stuck.
I'm sure you'll enjoy the platform, and welcome to the Community!
PS - I also tried OpenHAB and gave up, but I did use Home Assistant before Hubitat (and still use it for a bit but no automations). You'll spend a lot less time editing config files unless something has changed since the last time I tried the former. I almost wish Hubitat was released sooner to save me from this hassle, but at least now I've tried several platforms besides ST (and Hubitat) and know what else is out there. I really like it here. 
Thanks for your reply !
Yup! The transition was very smooth because of the similarities between ST and HE.
But where it matters the most... the fundamental local design is simply the best!
It seems like they are a well run company and they have great people working for them and they enjoy their work!
From my perspective I enjoy the customization, reliability and design.
It’s been a while I’ve been excited about a solid product ... iPhone and Rapsberry Pi come to mind.
Cheers!
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