# Reddit Post: r/smarthome — "What Smart Home Systems Are You Using? Looking for Recommendations!" **URL:** https://old.reddit.com/r/smarthome/comments/1k3h3o5/ **Post-ID:** 1k3h3o5 **Source:** PullPush.io Reddit Archive (Reddit blocks direct scraping with 403) --- ## Original Post (raw English) **Author:** BarnacleDowntown759 **Score:** 1 **Created:** 2025-04-20 (UTC: 1745133627) > Hey everyone! I'm curious, what smart home systems are you all using these days? I've heard a lot about a few popular ones like Tuya, Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and SmartThings. > > Personally, I think Tuya is great for affordability and versatility, but some of the more premium systems like Alexa and Google offer a bit more polish in terms of integration. Anyone have thoughts on these, or any other systems you'd recommend? Looking to upgrade my own setup! --- ## Top-Level Comments (26 total, raw English) ### Comment #1 | Score: 1 | Author: Curious_Party_4683 if you are a tech person, definitely take a look at HomeAssistant! https://www.home-assistant.io/ get notifications to your phone and off course, remotely control the system as well. here's an easy guide to get started for HA as an alarm system https://youtu.be/1IuYWsR5M4c that should give you a feel for how HA works. then add whatever devices you want. first of all, you need to stop thinking about buying devices/ecosystem that requires internet to work. i had SmartThings before. the cloud would go down at least once a month and i couldnt even control the thermostat or check if the doors are closed n locked. as for ecosystem, you are then locking yourself down to options/devices. and the last thing you want is 10 devices with 10 apps and none talk to each other at my house, when someone is detected in the back yard, HA knows which room i am in and turns the TV on to show the live video feed. if i am not home, dont turn the TV on, take photos and send to my phone. start closing down all the windows roller shade (they auto open at sunrise and close at sun down). these devices are from various companies and they all work in unison. ### Comment #2 | Score: 1 | Author: gtwizzy8 If you're not interested or willing to put in the work required for Home Assistant (personality I love it) then I would recommend checking out the Aqara ecosystem. This is the system I've recommended to almost every person I know who doesn't want to get deep in the weeds with Home Assistant. Aqara has a device to cover almost every single smart home need and for a lot of their sensors and devices they are often some of the most affordable in the market. ### Comment #3 | Score: 1 | Author: tsenorjeff Home assistant is the only correct answer ### Comment #4 | Score: 1 | Author: JohanSnowsalot Home Assistants is amazing for stuff like timers, reminders, or turning off the lights when you're already under the covers. Total lifesaver for the lazy days. But I've got mixed feelings but in a fun way. On one hand, they're super handy but then there's that little voice in the back of my head, there's a feeling of having a tiny robot roommate who's helpful and lowkey spying on you. ### Comment #5 | Score: 1 | Author: Autom8_Life Home Assistant on a [Pulcro Mini PC](https://pulcro.io/product/pulcro-turnkey-two). It brings all the popular brands under the one roof and the core operating system comes preinstalled. ### Comment #6 | Score: 1 | Author: cstric I'm a lifelong SmartThings fan. V2 hub at my house and a V3 hub on my mom's house. While it's had ups and downs throughout the years, it does everything I need it to do, mostly locally. Control of lights (motion and arrival), home security, smart switches with scenes, fans, TVs, smart blinds… no complaints. 164 routines and growing. I use SharpTools, a ST add on for opening the garage through Siri and lights on when turning off an iPhone alarm. I use Alexa for voice control and a Alexa hub as a tablet control but it all points to SmartThings. Happy to answer any questions ### Comment #7 | Score: 1 | Author: TXAVGUY2021 Nice Home Management ### Comment #8 | Score: 1 | Author: HumbleSelf5465 Home Assistant plus Homekit ### Comment #9 | Score: 1 | Author: SR08 Savant ### Comment #10 | Score: 1 | Author: ConceptNo7093 Universal Devices eISY! **Reply von mike_2545:** Can also integrate home assistant with eisy ### Comment #11 | Score: 1 | Author: Magnus919 Home Assistant. ### Comment #12 | Score: 1 | Author: datec HomeAssistant because you can use just about anything and everything you want... Except MyQ, fuck Chamberlain/Liftmaster. I currently have Google Home(Hub, HubMax, and original home speakers), Nest Thermostats, z-wave, zigbee, Bluetooth, Lutron pro, matter, thread, and I'm probably forgetting something... All of those different devices using totally different wireless tech/protocols working together. ### Comment #13 | Score: 1 | Author: nirhend Home Assistant is a unique system that offers a high degree of customization, allowing you to tailor it to your specific needs. It has the capability to integrate all your existing services into a single, centralized platform, even those you might not have been aware of. Additionally, Home Assistant is known for its stability, making it a reliable choice for managing your smart home setup. While the initial setup does require some time and effort, particularly with the hardware and the first software installation, the process is straightforward once you get started. There are numerous resources available online, including detailed guides on YouTube, that walk you through each step of the setup process. These guides are designed to be easy to follow, ensuring that you can successfully configure Home Assistant to work seamlessly with your home devices. ### Comment #14 | Score: 1 | Author: Aggressive-Bath-1906 I use Smartthings. I mostly use it for sensors, switches, plugs and an alarm, and use Action Tiles to create a control panel out of an old iPad. I do use routines, but not very many of them. I can't remember the last time I had to add a routine or device, or tinker with the app. ### Comment #15 | Score: 1 | Author: AngelGrade Homekit + Homebridge **Reply von gokayaking1982:** If I have a HomeKit house setup already. Do I have to setup again on home assistant? ### Comment #16 | Score: 1 | Author: Sonarav Home Assistant, been using it now for a year. No regrets ### Comment #17 | Score: 1 | Author: weeemrcb On my phone, tasker At home, homeassistant **Reply von Randy_at_a2hts:** Tasker? When I go to the App Store, Taskr is the only app that I see, but it is a project mgmt app? ### Comment #18 | Score: 1 | Author: TheJessicator I use Smartthings, supplemented by Alexa. While I am technically adept enough to use Home Assistant, I have a family and I want them to be able to easily take over maintenance of everything if/when something inevitably happens to me. Also, I have yet to find a use case that I have been unable to implement in Smartthings and/or Alexa. ### Comment #19 | Score: 1 | Author: bikeryder68 I am very happy with Homeseer. ### Comment #20 | Score: 1 | Author: Haegar_the_Terrible Home Assistant. There is no comparison. ### Comment #21 | Score: 1 | Author: AdzyPhil Started with Google, got a hub and nest mini, and a few other bits and pieces. Google started to go downhill, and the more I researched, I learnt more about the privacy concerns. Got myself a home assistant green and have started to transition across. Once the Nabu Casa Voice gets up to speed, I'll remove google entirely. ### Comment #22 | Score: 1 | Author: blisstaker i had a reasonably sized system of mostly fiet (cheap and was at all the stores i shopped at - costco and lowes), alexas, and ring cameras. i just recently dropped the alexas because they push ads so hard and send every recording to the cloud now. i got homepods and homebridge, transferred the 25 lights and plugs from feit to tuya and used homebridge to connect them to homekit, same with my ring cams. people dont seem to highly recommend this setup and im not sure i would either, but 95% of it works great and im so damn glad to be off the alexas. siri is dumb but even so it is so much better. i have an old smartthings hub too that i used for sensors and my smart door lock. going to try to get those things over to homekit as well, as well as mount an ipad on the wall for a customizable smart home screen downstairs. ive had smart home stuff for over a decade but it finally feels like im leveling up. really cool having porch and entry lights come up when someone is detected coming up the driveway and a small light in my room being red when my main house door is unlocked i wouldn't trust google tbh because they are so anti-privacy and love killing off their products but thats my opinion **Reply von ninjasan11:** As someone considering switching from my Google products because of privacy, I found that - while they have an insane amount of data on you - they do not share it with anyone. Rather, they have vendors purchase ads that essentially ask Google to share that ad with individuals Google thinks it is a good target for. So only Google has your data, no the ad company. Is that what you found? ### Comment #23 | Score: 1 | Author: Typical_Principle_11 My experience is that everything eventually leads to Home Assistant, unless you really do not want to tinker at all or have very few requirements **Reply von annoyed__renter:** Smartthings has become much more versatile in recent years. ### Comment #24 | Score: 1 | Author: Squanchy2112 Home assistant with hacs ### Comment #25 | Score: 1 | Author: Jensen_og_Jensen Home Assistant all the way... **Reply 1 von MrGreysson:** This - home assistant all the way! Then just mix and match what hardware you want. There are so many integrations and github repos you can use to expand your system with. You can repurpose a old laptop, or if you have a raspberry pi around (just don't rely on sd cards in the long run). If you want local only, you can filter for those integrations since home assistant is quite keen on personal privacy. **Reply 2 von Randy_at_a2hts:** It would help OP more if you could explain why. Also, can a regular, say liberal arts major, deal with HA? What hardware do you recommend for regular folks? **Reply 3 von ln-art:** This is the only right answer. ### Comment #26 | Score: 0 | Author: cstric (duplicate) I'm lifelong SmartThings fan. V2 hub at my house and a V3 hub on my mom's house. While it's had ups and downs throughout the years, it does everything I need it to do, mostly locally. Control of lights (motion and arrival), home security, smart switches with scenes, fans, TVs, smart blinds… no complaints. I use SharpTools, a ST add on for opening the garage through Siri and lights on when turning off an iPhone alarm. Happy to answer any questions --- ## Deutsche Zusammenfassung ### Der Original-Post Der Autor (BarnacleDowntown759) fragt die Community, welche Smart-Home-Systeme sie nutzen und sucht Empfehlungen für ein Upgrade. Er erwähnt Tuya (günstig/vielseitig), Amazon Alexa, Google Home und SmartThings. ### Zusammenfassung der Kommentare (26 Top-Level-Kommentare) **Klarer Gewinner: Home Assistant (HA) dominiert mit ueber 70% der Kommentare.** #### Hauptargumente fuer Home Assistant: - **Maximale Flexibilitaet:** Integriert Geraete aller Hersteller und Protokolle (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Bluetooth, Matter, Thread, Lutron, etc.) - **Lokale Steuerung:** Keine Cloud-Abhaengigkeit – das System laeuft auch ohne Internet (ein Nutzer berichtet von monatlichen Cloud-Ausfaellen bei SmartThings) - **Datenschutz:** Vollstaendig lokal betreibbar, keine Daten in fremden Clouds - **Stabilitaet:** Laeuft rock-solid - **Unendliche Anpassbarkeit:** Von einfachen Timern bis zu komplexen Szenarien (z.B. Gartenkamera schaltet Fernseher im richtigen Raum ein – aber nur wenn jemand zuhause ist) - **Aktive Community:** YouTube-Tutorials, GitHub-Repos (HACS) #### Weitere erwaehnte Systeme: **SmartThings** – Von mehreren Nutzern als solide, familientaugliche Alternative genannt. Ein Power-User hat 164 Routinen. Mit SharpTools-Addon kompatibel mit Siri. Wird aber wegen Cloud-Abhaengigkeit kritisiert. **Aqara** – Beste Empfehlung fuer Nicht-Techniker. Guenstige Sensoren und Geraete, deckt fast alle Anwendungsfaelle ab. **HomeKit + Homebridge** – Wird von Apple-Nutzern geschaetzt. Homebridge bindet Fremdgeraete ein. Ein Nutzer ist von Alexa zu diesem Setup gewechselt wegen Werbung und Cloud-Zwang. **Google Home / Alexa** – Durchgehend negativ bewertet: Werbung, Cloud-Zwang, Datenschutzbedenken, Google killt regelmaessig Produkte. Mehrere Nutzer migrieren aktiv weg. **Weitere Nennungen:** Homeseer (ein Nutzer sehr zufrieden), Savant (Profisystem), Universal Devices eISY (kann mit HA integriert werden). #### Schluesselerkenntnisse: 1. "Alles fuehrt irgendwann zu Home Assistant" – es sei denn, man will ueberhaupt nicht basteln 2. Cloud-Abhaengigkeit ist das groesste Problem bei Alexa/Google/SmartThings 3. Beste HA-Alternativen fuer Einsteiger: Aqara (einfach) oder SmartThings (mittel) 4. Einstiegshardware fuer HA: Home Assistant Green, alter Laptop, Raspberry Pi (nicht mit SD-Karte!) 5. Beliebte Kombination: HA + HomeKit 6. MyQ (Chamberlain/Liftmaster) wird aktiv verflucht – inkompatibel mit HA 7. Kernproblem: 10 Geraete mit 10 Apps ohne Integration – genau das loest HA --- *Datenquelle: PullPush.io Reddit Archive (Reddit.com blockiert direkte Scraping-Versuche mit 403)*