Hubitat Elevation Home Automation Hub (Model C-8) Compatible with Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Home, Zigbee, Z-Wave, Aqara

As someone who has been using Samsung Smartthings for 6 years, I must say that transitioning to Hubitat has been a game-changer for me. It feels like I have entered into the future of home automation! The ability to execute everything locally is simply astounding.The hub is an impressive tiny device offering advanced automation capabilities without the need for Webcore. The built-in "Rule Machine" allows for a smooth and effortless user experience once you get familiar with it. A huge setback would be that there can be a huge learning curve if you are new to home automation. You can however use the community forum to learn or go on YouTube.Another big concern is the user interface as it may not be the most intuitive or user-friendly, but it's not a significant issue once you've set everything up. I'm confident that the developers are actively working on improving the UI, but for now, it's a minor concern that doesn't detract from the overall functionality of the platform. To me, Hubitat's local execution alone is worth the upgrade as it ensures an instant and smooth experience. I'm truly impressed by how much faster my lights, garage, and other smart devices operate now.In my opinion, one of the most notable advantages of Hubitat is its ability to seamlessly integrate with Siri shortcuts. By utilizing the "Cloud endpoint" feature of Hubitat Rule Machine, my family and friends can now open the garage simply by issuing a voice command through Siri. This was previously impossible with SmartThings, as Webcore was removed, and even when it was available, the process was slow and unreliable on their platform. By leveraging Shortcuts, I can share garage door access without granting full access to all my devices on HomeKit.Furthermore, apart from using the Shortcut app on my iPhone, I have also set up a Virtual Shade device in Hubitat and integrated it with the HomeKit app. Since HomeKit doesn't support native Garage Door functionality, I created a virtual device that mirrors the actual garage door. (For this you will need the “Hubitat Package Manager” App and then install “Switch Bindings” by @joelwetzel) This enables me to open the garage using my voice and send commands through Apple TV, Macbook, and the iPhone Home app. If anyone is interested, I have included pictures of my settings for reference. They have proven to be quite impressive!2024 quick Update & thoughts - I originally posted the above review on April 4, 2023. Since then, here’s what changed, HomeKit now supports native garage functionality so my review is a bit dated. Hubitat continuously puts out updates making the hub better and better. I still love and recommend everyone to get this device. It just works, seriously never fails, no reboots nothing.. it just works, I struggled so much with smart things.I have since then gotten better at using this system so maybe I will update my review when I get the chance with more information.

With our local internet going out on occasion I wanted a smart-home hub that didn't rely in Internet connectivity. The installation was pretty easy, though it does require some knowledge of pairing devices. My problem, I had 30+ devices scattered all over the house. And to pair you need the hub brought close to each device. Fortunately the hub can operate off wifi to the network, so I used a portable USB battery and brought the hub to each device that was hardwired into my house. It took a while, but it is worth it. Now most all my automatic routines run even if my Internet connection is down (except the ones that use sensors or weather detection over the Internet).

Had very high hopes for this product. I have approximately 15 z-wave devices, a Kwikset door and a doorbell camera. The documentation and support website said that the door lock was compatible. The doorbell camera was questionable. The big-ticket item for me was the z-wave devices. Not one of my z-wave devices were ever detected or picked up. Yes, I did reset some of the z-wave devices to factory setting. No good. Tried a basic Honeywell 5816 z-wave door switch, new out of the box, it did not work. Went to the extent of loading some 8 grove drivers recommended from Github, specific to my devices, with no results. One contributor provided instructions of a process he used with his system, like mine, but involved placing code into a raspberry PI and performing some programming. I consider myself a technical person, but that's a ridiculous extreme step for what I expect to work out of the box. I liked the menus, the ability to group devices by room, the use on my cell phone and the scripting seemed very straight forward. If I were building a system from scratch, I might consider it. I would never recommend this device to take over a preexisting system.

So I have had the Hubitat C5 for quite some time. However in the last month the Z-wave radio started dropping off entirely overnight, a reboot would fix the issue. Sometimes this was a one day thing sometimes it would go a few days, then it got to be about every day or twice a day. So clearly the hardware was failing. I had the online backup subscription going so decided to skip the C7 and go straight to the C8. The setup was, problematic, at first. The hub would not register, a few reboots and no luck. It wouldn't update firmware either. So I left it for an hour, rebooted it and the firmware updater worked. After that the hub registered and from there accepted the backup from the C5 no problem. After a reboot everything pretty much came up as expected without having to re-add any devices. I had one or two devices that were flaky on that first day but have performed flawlessly since then. So yes the C5 can transfer all devices and settings to the C8, but it might be a less than 100% smooth experience out of the gate, patience is a virtue.That aside the C8 is faster and performs better than the C5 in all areas. I got many good years of use out of my C5 and don't feel bad about having to replace it at this time.