Alternative Hubs

Some of these have already been mentioned… But here is what I came up with off the top of my head. This list is not complete by any stretch of the imagination.

Better/Only on SmartThings

  • ActionTiles (but it seems AT may be coming soon to Hubitat as well!)
  • Schlage Z-Wave Locks (newer firmware versions seem to be more compatible with Hubitat versus the older versions.)
  • Early GE/Jasco Z-Wave (non-plus) switches, dimmers and Fan Controllers
  • Some Zigbee Button Controllers work on ST, not on Hubitat (can’t recall which ones…I think it has something to do with supporting Zigbee broadcast messaging from a device versus the controller)
  • Some Zigbee bulbs seem to cause fewer issues on ST vs Hubitat
  • Logitech Harmony Hub (allows for use of the Home Control remote control buttons)
  • Amazon Alexa (and possibly Google Home) allow for devices from multiple ST Locations/Hubs, I believe - please someone correct me if this is wrong. However, currently it is an all or nothing proposition. ST Engineering is working on improvements in this area.
  • Numerous cloud-to-cloud integrations from a wide array of vendors
    • Includes support for many WiFi devices
  • Zigbee device firmware upgrades
  • Samsung Appliances and Televisions

Better/Only on Hubitat

  • webCoRE Pistons run locally on the hub (cloud only needed for configuration)
  • Lutron Pico Remotes & Lutron Caseta Fan Controllers work on Hubitat, not on ST
  • Lutron Switches, Dimmers, and Window Shades all perform very quickly on Hubitat due to local processing and LAN integration. No Cloud integration for Lutron.
  • Echo Speaks
  • Amazon Alexa and Google Home Integrations - allow for user selection of devices to be exposed to both of these systems, however only for a single Hubitat hub, IIRC.
  • Amazon Alexa Routines can be triggered by motion and contact sensors reliably
  • Harmony Hub community integration is via LAN webSockets connection, so no cloud required…but lacks ability to map Home Control remote buttons to lights/outlets
  • Hub Configuration Backup and Restore
  • Hub firmware updates only when the user decides to upgrade. Also offers ability to downgrade firmware
  • Community Z-Wave device firmware upgrade tool
  • Community Device Drivers and Apps all run locally on the hub - this is great for performance, as long as the code is well written. Poorly written code can cause hub performance degradation.
  • In addition to Push Notification within the Hubitat Mobile App
    • Official support for Twilio SMS messaging
    • Official support for Pushover push notifications
  • Zigbee Group Messaging - no more popcorn effect for turning on/off multiple Zigbee bulbs at once
  • Maker API for easy integration via Restful API

As for what I keep on SmartThings… :thinking: I am currently utilizing the Logitech Harmony Hub integration to allow me to map lights to the Elite remote’s Home Control Buttons. I also have some ST_Anything devices on SmartThings for testing/development. Early on, I used Action Tiles on ST to display Hubitat connected devices via HubConnect. These days, I rarely use a dashboard or mobile app to look at devices or control them. I am running HomeBridge on a Windows 10 server which exposes to HomeKit the Hubitat devices that I might want to view/control on the go. For example, it is nice to be able to open/close my garage door when we go out for a neighborhood walk.

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