Hubs
For a mixed smart home, the best hub is the one that reduces protocol sprawl and keeps automations local enough to survive cloud weirdness.
What matters most
- Strong Zigbee/Z-Wave support
- Good local automation options
- Stable integrations for your voice assistant and major ecosystems
- Enough maturity that you are not beta-testing your house
Good hub patterns
- One main hub + a few bridges: usually the cleanest for mixed homes.
- All-Wi-Fi + voice assistant only: simplest upfront, weakest long-term reliability.
- Home Assistant-first: most flexible, but higher setup overhead.