At the present time I’m not recommending any specific home automation system. Each has pluses and minuses, and it just depends on your own priorities. Some people are fine with a very powerful system that requires ongoing fiddly maintenance. Others want something that is “set and forget,” even if it has fewer features.
As far as individual devices, I know some people like to pick a brand and stick with it, personally, I look at every use case individually, so I have a lot of different brands depending on the specific features needed for each use case.
The following is a good discussion of various device features and why you might care about them:
