Which smart home hub is right for you?
The short answer: Apple Home if you have only a few devices and the family uses Apple. Homey Pro if lots of different devices need to be brought into one system but you don’t want to become a system administrator. Yubii Home if your home is built on Fibaro Z-Wave modules and Nice gate or blind motors, or you need wireless building automation. TapHome if you’re planning a new build or a full renovation and want a wired system with good value for money – for a home or even a commercial building. BE WAVE if security comes first and you want the same system to provide the basic smart functions too. Home Assistant if you work in IT and want to build and maintain the hub yourself.
The hub is the brain of the smart home: it runs the rules, and it determines whether the system works without the internet. Choosing it matters more than choosing any single device, because the hub is the most expensive part to replace later.
The six solutions
All six provide local control: scenes and automations run on the hub inside your home, and the cloud is only needed for remote access. (Homey’s cloud version, Homey Cloud, is the exception.)
Apple Home
For: families who use iPhones and want to control lighting, heating and a few sensors.
Native and simple, with no separate maintenance needed. An Apple TV or HomePod acts as the hub, and control runs inside your home, so it keeps working during an internet outage. The limits are protocols and complexity: anything that isn’t Matter- or HomeKit-compatible is left out, and there’s little room for more complex automations. A family member with an Android phone can’t use the Apple Home app.
Homey Pro
For: anyone with lots of different devices from several manufacturers who wants the whole lot to work as one system – without it turning into a hobby project.
It handles Zigbee, Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, Matter/Thread devices, infrared control and 433 MHz radio all at once (the smaller Homey Pro Mini doesn’t support Z-Wave, infrared or 433 MHz). The automation editor is clear, day-to-day use is simple, and control runs locally. The trade-off is that it’s tied to the manufacturer’s platform: if there’s no app for a device, a custom integration requires developer work – although the choice is wide and keeps growing.
This is our default recommendation, because for most homes it offers the best balance between capability and ease of use.
Yubii Home
For: homes built on Fibaro Z-Wave modules or using Nice gate, garage door and blind motors – as well as companies and institutions that need wireless building automation.
The joint hub from Fibaro and Nice, built on the Fibaro Home Center 3 platform. It’s strong at managing a Z-Wave network and controls Nice motors directly over its own radio. The Pro version also accepts Zigbee devices. Scenes can be edited graphically, and more advanced logic can also be written as scripts.
Thanks to the robustness of the Z-Wave protocol, it is one of the wireless systems also suitable for simpler building automation in commercial and public-sector buildings. Its limitation is the range of protocols: outside the Z-Wave and Nice world it covers less natively than the Homey Pro.
TapHome
For: new builds or full renovations, where the cabling is part of the design from the start and lighting, shading, heating and cooling, ventilation and energy monitoring all run in one system – from family houses to commercial and public-sector buildings.
A system built on a wired backbone with a building-services mindset, with a local hub and a unified app. It’s one of the best-value wired smart home systems, and it doesn’t lock the user out: you can edit the rules, scenes and automations yourself, so you don’t have to call in a professional for every small change. Its strength is building services: it handles a wide range of heat pumps, ventilation units, EV chargers and inverters via a standard industrial connection (Modbus). A robust system, also suitable for building automation in commercial and public-sector buildings.
It’s rarely worth retrofitting into a finished, occupied apartment because of the cabling, but it can be expanded with wireless devices.
BE WAVE
For: anyone for whom security comes first and who wants the same system to provide the basic smart functions too.
Satel’s system is both a certified alarm control panel and a smart home hub. The same detectors serve both security and comfort (a door/window sensor can also switch off the heating, for example). The system’s automation devices connect to the same control panel and are managed from one app. Both the alarm and the automations run on the control panel; the cloud is only needed for remote access. It’s available in both wireless and hybrid versions. Its limitation is that it’s built mainly around its own device family and accepts a narrower range of other manufacturers’ devices than a general-purpose hub. If lots of third-party devices need to be included, a Homey Pro or another hub can be added alongside it.
Home Assistant
For: people who work in IT or are keen on tech, and want to build and maintain their smart home hub themselves, DIY-style.
An open-source platform that can integrate practically anything and can be customised without limits. You can build very versatile dashboards with it. It’s developed by an active community and the possibilities are almost endless – setting up the system, updates, backups and troubleshooting, however, are the owner’s job.
To be honest: Home Assistant is a good choice if you’re happy to take on this work and understand what you’re doing. If nobody in the family or the company looks after it, within a few years it turns into an outdated, vulnerable system. If you want a ready-made, maintenance-free system, one of the hubs above is the right choice.
Comparison
| Hub | Ease of use | Protocols | Customisability | Maintenance | Typical user |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple Home | very simple | narrow: Matter, Thread, HomeKit | limited | none | family, few devices |
| Homey Pro | simple | very wide: Zigbee, Z-Wave, Matter/Thread, Wi-Fi, IR, 433 MHz | good | minimal | average and demanding homes |
| Yubii Home | simple | Z-Wave, Nice devices, Wi-Fi; the Pro version also Zigbee | good, extendable with scripts | minimal | homes built on Fibaro and Nice, wireless building automation |
| TapHome | simple, users can edit the rules themselves | wired bus, Modbus, DALI, wireless expansion | very good | minimal | new build, renovation, commercial and public-sector building |
| BE WAVE | simple | own wireless and hybrid device family | basic | minimal | where the alarm is the centre of the system |
| Home Assistant | complex | practically unlimited | unlimited | regular, done by the owner | IT professional or tech enthusiast with a DIY mindset |
What really fits into one app?
This is the question we’re asked most often, and there’s a lot of over-promising on the market – so we’ll give a precise answer.
For a single property, day-to-day use really can be brought together in one app: arming the alarm, the gate, heating, lighting, shading and scenes can all be controlled in one place. That’s how we build it.
Two things, however, we deliberately leave out:
- The camera’s live view and recording management stay in the camera’s own video system, with its own logs. The reason isn’t technical: that’s the right place for searching recordings, keeping a record of who accessed what, and data protection compliance. The overview screen shows that an event happened, with a link to it.
- kWh billing for EV charging stays in the charger’s own system – with a certified metering chain for chargers with a MID-certified meter (MID is the EU Measuring Instruments Directive) – because it’s billable data.
For several buildings or properties – apartments, guest accommodation, an office building – you don’t need a separate platform either: TapHome and Fibaro/Yubii Home can link several hubs together, and with Homey Pro several homes can be managed from one account. At handover we set up an operator overview with role-based access, which we then keep up to date under the contract.
And the security functions? The alarm and the gate work regardless of whether the smart home hub is running. We build it this way on purpose: anything needed for security must not depend on a general-purpose smart home hub. With BE WAVE this is the case by design: there, the certified alarm control panel itself provides the smart functions, not the other way round.
Which one do we recommend, and when?
| Your situation | Recommendation |
|---|---|
| Apartment, a few devices, Apple family | Apple Home |
| Family house, many different devices, several areas | Homey Pro |
| You already have lots of mixed devices and you’re stuck | Homey Pro, taking over your existing devices |
| Lots of Fibaro Z-Wave modules, Nice gate or blind motors | Yubii Home |
| New build or full renovation, wired backbone, heat pump, ventilation | TapHome |
| Commercial or public-sector building automation | TapHome (wired) or Yubii Home (wireless) |
| Security comes first and basic smart functions are enough | BE WAVE |
| You work in IT or are keen on tech and would build the system yourself | Home Assistant |
| You’re unsure but would like to expand later | Homey Pro – the lowest-risk entry point |
Frequently asked questions
Which is the best smart home hub?
There’s no clear winner. The real questions are: what state the property is in (finished or under construction), how many and what kind of devices need to be managed, how specific your needs are, and who will maintain the system. For most existing homes, Homey Pro offers the best balance; for new builds, TapHome; for security-focused needs, BE WAVE.
Why does it matter that it runs locally?
Because that way scenes, automations and manual switching keep working during an internet outage. A cloud-dependent system stops just when you need it least: during a storm, a network outage or a manufacturer’s server failure.
Can I switch hubs later?
Yes, but the automations always have to be rebuilt when you change hubs. Most devices – Z-Wave and Zigbee devices included – can be carried over; they just need to be paired again. The real advantage of Matter is that a device can be added to several hubs in parallel, so the switch can also be done gradually. That’s why it’s worth choosing well the first time.
Does it need a subscription?
The systems we build have no mandatory subscription, because control runs locally. Some manufacturer services – remote access, cloud video – may be charged separately, but they’re not a condition for the system to work.
Does it control the alarm too?
Usually not. The alarm remains a separate, certified system and works independently of the hub. The smart home hub only keeps a connection with it: when you arm the alarm, it can switch off the lights, and the alarm’s detectors can feed presence data to automations. The exception is BE WAVE: there, the certified alarm control panel itself also provides the smart functions.
I use Home Assistant – will you take it over?
No, we don’t take over Home Assistant systems for maintenance. Instead, we replace it with a lower-maintenance hub, such as a Homey Pro – most of your existing devices can be carried over, and we rebuild the automations in the new hub.
Which hub is right for you?
During the site survey we go through which devices you have, who will use the system and what you expect it to do – the choice of hub follows from that, not the other way round.
Request a site survey · Details: Smart home design, installation and integration
Updated: September 2026. Hub capabilities and Matter support change quickly – we always check compatibility for specific devices at the time of the site survey. Brand names and logos are trademarks of their respective owners.
