A cross-section illustration of a three-story smart home with a garage, showing various automated devices including smart lights, thermostats, security sensors, and appliances labeled with green icons.

DIY Smart Home
Protocol/Controller Today

And Choosing a Smart Home Controller Today

Last Updated: 03/04/2026

Introduction (Part 3)

In the third phase of this (DIY/Enthusiast) market's evolution, the main enthusiast manufacturers remained smaller companies. Some more players died a few were acquired, but those that remained continued the product evolution. However, the big change was the entry of a few major electronics giants and their backing of and participation in some protocol standardization initiatives.

Home Automation Today (2020-25)

DIY Home Automation Protocols

Entering the 2020-2025 period, the smart home market has undergone significant changes, with leading technology companies entering the space. Meanwhile, open-source solutions have seen significant improvements. The following are some of the major trends in DIY home automation protocols.

Matter and Thread are recent major protocol innovations, largely driven by Apple, Google, and Amazon. Matter and Thread aim to standardize the protocol (Thread) and application (Matter) interfaces for smart home devices, greatly improving interoperability among vendors. Interestingly, Thread uses the IEEE 802.15.4 physical radio and mesh networking standard, similar to Zigbee, thereby enabling the protocol to support the same low-power features. Like most new standards, it takes time for vendors to achieve full interoperability. Additionally, these standards continue to evolve because they do not yet support all device types and features; however, they are regularly updated to address these gaps.

Wi-Fi: The ubiquity of Wi-Fi in the home, combined with dramatic cost reductions in Wi-Fi chips and the ability to set up simple automations via a phone app without a hub, has further boosted the adoption of Wi-Fi-enabled smart home devices from both large and small manufacturers. Wi-Fi is the dominant protocol by a significant margin, largely due to the ease of installing and using Wi-Fi devices with Amazon Alexa, Google Home, and/or Apple HomeKit.

Zigbee and Z-Wave continue to develop and expand. Zigbee has largely overcome interoperability issues with its ecosystem. Z-Wave has added new capabilities, including long-range functionality. Both protocol implementations continued to reduce power consumption, improve reliability, and expand product offerings. The trend toward Thread suggests eventual consolidation, but Zigbee and Z-Wave remain dominant for now due to wide variety of inexpensive sensor, plugs and switches.

Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), and Bluetooth Mesh: These are three distinct (and niche) wireless protocols. Bluetooth is used as a point-to-point protocol for simple applications and device configuration, such as between a smartphone and a light switch. BLE is a wireless, low-power, short-range protocol used for battery-operated devices like smart locks and for device setup. Bluetooth Mesh, however, creates a mesh network similar to Z-Wave or Zigbee but has limited popularity in smart homes. All three Bluetooth protocols currently have limited use in residential smart home settings.

DIY Home Automation Controllers

The current smart home controller landscape remains fragmented by protocols. For example, Wi-Fi is used for cameras and high-bandwidth devices, Zigbee or Z-Wave for sensors and switches, and Thread for newer, low-power devices. The number of control and hub product options has grown considerably. In addition to smaller companies focused on home automation, Apple, Amazon, and Google have integrated home automation features into select devices. To reduce protocol fragmentation, many hubs now support multiple radios and are therefore multiprotocol.

Home Assistant (HA) has become the leading open-source home automation platform. The Green hub was introduced, thereby making it a plug-and-play option. HA still provides complete local control, privacy-first, and vendor-neutral. It supports many protocols (Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, Thread, Matter, and Bluetooth) and seems to have the most extensive ecosystem. Although the programming interface has improved significantly, some automations remain complex.

Hubitat Elevation, founded in 2016, continued to grow with power users. Hubitat introduced the C-8 (which adds Z-Wave 800 and Matter support) and the C-8 Pro, featuring improved specifications. Hubitat's 100% local processing (which lowers latency and increases privacy), a moderately strong ecosystem, and ongoing community support.

SmartThings, now owned by Samsung, subsequently ceased developing standalone hardware and licensed Aeotec to build a standalone Smart Home Hub, which has remained unchanged for over five years and is now underpowered by today's standards. The SmartThings mobile app continued to improve. It remains highly user-friendly and serves as the primary user interface for programming and control. Their web app has been greatly improved, including a programming interface for more complex automations. SmartThings has also prioritized running automations locally on the hub where possible.

Homey began as a crowdfunding project in 2014 and launched its first model in 2016, supporting various protocols, including Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, IR, and Bluetooth. The latest Homey Pro release, from 2023, features mobile and desktop apps for the user interface and automation. Homey claims compatibility with over 50,000 devices, with many integrations running locally on Pro hardware and others using cloud APIs.

HomeSeer, now up to HS4 software, continues to emphasize local-first automation. Automations are created via an improved Web-based GUI, and improved Smartphone apps continue to be used for device control. HomeSeer has broad third-party support, although perhaps not as extensive as that of some other manufacturers.

Philips Hue has continued to expand its product range, moving beyond basic A19 bulbs to include a wide array of light strips, outdoor lights, smart sensors, and more. Recently, the brand introduced the Bridge Pro, which supports up to 150 devices. Modern bulbs also feature Bluetooth for direct control via smartphones. Philips Hue now supports full Matter-over-Bridge, enhancing compatibility with other smart home systems.
Lutron continues to leverage its highly reliable but proprietary radio protocol and has made a concerted effort to interoperate with many other vendors. Around 2020, they release an open API called leap, and then in 2024 enabled seamless integration via their Matter implementation.

Apple, Google, and Amazon have launched products that integrate smart home capabilities.
- Amazon first added Zigbee to the Echo in 2017 and, before that, had offered Alexa integrations with other smart home hubs.
- Apple introduced the Home App in 2016, followed by the Home Pod in 2018. Apple Home gained substantial popularity due to broad third-party support and deep integration with Apple's products.
- Google acquired Nest in 2014 and introduced the Home Hub in 2018, which uses a proprietary Zigbee-like protocol.
- All three, more recently (2022-2023), introduced products that integrate a Thread Border Router and Matter-compatible software, greatly expanding interoperability with third-party devices.

Several other companies sell smart home hubs, but I have limited familiarity with them. For example, Ezlo Plus Hub, Zooz Z-Box, Aqara Hub M3, Sonoff iHost, Shelly Pro/Gen3 Series, Third Reality Smart Hub Gen2, and Switchbot Hub 2/3. Most of these companies are device (switches/sensors) makers that have also decided to sell hub and bridge products.

The DIY smart home market has evolved from isolated single protocol systems to a connected ecosystem utilizing multi-protocol controllers and many third-party integrations. At the same time, major brands like Apple, Amazon, and Google have simplified smart home control by incorporating Thread Border Routers into their devices. Brands such as Hue and Aqara also have hubs which predominately act as bridges to their devices. For enthusiasts, the emphasis has shifted from deciding which protocols to use to prioritizing hardware performance, software capabilities, local processing, and breadth of third-party integrations. Examples include HomeSeer, Home Assistant and Homey Pro. This more diverse market caters to both casual users and enthusiasts, offering a mix of convenience, dedicated bridges, and powerful local control.

A Small computer is a translucent-clean case similar to Home Assistant Green.

Black box with white strip on left side, a HomeSeer hub

A generic mini-PC with a bunch of back panel connectors being used as a home assistant hub.

Selecting a Smart Home Controller in 2025

Today, there are many more options for setting up a smart home, and they are much more reliable and flexible than systems from just a few years ago. These products seem to fall into 3 major categories.

Powerful and feature-rich: Hubitat, Homey, HomeSeer, and Home Assistant (HA) solutions cater to the "techier" homeowner, offering robust capabilities while remaining user-friendly for simple automations. SmartThings started as a "techy" solution, but it appears to be shifting toward a more consumer-friendly, less powerful system.
Consumer-friendly: For those deeply embedded in the Apple ecosystem, Apple Home is a very easy choice. Hue, Amazon, and Google appear to be targeting the "average" smart home consumer with easier-to-use, easier-to-set-up products.
Niche hubs/bridges: Smaller companies that sell a hub with their device offering, perhaps to sell the "whole" system. Examples of this are Sonoff, Shelly, and Switchbot

To determine which approach to take when selecting a new smart home hub/controller today, I updated my original requirements as follows. The first 3 requirements are identical, but the last 2 have been updated because any new hub will need to integrate with the various third-party products acquired over the past decade or so.

Relatively cost-effective solution (ie, inexpensive).
Relatively powerful GUI and programmatic home automation programming.
Long-term viability of the product and manufacturer.
Support for Z-Wave, Zigbee, Matter, and Thread protocols
Strong third-party and community support and integrations, including integrations for Ecobee, Ring, Alexa, Lifx, Cync by GE, and SmartThings.

Table 1 summarizes the key features of each potential solution. Based on the requirements listed above, a more powerful/flexible smart home controller is needed, and it is acceptable if the automation programming requires some technical expertise. The main choices for the more powerful systems are Homey, Hubitat, Home Assistant, HomeSeer, and perhaps SmartThings. (By adding another SmartThings hub, the device load performance could be improved.

While Table 1 provides a reasonable overview, a few details that are not obvious from the table could impact the decision. These additional thoughts are listed below.

If one has an old PC or Raspberry Pi that can be used as a controller, HomeSeer and Home Assistant can be acquired as software-only products. This saves some HW cost. (Z-Wave, Zigbee, and/or Bluetooth radios still need to be purchased.)
The pricing/costs between the solutions are generally similar, although Apple is slightly more expensive. Home Assistant is open source, so it's free. All solutions include premium features available only with a subscription. Specific features vary between the companies.
The approximate total number of third-party integrations for each system is easy to ascertain, but the quality, reliability, and feature richness are much harder to assess. Also, the number of integrations is less important than ensuring the right integrations are supported for the user's application. Arguably, SmartThings, Home Assistant, and Amazon Echo have the most, but even in my limited experience, some of these integrations are not very capable.
The automation capabilities and ease of use should be a big factor in the purchasing decision but are difficult to assess. A very powerful programming capability could also be very difficult to use and debug. This assessment also depends on the skills of the purchaser. Table 2 attempts to summarize the automation capabilities of each of the main systems, although, again, not sure it helps with the decision process.

A table of smart home platforms and their features to provide a comparison between each system.

Table 1. Comparison of DIY and Consumer Smart Home Solutions

Table 2. Comparison of the Automation Programming for a few Hubs

Next: My Smart Home System