Now that the technology is there, we can turn our houses into “smart homes” by installing various “smart devices.” With the appropriate apps installed on your smartphone, you can command these high-tech gadgets from anywhere you happen to be. It can be cumbersome for a user to maintain separate app libraries for each of their smart devices. In this context, the idea of a smart hub becomes relevant. A smart hub allows you to use a unified mobile app to manage all of your house’s smart devices.
SmartThings and Home Assistant smart hubs are the two most well-liked options on the market today. There is always a comparison made between the two products before purchasing, despite their obvious differences. In this article, we’ll compare some of the most popular smart hubs on the market so you can pick the best one for your needs.
About Home Assistant
The Home Assistant program is a piece of software designed to automate various aspects of the home. A real device kit, this is not. With this robust system, you can manage all of your home’s smart devices from a single location. One of Home Assistant’s best features is how easily it can be modified to suit individual preferences. You can make any electronic device as intelligent as you like by programming it.
Smart devices allow you to do a lot more than just plug in an outlet and forget about it. Its superior security, speed, and dependability stem from the fact that it is not connected to a remote server in the cloud. Even though Home Assistant is available for free on the web, you will need to purchase a hardware kit to make it work with your existing smart home gadgets.
About SmartThings
The SmartThings system is an all-inclusive automation tool for the house. For the average consumer with fewer customization needs and more predetermined necessities, this device is ideal. The system is cloud-based and thus cannot operate without access to the internet.
Consumers can use a single app to manage all of their smart devices, but only with a subset of those devices’ capabilities. A number of popular smart gadgets aren’t compatible with the SmartThings kit, though. It’s one of the best-selling smart hub kits cum systems, but setting it up is a breeze.
Comparison Between Home Assistant Vs SmartThings
1. Connectivity Technology
When it comes to connecting to other smart home gadgets, both Home Assistant and SmartThings hubs require the use of wireless technology. To connect to other smart home devices, however, they use a variety of different interfaces. The SmartThings hub can only be used to manage Wi-Fi-enabled gadgets. For this reason, access to the internet is essential.
By contrast, Home Assistant can be used with a wireless network, a local network (Z-wave/Zigbee), or Bluetooth 4.1. This means that even if you lose internet access, you can still manage your smart home devices locally.
2. Control Types
Both Home Assistant and the SmartThings hub offer a variety of options for managing your interconnected smart home gadgets. With Samsung’s SmartThings Hub, you can’t manage your smart home gadgets without downloading a dedicated app. Only devices running iOS 10 or later, or Android 5.0, are compatible with the app.
Home Assistant works with a variety of different smart hub options. Consequently, modern smart home devices can be operated via both voice commands and apps. The minimum required operating system to use the app is iOS 9.1 or higher, or Android 4.4 and up.
3. Compatible Controllers
In contrast to Home Assistant’s software-only structure, SmartThings includes a full-fledged controller setup right out of the box. SmartTithings does not support voice commands with the default controller setting. Smartthings hub, on the other hand, works with a variety of virtual assistants. The smart speakers are voice activated and allow full command of all linked devices.
For its part, Home Assistant was designed to work with a wide variety of controllers. Raspberry Pi, LightwaveRF, Hive, Nest, LIFX, and the Hue Bridge smart hub are just some of the most common compatible controllers. Unexpectedly, it also works with SmartThings.
4. Compatible Smart House Accessories
Both smart hubs give you full command of all your connected smart home devices. However, it has a limited number of accessory ports and can only connect to a few at once. More than five thousand smart devices from hundreds of different manufacturers are currently supported by SmartThings. This means that Home Assistant is less likely to work with the devices and brands you already own. Both smart hubs, however, work wonderfully with the kinds of smart devices most people own.
5. Power Rating
Remember that the Home Assistant and SmartThings hub will not work without power. You will need an adapter in order to plug them in. Both devices would be useless if there was no electricity to power them. The active power consumption of Home Assistant is 1.7 watts, while its standby power consumption is 1.4 watts. However, the effectiveness of the controller is crucial. The AC power required to run the SmartThings hub ranges from 100 to 240 volts at 5 to 60 hertz.
6. Device Type
In contrast to Home Assistant, the SmartThings hub is a separate product entirely. If you’re looking for a smart hub, SmartThings is a kit that you unbox to find a smart hub. The Home Assistant system is designed to work with a wide variety of smart home hubs. To manage your smart home’s devices, you can sync Home Assistant with a compatible smart hub and use the resulting app to do so.
7. Weight & Dimension
Size-wise, SmartThings measures 4.72 x 4.72 x 1.63 inches, and it weighs 0.46 lb. The Home Assistant speaker has dimensions of 3.9 by 3.9 by 1.6 inches and weighs 0.38 pounds. Portable and small, it will be more convenient to carry around.
Comparison between Smart Things and Home Assistant
| Parameters | SmartThings | Home Assistant |
| Connectivity Technology | Wi-Fi/Internet | Wi-Fi/Local network and Bluetooth |
| Control Types | App(out of the box) | App/Voice Control (as per controller) |
| Compatible Controllers | Limited | Wider Compatibility |
| Compatible Smart Home Accessories | More | Less |
| Power Rating | 5-60 Hertz | 1.7 watts |
| The Device Type | Smart Hub | Smart System |
How to Choose Between SmartThings and Home Assistant?
To sum up, SmartThings has few features but is easy to use. Home Assistant’s complexity may be off-putting, but its utility is virtually limitless. Therefore, SmartThings is ideal if you are an average user looking for a straightforward smart hub to manage your smart devices. Since Samsung manufactured it, you can rest assured that it will be a pleasant experience to use. In less than half an hour, you’ll have complete control over your smart home.
Instead of sticking with SmartThings or another conventional smart hub, consider switching to Home Assistant. This is due to the fact that Home Assistant is aimed at more experienced users who wish to modify the smart devices’ default settings and features. However, we only advise it for more experienced users due to the complex setup process.
Conclusion
:I hope all of you had understand the comparison between the Home assistant and smart thing. We MATHA ELECTRONICS will be back soon with more informative blogs.