Not sure if you can say “most” users pay. I have never seen any number for how many users use the service so I can’t say.
Home Assistant Cloud provides you with a secure remote connection to your instance while away from home. It also allows you to connect with cloud-only services: Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant and cloud backups. It also allows you to use geo-fencing. HA Cloud
Worth pointing out, users can create their own remote connection but without access to Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa but you can get geo-fencing. How secure those are is up for debate.
Free remote access to Home Assistant (HA) is easy to obtain using a free VPN such as Tailscale. And it is very easy to set up.
You can send messages from HA to Alexa Echo speakers for free using the Alexa Devices integration. I believe there is a similar integration for Google Home, but I don’t use Google speakers.
If you want Alexa or Google to have full control you HA devices then you would need the paid cloud service. The alternate would be to connect selected devices needing voice control to any other Matter platform using Matter Hub and then use that platform to provide Alexa and Google with voice access.
So basically anything in HA can be done without paying any fees with a few work arounds.
Hi @Paul_Oliver
Understood. I have zero knowledge about HA; I only know about SmartThings.
I had heard that there were free alternatives to Nabu Cassa for remote access.
All the people cross promoting HA on Reddit r/smartthings say how easy HA is.
It seems SmartThings is much easier. I could be wrong.
Thanks, Aidan
No doubt about it SmartThings is much easier to set up and use. After you figure it out Home Assistant it isn’t that hard. Using AI makes it much easier, but AI can also lead you down the wrong path. In essence Home Assistant becomes a hobby.
Someone mentioned Tailscale - an extremely easy to set up VPN that enables remote access.
But many people subscribe to Home Assistant Cloud to support Nabu Casa and the project, even when they don’t need the cloud features. What makes this support feel worthwhile - and very different from SmartThings - is the complete openness: all development happens publicly in front of everyone, decisions are discussed openly, and communication from the team is direct and transparent rather than happening behind closed doors. For many users, paying the subscription is a way to directly fund developers while backing a project whose entire process they can see, trust, and even participate in.
Ever seen release notes / changelog for the lualibs? One example of how developers are kept in the dark.
I mean you can do it that way, but only if you have enough man power (developers) to keep up with the competition.
Did anyone confirm if the Rules API will be chargeable going forward? I’ve only 5 of them so hardly worth paying for, but still curious as to what standard users will lose, or even gain from this new charge
No, we are still having to speculate. There are too many unknowns.
One could perhaps assume that explicit calls to the API to create, update and list Rules are considered use of the API, but what about calls made by the Rules going about their business?
How does it work with Locations? I regularly use multiple accounts to make API calls but there is only one of me.
If I am using the CLI, which is an API wrapper, am I making API calls or am I using a system tool?
Following and especially interested in this. Even just to develop for WWST certifications (or any official ST edge driver code changes) I am using the CLI / API at a personal level to test changes before I do all the submissions on the developer console and GitHub. This is providing SmartThings with new/improved code right into their repo FOR FREE. So will I now have to pay for the privilege of updating their code?
If you are able to assist and create custom drivers to everyone that need him.. I m fine with tihis donate system… if you still ignore all people that need a custom driver for their needs… I’m out…
We past some time, sometimes months or years to find a driver that matches and handles to our device…
When we ask some help of the support team the response is what is… still the same… i still have a device that not suported by smartthings until someone do the support job and create a custom driver that matches with my device… And you want be payed for that???
I not understand what’s happening here…
Please someone explain what’s happen here…
I have some devices that need custom drivers for simple handling or extra capability’s…
Lovely. I only use the SmartThings API to control two very expensive Samsung TVs and a Samsung refrigerator. Honestly, the SmartThings integration is one of the main reasons I keep buying Samsung TVs.
I’ll probably pay the $5 until it’s time for my next replacement cycle. After that, an LG is looking a lot more appealing.
I’m sure my decision means nothing to the direction Samsung is taking the platform. But it means a lot to me.
Seems that SmartThings could squash a lot of consternation over this by just clarifying whether or not community Edge driver developers are going to be impacted. Or is this more of a SmartApp and 3rd party integration thing…
The thing is the API is used for almost everything, and from the OP it sounds like outliers like OCF/COAP integrations for appliances in the app are probably going to be addressed too. So let’s approximate it to everything.
I’ve only developed Edge drivers for VIRTUAL devices. The actual explicit API use is a few API calls to package and install the driver, and a few API calls for things like creating profiles and presentations, and then a couple of calls to create and rename each virtual device. I’d imagine just opening the SmartThings app once consumes more resources.
Similarly with Rules API. That’s a single API call to update each Rule. Probably nothing compared to what the app does just to update a Routine.
Even an OAuth app only requires a single API call to create the app.
This all just seems like noise to me. Isn’t actually using devices, rules and apps where the resources are consumed?
I note the ‘free tier’ just mentions using the app with WWST devices. If you subscribe to a channel and install drivers are you being a developer? I’d say you have to be considered as such (I’ve said that going back to Groovy days).
It’s hard to make sense of it all. It may be that it is the free tier that needs better defining, or explaining. It makes sense for there to be a free tier when the SmartThings app is being used to control Samsung or partner appliances. However as soon as you start using what historically we consider the SmartThings platform it has to be straight usage based surely? A few devices and routines is one thing, but tens or hundreds of devices and routines is surely something different? Similarly the service apps and the like ought to come at a premium. They aren’t essentials.
Didn’t even cross my mind, of course everything uses the API one way or another but OP frames it:
our API is the gateway that connects third party apps and platforms to the SmartThings ecosystem
The SmartThings app, the CLI, the Advanced website, routines or rules are not third party apps or platforms. And Edge drivers themselves cannot even connect to the Internet.
A user having a Macrodroid, Tasker or similar automation app turning on a light in SmartThings is a third party app using the API. If you want that kind of automation now you’ll have to pay the subscription. Kind of what IFTTT did when they moved webhooks to a paying tier and suddenly became irrelevant and vendors started to remove IFTTT integration because both vendors and users had to pay them and the fees increased.
I don’t use the API except for a simple Macrodroid macro but I get it… although I would not need to use any cloud infrastructure if the hub, advertised as local-first, had a local API or, at the very least, allowed Edge drivers to listen in a specific port instead of a random one whenever it restarts.
I guess the most pressing question is what being an ‘individual developer’ paying a subscription will allow you to do that being a ‘free tier’ user doesn’t. That’s really the key.
For example, it could just get you access to a developer resource that dresses the API in a nice frock but doesn’t actually change what you can do.
I’m minded to assume the same thing, but with Google in my case. Whatever things you have to do to be considered as a ‘developer’, that doesn’t sound like it ought to be one of them. To me it is more like a commercial arrangement where neither party has chosen to pass on costs to the users.
Update: On the other hand, if ‘developer’ really means someone who is going beyond the basic services in the mobile app, then it does seem unfair that the ‘voice assistant’ integrations would be considered differently to other platforms.
I have just two SmartThings devices that I expect might be affected by this. Fortunately they are but bit players in my system and there are easy workarounds for both.
Samsung certainly won’t miss me either, but they, like MyQ, are likely making future purchasing decisions so much easier. I’ve never been happier that I shut down my hub and moved away from SmartThings when I did.