Any place you don’t need color the Cree retrofit is highly recommended by me and many others. It has a very natural looking light, very clean install, and dim’s well.
You can get them for anywhere from 15-20 on Amazon or at Home Depot. HD is the only place I’ve found that carry Cree, which is my preferred LED light both these retrofits and their standards bulbs. Any place you have more than 3 bulb’s to automate, a smart switch that does dimming will be your better option.
For color, it’s kind of a toss up. I have an Osram retrofit bulb with color, and its fine. I think it looks very good. I does not ‘fade up fade down’ when you turn it on and off, it is instant. Which some may not like, I’m indifferent to it. The Cree’s mimic incandescent bulbs really well. The color on the Osram is as good as the Hue, and maybe better at some colors. I think the retrofit lights look better as they are a sealed unit. Also they work better in a wet environment like a bathroom which recommend sealed cans.
I pulled all my Cree bulbs and put in Hue br30’s a few weeks ago. Why? Well I got them on sale, and never got around to buying a smart switch. So for the cost of 6 br30’s on sale, I came out better than a few smart switches. So far I like it, but I also live alone and dont touch switches. So the spouse and kid approval factor and learning factor doesn’t affect me.
Word of warning, so far it has been seen by at least a few people here. There is a ST bug that if you have say >8~10 zigbee bulbs of the same type directly connected your ST experience goes to crap. I did this with Cree bulbs, others have seen it with all Osram bulbs. But it has been reproduced and can be fixed by deleting bulbs. So I now pair all my Cree’s to the Hue bridge. Osram its more difficult so I haven’t moved them. The other ward of warning is that Hue has a hard limit of 62…I think 62, and recommend below 50 devices per bridge.
Doing whole home lighting…is not trivial nor easy. Any place you have switches controlling >3 bulbs, a smart switch is about the best bang for buck, until you need 2 switches (ie 3way) which adds on another 20 bucks. Still dealing with kids/family its easier to automate at the switch. Color: 3 major choices, Osram, Hue, Lifx. All have their pros and cons. Osram is kinda segmented off on its own but still very reliable. Hue is a whole ecosystem, but does have the history and ability to move from HA system to HA system. Lifx very open, but being wifi has that issue of range, and too many can overwhelm consumer access points. Zwave/Zigbee in wall switches work really well, until you have an issue that requires throwing a breaker.
Honestly start small. See what you like. I first wanted all rgbw. Then didn’t. Now I’m back to rgbw all the things lol.