New to SmartThings should I avoid Wifi devices over alternative Z Wave or Zigbee devices?

[JDRoberts]

2019 Update:

Everything in my post above is still accurate except that we are now up to V3 of the smartthings hub (still with reliability issues, though), and staples discontinued the connective line.

Oh, and the Amazon echo has become a much bigger player for those just looking for something simple.

The following 2018 FAQ explains why someone might choose smartthings over some of the competition:

How to Get Started Creating Complex Rules in SmartThings

(This is a wiki post: feel free to edit it or add to it as needed. Also, I can’t take any screenshots since I can’t use the app at this time due to its incompatibility with voiceover, so feel free to add screenshots where they would be helpful.) At one point, one of the biggest advantages of using the SmartThings platform was the wide variety of devices that it supported. However, by the end of 2017 several competing platforms had caught up in that regard. Where SmartThings still holds a significant advantage over some of the other low-cost home automation solutions is in the ability to really build really complex rules in a fairly simple manner. You won’t have to be a programmer, but you may need the help of other community members to get the logic constructed just right. Also, you …