A smart home hub controls communications in a home automation network between home automation device automatically or on-command. A home automation network may include light bulbs, locks, wireless cameras, video-enabled doorbells, security systems, and even pet feeding duties. Most users setup smart home hubs with thousands of custom commands suiting their exact needs.
Needless to say, a smart home hub is a critical part of any smart home, so it is important to pick the best hub for your specific needs. Padtronix has put together a list of the top 5 best smart home hubs on the market, in no particular order, to help your purchasing decision.
a) Samsung SmartThings Hub (Echo Compatible) – $99
Currently, this is the most popular smart home hub. Samsung aimed to make the SmartThings Hub the device of choice no matter how big, small, complex, or simple you want to make your smart home network. Not only can it be controlled by either smartphone app or Amazon Echo, the SmartThings Hub also has radios for Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, and ZigBee, which means it can connect to virtually all smart home devices. Only some of these devices work with SmartThings right out of the box, but so long as the device uses one of these connection types, SmartThings can be customized through software edits to communicate with it. In fact, many users have already written instructions for some of most popular devices, so all you have to do is install it on your SmartThings Hub. With all this flexibility built-in, what results is one of the most easily controlled, most readily adaptable hubs on the market.
Read our SmartThings Hub review here: http://www.padtronix.com/echo-review-samsung-smartthings-hub/
b) Mi Casa Verde VeraLite – $110
The VeraLite is a relatively new entrant in the field, but gets high marks for its flexibility. Mi Casa Verde claims the VeraLite works with over 750 devices, and can manage up to 70 connected devices at once. That’s a bold claim – even the SmartThings Hub has been known to choke a bit once the number of connected devices climbs that high. However, reviews are solid for the VeraLite. VeraLite also provides energy monitoring and fully customizable text and email alerts for any of those 70 devices you hook up to it. On downside we should point out though, the VeraLite only works with Z Wave devices.
c) Logitech Harmony Smart Home Hub – $89
This smart home hub connects all the smart devices in a house. The control is done using the free to download Harmony app on Android and iOS. The app uses Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or IR signals. Using this app one can control up to 8 home entertainment devices and as many automation devices as possible. It is priced at $99 making it viable and affordable for most homes.
d) Securifi Almond – $79
It may not offer all the same options as Smart Things, or Harmony, but in terms of simplicity, Securifi’s Almond has to be one of the best. Not only is the Almond a smart home automation hub, it is also a wireless internet router and wifi extender. On top of that, it has a touchscreen on the side of the device so you don’t need to pair your phone, sync an app, or connect a computer to operate and configure Almond. With excellent customer ratings as well, we think Almond is a great entry point to the world of home automation.
e) Wink Connected Home Hub (Echo Compatible) – $65
This is a low-cost smart home hub that is simple to use and is very easy to set up. It works with Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, Amazon Echo and Nest. It can connect to a wide range of devices and does not have any extra costs once the purchase is made. The downside to this smart home hub is that it cannot create automated actions as complex as the other smart home hubs on this list.
Read our review Wink Hub review here: http://www.padtronix.com/review-wink-smart-home-hub/
