“Buying from Vesternet was effortless and arrived promptly.
The Hubitat was to replace an ageing Smartthings hub. Initial thoughts are that it does exactly what it said it would. Set up was easy and removing and then adding zwave and zigbee devices whilst slow worked first time. The rule manchine is what sets it apart from Smartthings. I have set up some complex scripts with Rule machine that could only be done with 3rd party tools like Sharptools in Smartthings.. Downside is that WiFi devices don't easily add to the hub but there is a great community that can help and custom apps can easily be installed if applicable. I am still working on integrations but so far am happy with switching.”
“Bought through the Ebay outlet of this Vesternet shop. Hubitat is a highly configurable hub. I am still getting used to it. I have bought a second one now to do a mesh for upstairs and downstairs. It just works. Integrates well with Siri, Apple Home, Alexa, Google, Hue, and even Samsung SmartThings, though I would say that this is for a moderately tech savvy user. So far I have just been able to plug and play and upload various drivers written by others and I find no problems. Everything just works. I am only interested in Z-wave and Zigbee. I would warn others tempted by wifi and "matter" whatever... they are all rubbish for now. Whereas, Z-wave and Zigbee just work instantly no matter if I request through Siri, Alexa or just click on phone app. Cool. Hub looks like it was made for the people from the Liliput Island. It is ridiculous. It looks like a toy. I cannot say anything about durability for now. Time will tell. But for now it is 10 out of 10. If it does not last, then I will come back here and take some points off!”
“Review Hubitat C8 Pro
Having previously owned a C7 hub from Hubitat in the past and never had any issues with the Zigbee and Zwave radios in terms of reliability, I decided to move my existing smart home system (not Hubitat) to the newer Hubitat C8 Pro, mainly for the updated Zigbee and ZWave radios with antennas.
My house is brick built in the 1940’s and some of the walls had a metal mesh applied prior to the original plaster being applied. As you can imagine this has restricted wi-fi signals around the house and up until now, needed a lot of router devices to bridge all the rooms for Zigbee and Zwave devices. Even with a lot of devices the downstairs toilet and bathroom had issues with Aqara devices dropping off.
Since setting up the Hubitat C8 pro, I have not been disappointed the two radios are simply excellent. A solid mesh has been setup and those Aqara devices in the bathroom and toilet are rock solid. The radios can even connect directly to devices on the other side of the house previously impossible.
Given I setup my original C7 some years back I cannot say what the latest setup experience for new users is like now. However from screenshots I’ve seen some apps and examples are setup.
Online videos and guides do give more context and advice, but like any good system allow time to read and digest.
I’ve been into smart homes since 2015 and used quite a few systems now, they all have there own strengths and weaknesses. For me system reliability and quality of the Zwave and Zigbee radios was the most important factor. Let’s be honest no one wants to be sitting in darkness with automations failing because some update just broke the system.
I’ve never had to worry with Hubitat with the C7 and now C8, I am sure like any hardware there must be faults / failures but I’ve not seen them so far several years in.
Unlike (Home Assistant and Smartthings I’ve had serious downtime, that was no fault of mine.)
Listed below with scores are my thoughts on the C8’s Pros and Cons
Pros
5/5 Zwave and Zigbee Radios are excellent in my opinion, better than all prior systems and there has been many.
4/5 Built in apps to setup automations well thought out, from simple quick automations, lighting and room automations to complex rules. There is even a mini app to quickly set actions to button controllers, like Philips Hue dimmers.
4/5 Built in Safety and Home monitoring app. Think of it as an alarm system, that can also monitor for Water leaks and other issues depending on which sensors you own.
5/5 Inbuilt ability to text users mobiles based on system events. Not every system has this or has this free of charge.
4/5 C8 Pro has faster processor and more memory than prior models. Processing speed improvement is noticeably quicker.
4/5 Apps provided to connect to Apple HomeKit, Google and Alexa provided. Currently free of charge (no monthly fees)
Cons
2/5 Dashboards and Templates used to change device setting outside of automations is now looking dated in comparison to other platforms. *However see notes below.
3/5 Built in driver support could be better with some popular brands omitted. Some that are there by brand don’t automatically add a driver. However missing drivers can often be added by third party drivers or by using generic built in drivers that will add the basic functionality but may omit some device functionality. I would check the online compatibility list before purchase.
3/5 The Philips Hue and Sonos built in app integrations could do with a 2024 update. For example you can link across your Philips Hue Lights and Groups but not plugs, motion sensors, dimmers or scenes. There are third party apps that can added to achieve this but would be nice to update standard apps.
3/5 Migration from C7 to C8 pro via online restore went through ok but Zigbee devices did not connect for me and remained offline. I needed to rejoin my Zigbee devices, which fixed the issue. Zwave went through perfect.
Even though the built in Dashboard is not ideal, there is nothing stopping users using Alexa, Google, Apple smart home applications which in some cases may be more family friendly. There is also options to use other applications such as Sharptools web app or bridge devices to Home Assistant and setup your own custom dashboards.”
“The Hubitat c8 pro is one of the most powerful hub you can buy.
I used smartthings for over 4 years and decided to migrate to Hubitat.
The hubitat is much faster, reliable and responsive.”
