Looked up piper etc and I see what you mean the choices are very limited. What kind of other smart apps are out there for smart things to integrate with monitoring
Officially, SmartThings integrates with scout or ADT Canopy monitoring. You have to pay a separate fee to those to use the monitoring feature. I believe both require that you use the SHM feature in SmartThings. However, these official integrations are only as reliable as SmartThings itself, which recently has not been very reliable. Hopefully that will improve in the future. ( i’m not sure of the ADT canopy integration is actually available yet, or just preannounced. Support could tell you.)
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/206672086-Scout-Alarm
Unofficially, anything that has IFTTT integration can be integrated indirectly with SmartThings. In these cases, the security aspect is handled by the separate security system, so it should have more reliability
There are also some people who have set up a partial cloud to cloud integration with community-created code between SmartThings and simplisafe. You can search the forums to find that one, it’s quite popular. Again, the security side is handled by simplisafe, you’re basically just giving yourself the ability to Arm or disarm through the integration.
I use mine with notifications and without a siren. I’ve had two false alarms due to problems with ST and two real alarms when I had forgotten that we had someone without presence visiting.
I think if you just do notifications, and not a siren you’ll be happy. I like getting notified to check on the house, even if nothing is wrong.
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@JDRoberts - Hi, I’m new to this community and I’m glad to be a part - having a professional like you and many others around👍. I have being here a couple of days now…reading couple post, and I’m excited to turn my home into a smart home🙏🏿. I’ve purchase the Amazon echo, Schlage Sense smart lock, and the SmartThings V2 hub. I presently have couple of Cree and Philips Led dimmer bulbs around my house, so I was wondering if I do go with the Z Wave switches (three ways dimmer, and dimmer switches) do I need to get a separate hub or controller from Z wave? I’m a computer tech, not a coder, so I don’t mind trying stuff out. I’m also accessible to recommendations.
Thanks!
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As others have stated. Incrementally better than nothing.
I have mine layered. I have traditional security and ST security.
If ST or another smarter HA system can provide the same level of reliability / security one day, I will allow it to take over.
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No, the SmartThings hub is One white plastic box that contains four devices:
A zwave plus controller
a zigbee Coordinator
An ethernet connector
And a Bluetooth radio (not yet enabled)
So it handles both zwave and Zigbee devices. That’s probably its biggest selling point. 
To the best of my knowledge, SmartThings doesn’t hold any engineering patents. It’s offering the ability to combine two standard third-party home automation protocols (Z wave and Zigbee) into one set of rules.
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By the way, I agree that something is better than nothing for some use cases, but it could be worse than nothing for other use cases, because it could give you a false sense of security and cause you not to actually make up for its defects.
For example, I do use Smartthings for non-critical applications like knowing if the guestroom window was left open when it’s about to rain. If the system fails to report that correctly it’s not really a big deal. It’s annoying, but no actual damage will be done. Because at my house what will happen is that when it starts to rain, someone will go check that room to make sure the window is shut. Getting the early warning is convenient, but not critical.
on the other hand a smoke detector that failed to alert 20% of the time, or one that had a lot of false alerts, could result in somebody getting killed. And in some ways the false alerts are worse than the misses, because they are teaching people to ignore the siren.
Is it better to have a car with brakes that fail frequently? Or no car at all?
If you don’t have a security system, you know that you don’t have a security system, and presumably you will take whatever steps you personally feel necessary in that situation. Including going out and buying a reliable security system.
If you have a security system that is unreliable, it may Indeed be worse than having none at all. The community members in March who had a system that they could not disarm and consequently their security measures like sirens or even calls to the police were going off unnecessarily several times a week didn’t seem to think it was better than having nothing at all – – many of them posted in the forums that they had removed the security features all together until the reliability improved.
All of these represent personal choices based on the exact set up that you have and let you use it for. But I think particularly for security, unreliable is often worse than nothing at all.
FWIW
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That’s how I feel about @johnr , @bravenel , @tyler , @sticks18 , @obycode , @joshua_lyon , @adamv , @mitchp , @MichaelS , @pstuart and a bunch of other people I can’t list because SmartThings limits me to 10 tags in a post.
This is a great community. 
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Thank you very much for your prompt reply.
Base on your experience, will the Ge switches work with both the Cree and Philips led bulbs? Or do I have to change all of the bulbs? Or is there any other option in switches if I want to keep my bulbs? I’m sorry for troubling you with questions…
Thanks!
As Long as everything is connected to smart things, zwave and Zigbee devices can work together. But it does depend on the specific setup. See the following thread on using switches and smart bulbs:
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I have a monitored alarm system from ADT as my primary, but I have to say SmartThings as a secondary monitoring system for added information of the state of my home is really valuable for my piece of mind.
Just having my garage door, door locks, additional motion sensors, lights and Blink Cameras integrated via ST gives me a better idea of what is happening/not happening at my house.
My Blink Camera in my back yard sent me a notification of movement and I knew nobody should be back there. I check the Camera in the ST app and my neighbor was back their talking on his phone, back gate open, etc. Wasn’t sure if something was wrong or not, but when I got home and asked him he denied being in my back yard. Not sure if I should show him the picture or wait and see what he is really up to. So, things like that just give me added information of the state of my home while I am away…which I like.
Great points made thanks!
Hey Phobiac, thanks for mentioning the blink camera❤️can you tell me how you got it to work with SmartThings please? @Phobiac
Totally agree. This is my use-case too. I’ve also got a separately monitored alarm system, but it is tied into SmartThings with an Arduino and the Thing Shield. It really works well that way.
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@duyano I’m using RBoys integration. You’ll have to pay for it via his website RBoy SmartThings Apps
The thread for the integration in this community is here:
The current release works really will with motion detection and capturing a photo during the motion event. It’s nice to be able to see that in one device versus checking a security DVR, Nest Cam or other Camera.
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Think in terms of layers…many many moons ago I was the first woman licensed to sell and install security systems in Texas. You want redundance. The problem with ST as your only security is the failure points. 1. Loss of power, 2. Loss of internet, 3. Failure of device (think door or window switch, 4. Failure of hub. 5. Signal interference. See where I am going? Hard wire security. 1. Loss of power (negate with battery backup), phone line cut, or cell call dropped…etc…all systems need motion activation…wow, I can go on and on. So what do I have. I have a hard wire system on all doors and windows along with a motion dection. An internal trap. Meaning a switch on a door that if opened when the system is armed it sets off the alerts. A dialer is setup to a cell phone that costs me $40 a year so I dont pay for monitoring or false alarms. I then have video cameras, that send me notification on motion. But more than anything, I have bells, sirens, and strobe lights…I don’t care if the bad guy is caught…get the h e double l out of my home. Think layers…lol forgot the newest layer…Smartthings, and it is integrating nicely as another layer.
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Definitely think layers. However, ST might be the only one that can drive you and your family crazy.