Introduction
There are a few options to choose from when doing your home automation setup.
- DIY (Choose a System)
- Go with some vendor
Go with some vendor
This in my opinion is not the way to go.
Pros
- Less work for you (vendor does everything)
- Upgrades (if they bother to do them is done by them but might be costly)
- No need to pick devices as the vendor will tell you what works
Cons
- Locked into vendor any new devices might not be compatible
- Higher costs (also might cost you to upgrade system for compatibility)
- Limited to what vendor can do and will do in future with their system
DIY (Choose a System)
Now the question is what system? There is homekit (apple), phillips, smart-things (samsung). Could we have them all? Yes if you use this open source hub - home assistant (https://www.home-assistant.io/)
Pros
- Free (no reoccurring costs), you need to buy a raspberry pi tho (~50 SGD)
- Large array of services and devices work with home assistant
- Free upgrades (every month a major upgrade is released)
Cons
- Upgrades you have to DIY
- Configuration required v minor coding (yaml)
- Backup required
If you are lazy to do it yourself then get a vendor but that might not save you from future headaches like upgrades. After all, the space moves fast and device upgrades will break your system be it from a vendor or home assistant. Getting a vendor to fix issues well, I think we know it rarely goes smoothly. The open-source community is fast and the issue will be fixed within a month or so for specific devices not working.