Three Hubs. One Automation. Hubitat vs Homey Pro vs. Home Assistant
Three Hubs. One Automation. Hubitat vs Homey Pro vs. Home Assistant
Automate your exterior lights for with holiday colors in Hubitat Elevation, Homey Pro and Home Assistant. It’s a great head to head comparison of the top hubs so you can see which automation engine fit your style. That’s right, I even tackled Home Assistant.
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DIY Smart Home Guy creates how-to videos for smart home automation centered around Z-Wave and Zigbee devices. Review videos are generally centered around Hubitat Elevation, SmartThings and Vera. I personally run Hubitat as my primary smart hub, however I do test products on the hubs mentioned. I understand that a home automation hub is not a path for everyone. I chose this path because I am a firm believer is advanced automation and local control.
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This is to much work and effort to sit and figure out. I’m going to play a video game instead
I agree about HA. No HA!
I prefer yaml, and open source repo above anything, so thanks for the simplifications :). Privacy does not have a price.
The Nodes and Noodles approach of Homey appeals to me. I wish Habitat would adopt a version of that. But I also wish they’d bite the bullet and add Aqara despite their proprietary nonsense. It’s hard to argue with a market leader, even when the market leader is doing something annoying, like not following a standard.
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It is true that it is pretty easy BUT I deal with yaml at work, and I figure I want something simple. I don’t want to constantly tinker.
I just want one app, one hub and integrating every home automated stuff in that simple app and… that’s it. Tbh I think most people actually want that too. It’s nice to just simplify everything into one device, one app etc..
Well done. Thanks for doing this comparison.
I started out with Hubitat about 3 years ago and after a year or so I added an instance of Home Assistant as well.
But in the last few months I went completely to HA as the dashboard in Hubitat is really inadequate compared to HA’s dashboard.
I tried and tried but couldn’t take it.
You are completely correct about the dates and calendar. That should have been baked into Home Assistant from the beginning.
Homey user and developer here 🙂 you could use HomeyScript, that is kind of Javascript inside homey, so you can create arrays and calculate proper date by javascript, it is more advanced but for developers really easy, and community will be happy to create such automation for you 😀 have seen create homeyscript automations so far 🙂
But i have tried a lot of home automation systems, and homey is super easy to do and even if there is no app, it is easy to develop one 😀
Homey is big in Sweden. We automate battery charging, boilers and heatpumps depending on the electricityprice
I use Homey PRO for 6 years now. Very happy with it. You have to see if there is an app for a device you would want. You can build your own apps, by the way, but for me that is to complicated (as is HA). In Homey most automations are very easy to do, very intuitive and just fun, with advanced flows (very powerfull and especially with logic cards). More complicated automations take more time though, as is lgical, i guess. So I am very happy with Homey. The price seems not to high too, as thera are 6 antennaes built in and the software is very userfriendly. The new dasboard function is really stunning too.
Did you not see your node red button in Home Assistant? Thumbs down for any video showing the $400.00 homey pro.
Bro the home assistant jabs had me laughing my ass off good video all around
A butcher knife and a live chicken…. Good luck.
Subscribed.
So do you just update your automation every year when the Thanksgiving date changes?
Question: we recently bought a home that has an IQ Panel 4 and a bunch of Z Wave devices (garage door, front deadbolt, Jasco switch for porch lights, thermostat), but I have a bunch of Wifi devices that I used with my Google Assistant in previous homes and I really like that ecosystem because it works well for my wife and I (Google Homes, LIFX Bulbs, WeMo switches, etc). I want to be able to control both the Z Wave devices and Wifi devices through my phone/Google Assistant. What do you all recommend to bridge the gap between the Wifi Devices and the ZWave devices/Panel? I’d prefer avoiding an expensive subscription with the security company if possible so if the Panel ends up becoming redundant or replaced that’s fine with me, but I do want to try and keep things local/secure to the whatever extent is feasible. Is HA Green good enough for something like this or do I need something else like the Hubitat or Homey
Great video. I’m glad I am not alone in be baffled by Home Assistant. I watched some beginner tutorials and was lost in the first 30 seconds. I am able to program my URC remote, and use ISY to program lighting, so I’m not a complete idiot. But Home Assistant makes my brain want to fly to Tahiti too!
I just want something that is simple that can make Caseta a little smarter. If it can also control the few Aqara lights I have, that would be a great bonus.
My vote would be Homey too.. 😊
….. Or you can use Node-RED in Home Assistant in order to get the Homey approach. 😏
Nice video BTW. I often see on YouTube videos like Home Assistant vs. Homey and so on but they often don’t equalize both system with a practical use case.
None of those automation looked fun, especially Homey. What happens in Homey if something needs to be changed or the line needs to go else where. I can see moving lines and flows to be a pain in the arse. Habitat kind of looked okay, but quite messy when there are loads of IF then ELSE. I am a home assistant guy, and frankly YAML is the best solution, considering ChatGPT or Gemini is your coding friend, and it works most of the time. One can make it as complicated as you choose. Plus once written in YAML, you’ve got access to the GUI as well. It works both ways. Home Assistant can also be run on just about any device, where you’ll find the other two devices are limited, not to mentioned limited in their device capabilities. And of course there are all the plugins, HACS, and integrations that HA offer. Node Red comes to mind, very much like Homey interface. That is the beauty of Home Assistant.
It looks to me like the easier it gets, the pricier it becomes.
I’m not sure, but I have this strange feeling that you are not a fan of Home Assistant 😉
I guess this is what you end with when devs can design something mostly for themselves. Honestly, as I software engineer I think the YAML is way superior to any GUI mess you could design. Nice, tidy and easy to read. But my perspective is definitely biased, as I deal with things like this every day.
I’m brand new to this. I have Z-Wave switches, lights,and blinds. Smart garage doors and a few others. I have some code background. So you recommend Smart things or Hubitat?
I have used chatGPT to make YAML code before. If you input the code into YAML and change it back to visual editor it will show you how it did it. Still not easy to understand.
This automation can also easily be done with Home Assistant through the gui.
Time or sunset as trigger and if/then or better choose actions for the different dates setting the lights in different ways depending on the date. Drag and Drop as well as Copy/Duplicate is also available for quick setup.
Homey looks the most polished however Home Assistant is still the most powerful.
Home Assistant with Node Red is how you do it.
I love Home Assistant, but I still do not enjoy creating automations in it. Personally, I still use Node Red for 95% of my automations and have no plans to really deviate from that approach. If I were doing this, I would probably create Scenes for each holiday and use the flow to simply activate the correct Scene. My standard outdoor lighting does not use color, currently. Instead, it is just fade in to 100% over 10 minutes, starting half an hour before sunset. At 10p, fade to 20% over 10 seconds. Then, between 10p and sunrise, any time the outdoor cameras detect motion or if the exterior doors are opened, turn the lights back up to 100% immediately until five minutes after the last motion event, before returning to 20% over 10 seconds.
It would be interesting to see how to achieve a flickering effect between those colours. like a fireplace orange-yellow flicker on christmas, etc. Or fading between colours on valentines day. I would be especially interested in how to do it with hubitat. Using colour automations AND rule machine?
Great video mate, worth all the effort you put in! I love the Homey graphical interface reminds me of node red but easy!
What about the "visual rules builder" in Hubitat? It’s new-ish (this year?) and built in (not user/custom).
home assistant or bust.
Doesn’t Node-Red have a Home Assistant plugin? It would make it more like Homey, wouldn’t it?
I vote for Homey, on it since 5 years now ! Product really improved over time, community is also there ! Developing an app is not so difficult. They released the dashboard which is cool but not as cool as what you can do with HA. Of course, the setup time is again not the same, dashboard on Homey is done in 10 minutes and functional where after a day in HA mine isn’t finished.
If you want to learn and play, go for HA.
If you want something simple and working, go for Homey.
Great video Pete!
I just got a Hubitat C-8 and after watching your video, I know I made the correct decision!
In homeassistant you can just use ‘If’ day is monday…. Works great
The way I do dates still uses ChatGPT, but I use Template conditions and not the whole automation as YAML.
This sucks for me too! Home Assistant is crap at dates. It’s a worst-case. It also doesn’t have home/away/guest presence. I had to add that logic myself in a separate automation.
Home Assistant also has a Homey-style automation, but you gave to go to the Trace menu to see it. I’d rather write automations with that view!
I agree, Home Assistant sucks, but it also supports just about everything. Being able to fall back on YAML makes it easy to swap around devices. I’m curious how Homey fares in comparison.
For homey, a more simple way to do it, is use the then-card ":set random colours (or set a mood), and use the and-card "the date is between xx/xx and xx/xx"
for homey, couldn’t you simplify the flow drastically by assigning the light colors to variables based on the date before turning the lights on?
I went from ISY to Smartthings. Was not happy with Samsung and tried Homey which was pretty, but not for the price. I switched to Hubitat 8 Pro and I am now happy with all the features and uses.
I have got a Hubitat C8 and got an additional C8 to work as a mesh for upstairs. I had not seen your video, however. I am happy with my C8. Everything just works. Z-wave and Zigbee is the best in my opinion. C8 is almost instant in response time. I have been in home automation enthusiast for 24 years from the days of proprietary networked switches. My main method of control and interaction is through Siri and Alexa voice controls. It is solid and seamless. Very pleased.
I’ve been using home assistant for over a year now. And though I have no issue with it I would not give it to a less than technical friend. Easy test is, "What does YAML stand for". If they can’t answer that question, home assisitant is not for them.
I see Hubitat still looks like it was designed by a freshman engineer in college. No style, super ugly. Also, good luck with performance in Hubitat. But hey, they’ll just blame your automation or something else when your mesh starts failing due to their spaghettis and sh!t hardware. Rotten company, lead by rotten egotistical people.
As a 20 year plus programmer I can tell you, using YAML is a pain. I would rather use js like in iobroker where I have a "normal" programming language and simple if/else statements togethet with variable and datetime access than try to fit that logic into a description file. YAML is not a programming language and msisuse it with a custom syntax you have to learn is never ever a good idea. It would be far easier to just learn real programming in one single common used language…
That said, I am just switch from iobroker to homey. I want a smart home, not a fiddle around and program stuff to do the simplest if this then that tasks. And no, the js blockly that is used in iobroker is not intuitive.
Isn’t this a little biased? Aren’t you the Hubitat spokesman? I love my Hubitat btw.
I’m a dev, and I HATE YAML.
And I just bought home assistant. Lol
currently on home assistant with sod all camera support 😂 switches great. video….taxi back to 1986. may as well be programming in basic on my vic20 tryi g to ouput 4k hd through my competition pro joystick 😂 the system is very incomplete.
sure there are advertised fixes…they dont really work. only on thst one coder guy who had an issue and released a fix, but only really works for him cos he hasnt got the infrastructure to test other system.
seen this route before. home assistant needs a more solid foundation beforenrelease or it will disapear from the market as soon as people stop talking about it here.
someonebwill come along and clone it all, clean up some rough edges and sell it as a package under another brand name.
I totally agree with you, for me to be learning codes, I would have gone to school to study engineering or computer science or programming, I would have created my own code and my own platform and not be buying any of these microprocessors to be on those platforms that are more complicated than user-friendly and only their developers know how to use them. On the other hand, I don’t understand why they always try to develop solutions by creating new protocols and new platforms instead of solving and fixing the existing ones and making everything flow and work in harmony. If Homey was acquired by LG and LG once acquired Webos, I don’t understand why they can’t integrate everything, make a sub os for everything that has to do with home automation and an integrated ecosystem with all the protocols and a single hub?
I am a Hubitat guy. Very reliable, not too difficult. Started off with the C-7. I’m on the C-8 Pro now.
This is exactly why I decided to use homey Pro, just came here to confirm my insecure mind 😂
Home assistant is like a rabbit hole. But can be amazing what you find down there.