It's great for a strange combo: beginners and local-only smart home enthusiasts.
See full article...
See full article...
Homey Pro review: A very particular set of home automation skills
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
If trying to add a non supported device the first time doesn’t trigger a warning of Damon Wayans saying “I don’t think so, homie don’t play that”, then there will be a great missed opportunity to amuse elder millennials.
Upvote
51
(53
/
-2)
For some people: yes. Which isn't all that hard. Hell, I'd pay the first 50 bucks just to avoid having an Alexa device in my house...
Upvote
110
(112
/
-2)
Multiply ninjaed, but if they don't lean hard into the dual meaning of "homey" they have missed a trick and should have listened harder to that middle-aged person on their team.
ETA: usually I don't feel as old as I am. I certainly don't look it (I look like I'm in my early 30s, but I'm 45) but the realization that a whole generation has grown up and started having kids of their own since then? Blech. Blechitty Blech Blech Blech.
ETA: usually I don't feel as old as I am. I certainly don't look it (I look like I'm in my early 30s, but I'm 45) but the realization that a whole generation has grown up and started having kids of their own since then? Blech. Blechitty Blech Blech Blech.
Last edited:
Upvote
33
(33
/
0)
I switched over from self hosting Home Assistant to buying a Home Assistant Yellow box and couldn't be happier. I highly recommend that platform and it's much less expensive for anyone considering....has a PoE option, to boot!
Upvote
21
(22
/
-1)
Good, albeit brief, mention of Hubitat.
As a Hubitat owner and user since 2020, who recently upgraded to their latest version, allow me to share some direct (but obviously anecdotal) experience.
Hubitat works GREAT. Most of the devices we use are supported out of the box. The few that don't have functional drivers and addons from the community. Just copy-paste some code into a browser window, and things generally work. Write new code yourself if you have the skills; lot's of devs in the community are happy to help. I was initially worried about relying on community work, but it's turned out to be pretty stable, without major issues. This includes adding WiFi devices, Tuya units and cheap IKEA stuff.
The device itself has been rock-solid for our use.
We use it for offline IoT and home automation, controlling heating units, air ventilation, lights, and sensors for doors (to warn us if they remain open).
We did extend it with Google Home, the big evil tech-giant. So we can start/stop things using Google Assistant, and we can get text-to-voice messages to Google Assistant speakers around the house. When Google or the ISP f*cks up, which happens rarely but does happen, the offline nature of Hubitat means things are easy to still operate. The voice assistant obviously doesn't work, but local dashboards and apps still work. That keeps the WAF factor significantly higher than an ecosystem based solely on cloud-connected IoT junk.
All in all: Can highly recommend Hubitat. YMMV, but it's been the best home automation investment I have made so far. Certainly less finnicky than Home Assistant, which I also tried three times, and which seems to be much more flexible but also require constant attention to keep running - like a modern tamagotchi or something.
As a Hubitat owner and user since 2020, who recently upgraded to their latest version, allow me to share some direct (but obviously anecdotal) experience.
Hubitat works GREAT. Most of the devices we use are supported out of the box. The few that don't have functional drivers and addons from the community. Just copy-paste some code into a browser window, and things generally work. Write new code yourself if you have the skills; lot's of devs in the community are happy to help. I was initially worried about relying on community work, but it's turned out to be pretty stable, without major issues. This includes adding WiFi devices, Tuya units and cheap IKEA stuff.
The device itself has been rock-solid for our use.
We use it for offline IoT and home automation, controlling heating units, air ventilation, lights, and sensors for doors (to warn us if they remain open).
We did extend it with Google Home, the big evil tech-giant. So we can start/stop things using Google Assistant, and we can get text-to-voice messages to Google Assistant speakers around the house. When Google or the ISP f*cks up, which happens rarely but does happen, the offline nature of Hubitat means things are easy to still operate. The voice assistant obviously doesn't work, but local dashboards and apps still work. That keeps the WAF factor significantly higher than an ecosystem based solely on cloud-connected IoT junk.
All in all: Can highly recommend Hubitat. YMMV, but it's been the best home automation investment I have made so far. Certainly less finnicky than Home Assistant, which I also tried three times, and which seems to be much more flexible but also require constant attention to keep running - like a modern tamagotchi or something.
Last edited:
Upvote
38
(40
/
-2)
Bit off topic here but thought I'd share. I hadn't had my coffee yet and still had a bit of the morning blurry eyes when I popped onto ARS this morning. Imagine my surprise when I glanced at the new article titles and read "Horney Pro Home assistant with a particular set of skills". I thought Ok.. wow.. I need to read this one for the lol's. Imagine my mild disappointment when I actually got my glasses on and a few sips of coffee.
Upvote
42
(42
/
0)
I think people complaining about the price kind of leave out that a Home Assistant Yellow is also around 250-275€. Which isn't that far of anymore, even more so when you consider the amount of time/tinkering you need to spend with HA. This is also what ultimately made me go with the Homey Pro instead.
For the few months I've been using it I have been very happy. Previously I used an Amazon Echo as my Zigbee Hub and it was just always a pain to get new devices added correctly. Also I was constantly running into limitations with routines since not even very simple if/then/else conditions are possible. Compared to that the ease of adding new devices and the flexibility that the Advanced Flows give you are a godsend.
I just wish that Athome would be a bit more responsive to feature requests in the community forums and maybe extend the support for the most basic devices a bit. By default pretty much only on/off devices and lights usable without a dedicated integration, even though Zigbee provides predefined profiles for many more device classes. But so far I was able to pretty much use all devices I already owned or bought later on with the existing integrations/apps. Only exception being one very crappy and cheap AliExpress temperature sensor which I never got to behave consistently with other eco systems as well.
For the few months I've been using it I have been very happy. Previously I used an Amazon Echo as my Zigbee Hub and it was just always a pain to get new devices added correctly. Also I was constantly running into limitations with routines since not even very simple if/then/else conditions are possible. Compared to that the ease of adding new devices and the flexibility that the Advanced Flows give you are a godsend.
I just wish that Athome would be a bit more responsive to feature requests in the community forums and maybe extend the support for the most basic devices a bit. By default pretty much only on/off devices and lights usable without a dedicated integration, even though Zigbee provides predefined profiles for many more device classes. But so far I was able to pretty much use all devices I already owned or bought later on with the existing integrations/apps. Only exception being one very crappy and cheap AliExpress temperature sensor which I never got to behave consistently with other eco systems as well.
Last edited:
Upvote
34
(38
/
-4)
Yes, wanting to be able to turn my lights on or off without a json file or a working connection to AWS definitely makes me a weirdo.
Upvote
63
(65
/
-2)
As consumers, our price frame-of-reference has been set by deeply subsidized products.
It’s a tough sell because it’s selling against products that are subsidized either directly (ie Amazon Echo Dot) or indirectly (say, a Phillips Hue Hub).
I appreciate that it’s not Yet Another Customer-As-ARPU Business Model product. Instead it appears to be a genuine attempt at building a sustainable business by setting a price that actually covers the cost of developing the product.
I’m guessing a bill of materials cost likely under $100, most of it going to the Pi 4 CM. The rest of the price is the hardware and software engineering required to make a stand-alone device that does not depend on The Cloud™.
That said, for that same reason I am concerned about its long-term viability. It is going to require continuous software engineering work to add and test other companies’ products. That app is going to need to be updated as iOS and Android update. The web UI needs servers and security. And the only way to pay for it will be continuously acquiring new customers. And, sure, that’s the goal of any company with a new product – but is it sustainable forever?
I don’t love subscription model businesses. I very much suffer subscription fatigue. I do not want to add yet another one – and that makes products like this attractive. But if I want long-term product support for something that integrates with a still-evolving constellation of other products, something has to pay for that.
Tell me you didn’t read the review without admitting you didn’t read the review.
Upvote
89
(90
/
-1)
Seriously, Homey is great. If you’ve got a girlfriend and things to get done, Homey is going to be your best bet. The app store model and HomeyScript makes it a lot more flexible than the closed off competitors with limited device support, while being file- and codeless for 99% of the users. This review smells of “less space than a nomad”.
Upvote
8
(13
/
-5)
I switched all my lights and heater automation from Home Assistant to Homey. I do really love the power of HA, but the ongoing maintenance of updating, fixing things that broke and tinkering to keep things working smoothly was to much as a stressed small child parent. So I got Homey. All lights and all "basic" things (zigbee mostly) always just works and easy to create new automations in UI.
Still have HA around for the incredible customizable dashboard for mainly energy (power/water) consumption and solar cell production since the graphing possibilities there beats Homey by far. And if something breaks it is not the end of the world. I can fix that next weekend when I have some free time.
But to be able to turn lights and heating on/off using scenes and smart buttons. That for me and my family is mission critical and should never fail. Given how much I've spent in total on all gadgets for home automation, the Homey Pro was cheap for the peace of mind and always works with minimal maintenance effort is gives.
I also do love to run my Linux server for fun, but my daily mission critical driver is a MacBook Pro..
Still have HA around for the incredible customizable dashboard for mainly energy (power/water) consumption and solar cell production since the graphing possibilities there beats Homey by far. And if something breaks it is not the end of the world. I can fix that next weekend when I have some free time.
But to be able to turn lights and heating on/off using scenes and smart buttons. That for me and my family is mission critical and should never fail. Given how much I've spent in total on all gadgets for home automation, the Homey Pro was cheap for the peace of mind and always works with minimal maintenance effort is gives.
I also do love to run my Linux server for fun, but my daily mission critical driver is a MacBook Pro..
Upvote
20
(22
/
-2)
It's awesome to see someone trying to go for the "easy to use" completely local home automation. I'm a HA user so it's not a product for me, but another option that isn't tied to "the cloud" is good in my book.
We'll see if they stick around. My only concern would be what if it turns out selling a $400 smart home controller isn't enough to keep the business going. Sure, it's local, but if it stops getting development support, is it going to continue to be useful? Getting generic zigbee/z-wave/matter devices should help, but those specs (especially Matter) see updates themselves and it would suck if your Homey didn't get updates to match.
We'll see if they stick around. My only concern would be what if it turns out selling a $400 smart home controller isn't enough to keep the business going. Sure, it's local, but if it stops getting development support, is it going to continue to be useful? Getting generic zigbee/z-wave/matter devices should help, but those specs (especially Matter) see updates themselves and it would suck if your Homey didn't get updates to match.
Upvote
21
(21
/
0)
"Local control." All right, I'm in!
"Step 1: Download phone app." All right, I'm out!
"Step 1: Download phone app." All right, I'm out!
Upvote
26
(36
/
-10)
A few times a year my desk looks like that when the Great Dusting occurs. The rest of the time Homey would become another thing gathering dust, unable to move.
Upvote
2
(2
/
0)
$400 is a lot, but not unreasonable for a product that works well and lasts, particularly if it's not subsidized with your data. This seems similar in many ways to something like an Nvidia Shield. It's much pricier than competing devices (even now, years later) but it works well and has had stellar support (although, some of that is probably due to the fact that the Switch uses a similar chip. Homey's been around since 2016, and people that use it really seem to like it. I'll have to consider it. My main problem: finding decent, inexpensive smart home speakers. No way am I paying for Sonos speakers in all the rooms in my house...
Upvote
9
(10
/
-1)
I'm very curious what problems folks have run into with Home Assistant that this solved.
I've been using it since 2018 and can think of exactly one time (back in 2019, IIRC) that an update borked stuff. They're much more careful about breaking changes these days. The ones that do happen are almost always cloud services that have cut off access (e.g. Chamberlain's MyQ), and you can't really blame HA for that.
I've been using it since 2018 and can think of exactly one time (back in 2019, IIRC) that an update borked stuff. They're much more careful about breaking changes these days. The ones that do happen are almost always cloud services that have cut off access (e.g. Chamberlain's MyQ), and you can't really blame HA for that.
Upvote
12
(12
/
0)
Probably all but very technically minded people can set HA up and maintain it. I ran it for a while and had it working, but it was constant effort. Amazon/Google/Apple/Hubitat are more consumer focused and that's what this product aims to be.
"It works for me" is a perfectly fine response if someone asks if HA meets your needs. Homebridge "works for me" to get non-Homekit devices into Homekit, but there is no way I would recommend it to anyone that doesn't have at least an enthusiast level understanding of the tech they use. Same with HA.
Upvote
17
(17
/
0)
I've had the same experience as you. For all my locally controlled stuff, I've never had anything break. And the "cloud" component I have is my Nest thermostat, and even that hasn't ever stopped working for me.
Upvote
5
(5
/
0)
Upvote
4
(4
/
0)
I've used Homeseer a few years with Zwave, alll in all: Meh. Hard to figure out. Not investing in a new platform until this Matter vs the world thing plays out.
Upvote
0
(2
/
-2)
I found Home Assistant to be almost unusable. Installing it was a nightmare: do I need Home Assistant OS? A Container? Home Assistant Supervised? Home Assistant Core? Which is which? Some bits of documentation mention Hass.io, which is now called Home Assistant, where what used to be Home Assistant is now Home Assistant Core. Also there's a difference between Home Assistant, the operating system, and Home Assistant OS.
When tinkering, you have to deal with integrations, entities, and devices. Oh, and don't forget services, which entities can interact with. Setting up configurations with YAML is... a couple of nights of trial and error with various examples from random people on the internet.
But wait, there's documentation for all this stuff, right? There is, and some of it is actually available. Most of it is either byzantine, outdated, refers to things by a different name, was written for a specific installation, etc.
I found that if I wanted to do more than connect lights A B and C to switch D, I had to prepare myself for a night of reading awful stack exchange posts, tinkering, resetting, removing all devices (or did I mean integrations?), trying again, etc, and then I'd have something that worked sometimes.
I know many people who have set up awesome stuff with Home Assistant, so I know I'm the problem in this equation, but it's just too much of a time sink for me. Anything that is more accessible than Home Assistant but also more configurable than HomeKit and the like sounds like exactly what I need, so maybe this is it.
When tinkering, you have to deal with integrations, entities, and devices. Oh, and don't forget services, which entities can interact with. Setting up configurations with YAML is... a couple of nights of trial and error with various examples from random people on the internet.
But wait, there's documentation for all this stuff, right? There is, and some of it is actually available. Most of it is either byzantine, outdated, refers to things by a different name, was written for a specific installation, etc.
I found that if I wanted to do more than connect lights A B and C to switch D, I had to prepare myself for a night of reading awful stack exchange posts, tinkering, resetting, removing all devices (or did I mean integrations?), trying again, etc, and then I'd have something that worked sometimes.
I know many people who have set up awesome stuff with Home Assistant, so I know I'm the problem in this equation, but it's just too much of a time sink for me. Anything that is more accessible than Home Assistant but also more configurable than HomeKit and the like sounds like exactly what I need, so maybe this is it.
Upvote
45
(48
/
-3)
Always amazed these articles ignore HomeSeer, which has been around for more than 2 decades.
Upvote
-3
(1
/
-4)
Youtube is your friend! Searching for guides from the past year or three cuts through the outdated info and forum posts.
Edit: My sincere apologies for trying to help.
Last edited:
Upvote
-9
(8
/
-17)
You can run Home Assistant on a Pi or a cheap, used mini PC for a fraction of the cost of this device. Same local control, much broader device support, and greater customization. Yes, the learning curve is slightly higher (though Home Assistant is getting easier and easier for new users with every release). I'm definitely having a hard time understanding the market this is appealing to.
Upvote
-9
(2
/
-11)
How long ago did you try HA? The only thing I have is my config yaml is stuff for connecting to Google Assistant on my own and one custom device where I combined a switch and two door sensors to create a cover (my garage door). Oh, and a single line for trusting my proxy.
I have tons and tons of devices, all set up via the UI. I have over 30 automations, all set up via the UI. Some are via templates from helpful folks in the community, others custom via the UI which looks pretty similar to the UI shown here, but no diving into yaml to config them.
I'm a developer that uses yaml all the time, so it's not like I'm afraid to go set things up "the hard way." It just is never really necessary.
Upvote
13
(13
/
0)
I find it rather amusing their website totally rips off Apple's design language, yet their HomeKit support is an experimental integration.
Upvote
-19
(0
/
-19)
If I were to get this kit, but got tired of it, would I be able to install another OS on the Raspberry CM inside the box and repurpose it? For example to run Home Assistant under Ubuntu?
(Not that it would economic sense to do so, but in case of future changed minds.)
(Not that it would economic sense to do so, but in case of future changed minds.)
Upvote
4
(4
/
0)
When did you last check it out?
You're absolutely correct about the nomenclature (ugh, what a pain). However, having to learn YAML? I use YAML today for 5 functions: sending emails through Mailgun (I actually probably don't need this since I've switched to app notifications), scraping hourly pricing data from my utility's website (this is advanced and I don't recommend it to most folks, even HA users), my Ecovacs robot vacuum integration (which is just ancient), Frigate, and ESPHome.
Of those 5, the only two I could see regular users maybe going for is the robot vacuum (it's nice when it runs after you leave the house, since it's fairly loud) and maybe Frigate (IP cameras). Otherwise, literally everything is a GUI. Probably the biggest learning curve there is figuring out that HACS exists. My HomeKit, Google Home, DoubleTake (offline facial recognition), Z-Wave network, my printer, Tesla stuff... all GUI configured. They're also moving more stuff to the GUI every day, and you don't have to worry about the company going bankrupt because 1) it's FOSS so the community would keep it alive and 2) it has a subscription revenue stream that's funding development at Nabu Casa.
Upvote
5
(5
/
0)
Just tried downloading the Homey.app. Not wanting to squint thru the boot on an iPhone, my iPad was signing-in on the app until it asked if I wanted to continue. Alas, Homey failed to include the iPad in its button logic. There sat homey, an island with no option but delete.
Upvote
-1
(2
/
-3)
I've been using home automation of varying types for the last 10 years, most recently moved away from Home Assistant to this iteration of the Homey Pro (they've actually been around for a while, with previous kit). It's easy, doesn't require a massive time investment to deploy and maintain, robust enough to cover the devices I need and want, has support and enough of a user base to answer rando questions. I was willing to pay the higher cost of entry to avoid the ongoing, expensive investment of my time and effort. Not everyone who wants home automation wants to invest in a second career to support/implement it.
Upvote
13
(13
/
0)
$400 might seem like a lot, but for someone privacy-minded like me, it's worth paying for the product - and not being one.
It goes without saying, of course, I'm probably in the minority.
It goes without saying, of course, I'm probably in the minority.
Upvote
16
(16
/
0)
Home Assistant is $0 and works completely offline.
It's pretty popular with boaters looking to automate, if that gives you any indication of how NOT dependent it is on internet access.
Upvote
16
(16
/
0)
How is the performance of your Hubitat? I have been driven up the wall by how slow it is for even basic local automation, with maybe two dozen Z-Wave devices. To put it in context, it takes 5-6s for a motion activated light to kick in, versus running the automation through HomeKit, which is under 1s — still too long compared to my previous experience with SmartThings.
And the people who develop Home Assistant seem to be misanthropes, who revel in making basic things insanely unintuitive.
This might be what I'm looking for. Will have to see if I can nab it on sale.
Upvote
5
(5
/
0)