Why you should consider Hubitat for the brains of your smart home

Choosing the right hub is likely one of the first decisions you will have to make when planning out your smart home.  Your choice of hub will impact which protocols you are locked into, which devices and brands you can integrate with the hub and most importantly your user experience.  In this blog post, we will talk about what we think makes the Hubitat a great all-rounder and why you should consider it for the brains of your smart home.

1. Simplicity

Home Assistant is a great piece of software - one that we endorse for any Home Automation project.  Sometimes though, it is tough getting a reliable set-up, and you may need to purchase Zigbee and Z-Wave radios to get certain devices integrated into your hub.  Coding and software development knowledge can also be needed to achieve true automation of your home.

Hubitat takes away all of this complexity and aims for a “works out of the box” experience with no coding or knowledge of complex IT systems required.  With both Z-wave and Zigbee radios built in, and an ethernet connection to your network, you can be sure that you will be able to add almost any device to your Hubitat.  At the same time, you still have the ability to write your own apps and drivers should you wish to do so.  Check out the long list of compatible devices here.

2. Voice control out of the box

Several home automation hubs require additional hardware or monthly fees to obtain voice control.  Not with Hubitat - simply go to the Google Home or Alexa app, login to your Hubitat account and select which devices you want to control with your voice.  Lights, switches, thermostats, RGB/RGBW strips and smart bulbs are all supported.

3. Regular updates and a great community

Hubitat has invested a lot of time into their software and regularly releases updates to push new features.  Added to a great set of tutorials and a growing, supportive community makes for a great user experience.  If you ever need help, it is just a click away.

4. Local control for ultimate reliability

Most new home automation hubs, including the Aeotec SmartThings hub utilise cloud based software meaning:

• You are reliant on an internet connection for your automations to run
• There can be latency issues
• You are never sure who is getting access to your data or even control of your devices

Not only does the Hubitat have Z-wave and Zigbee built in, but all automations and data are kept local.  If the internet goes down, your system continues to work as normal!

5. Form factor

The Hubitat is tiny - with the footprint of a drinks coaster.  True home automation should be invisible, and the size of the Hubitat means it can be hidden away behind a cabinet.  It also uses a tiny amount of power being powered by a simple micro-usb.

For $200, the Hubitat is a great value proposition - a Zigbee and Z-wave radio alone could cost up to $150 but the Hubitat provides the additional benefits of powerful scripting, creating dashboards and simple integration with voice platforms.  

Get in touch with us on info@smartguys.com.au if you need any advice and one of our customer support staff will get back to you. Alternatively, there is lots of useful information on compatible devices and functionality here.