Just purchased a Hubitat. Moving from Wink. I want to automate several light switches - a couple of dimmers but mostly on/off switches.
Would like suggestions on cost effective Brands and where to buy. Prices I see are quite high and I need several.
Thanks
Hi and welcome,
It'd be good to say where you're from or add your country to your profile pic.
E.G you might not be shopping in Australia where I am. 
Oops. Shopping in the U.S.
Welcome to the Hubitat Community!
Not always the lowest prices, but Amazon.com offers a good selection.
Energy Avenue typically has very good prices on Lutron devices and especially the often over prices Lutron Caséta Pro Hub needed for the Hubitat Lutron Integration.
GoKeyless has some decent prices on Centralite Zigbee devices (which are a great devices you can rely on)
Take your time. Rome wasn't built in a day! Keep in mind that if you add a pile of devices at once, you're going to have issues with the Z-Wave or Zigbee mesh. They need time to build/rebuild their routing tables, and I cannot stress enough the importance of AC powered repeating devices for both network types.
Be sure to ask the community about specific devices you're considering. There's a wealth of information (and opinions) here. Not that you're always going to get the answers you want or need, and frankly sometimes you just need to try it for yourself. That's where Amazon can be a good option since their return policy is so favorable.
Have fun building!
Also what type of switches are you thinking of buying? Z-wave, Zigbee or Lutron? Black Friday is coming up and keep an eye on this post from ST.
Not sure where in the US you live but I've found GE switches, dimmers and outlets on clearance at Lowes. Kind of weird though, the clearance is only at stores that don't move the product quickly enough so in the same city, you might find one store that has clearance and another not. I've recently bought both Z-Wave Plus and Zigbee switches, dimmers and outlets for between $4 and $12. The Knoxville, TN area was a hit a couple weeks ago when I happened to be traveling through and here in Augusta, GA is sporadic. I even ended up buying a couple Smartthings Multi-Sensors for $5 ea at our local Lowes. Also, Costco will have the Z-Wave Smoke & CO detectors (3 pack) on sale for $79 starting on 11/26.
If you can find GE switches or dimmers on sale, they're not bad (just make sure they're one of the last two generations--Z-Wave Plus, not their "classic" Z-Wave switches that you'd probably only find on the used market at this point). Otherwise, my opinion is that they're overprices for what they do--others like HomeSeer (also expensive but I think they were the first here), Zooz, and Inovelli have more features like (on some models) scene/mulit-tap support you can use for pretty cool things--which actually GE does too for at least double-taps but doesn't seem to market for some reason. HomeSeer and Inovelli have LEDs on the switch you can use for any purpose (e.g., turn red if door is unlocked). Inovelli and Zooz let you disable the relay/local control (useful if you have smart bulbs--now you can turn them off with a switch without actually cutting power to them and leaving them not-smart-anymore).
Anyway, that's all to say that TheSmartestHouse.com is a good place to find Zooz (often on sale; I don't think I've paid over $30 for any their switches/dimmers), and Inovelli.com is a good place for the latter if you spend over their $60 free-shipping limit (Amazon has them for a tad more, but...Prime and whatnot)--no sale on the switches/dimmers alone at the moment (though they do have a smart-bulb deal with them), but they still aren't bad-as is and who knows if they'll do another flash sale in the future. I won't tell you what we were able to pre-order them for.
Do you need motion and contact sensors too?
Wanted to add, without starting a protocol debate, as a new user you may not be familiar with the requirement to Exclude Z-Wave devices when moving them from one hub to another, or if the device becomes unresponsive and need to be reset.
This results is the Z-wave devices are removed from the database. This is how Z-Wave works and is not a limitation that Hubitat is imposing. The net result is all automations including those Z-Wave devices will lose their link to those particular devices, and the associated automations will need to be repaired or rebuilt.
Zigbee on the other hand does not need to be deleted from the hub database if they need to be reset. After factory reset, they can simply be paired with hub again and it will recognize the previous pairing. All your automations will be fine and no further action will be needed.
I agree Zigbee is great for not having to mess with rules or apps later if it needs to be re-paired to the hub for some reason, unfortunately there are few Zigbee switches available mainly just GE which are fine but generally more expensive than some of the more advanced options out there. I have recently started replacing most of my classic Z-Wave switches with the Inovelli Red series Z-Wave Plus switches and have found the scene control useful in a few locations and the notifications useful everywhere, and yet they are cheaper than many of the competing products.
Yep I think we’re all doing that mental dance of ‘upfront cost’ versus ‘long term gain’
What amount of pain will I endure when things go belly up ??
Will I recall how I’ve configured everything if I have to delete devices and start again etc.
A very personal choice.
Thank you everyone for the helpful suggestions. I intend to start slow and do a few devices at a time - light switches, and some outlets, at first. I’m so glad that I found Hubitat the community support is terrific.
Just keep "must build the Mesh" in mind as you plan.
Sinope makes Zigbee dimmers and switches. They are on the compatible devices list. I have one of their dimmers arriving tomorrow to try out.
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