and have massive subscription bases, for small operations its makes little economic sense to try and accommodate purchasing power between countries.
I think you overestimate those companies. Their difference in pricing is mostly due to local taxes, licensing costs and due to having operations in those countries. This does not apply here I believe.
It shocks me to see people complaining still after its been known for over 6 months and alternative self hosting options have been documented for just as long.
@balloob thank you for all the work you’ve put in to this (and everyone else for all the pull requests). If you are ever in Manchester (UK) lemme buy you a coffee!
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Think of it this way, would you still subscribe if the cloud service was priced at 50 dollars a month? That’s how it feels for someone in a country with lower PPP.
You don’t build massive subscription bases without a successful pricing strategy. It’s as important as the product/service itself if you ask a marketing expert.
PS. Totally not complaining, just suggesting.
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I wish there was some sort of a lower or even a free ‘tier’ cloud subscription model. $5 per month may not be much for many who are really maximizing the platform with tens or maybe hundreds of sensors and/or devices. But for someone like me who is only controlling two LED bulbs that happens to have no Alexa support, it just doesn’t make sense. I get that as far as costs are concerned, device count doesn’t matter when integrating with Alexa. But sadly, the economies of scale seems to go against me.
However small, I did pay for a month of service in support of the developers, to whom I am very grateful. But I will have to cancel the subscription and replace the said bulbs with something else.
FWIW, the two LED bulbs are the Xiaomi-Philips kind. I like them because they support all the shades of white from warm to cool (no RGB color). I use them for our nightstands.
I hope people here or the devs don’t take this the wrong way. I love the platform but there’s just nothing in me that’s driving a need to maximize its use in my environment… nor have I the time and knack to learn it in-depth.
So there. In a few weeks, my Hassio will go silent. Can’t tell if it’s permanent or otherwise, but just the same, I wish the community the best of luck.
Is there some reason you are refusing to use this? for free?
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Agreed, some of the comments here seem to be out of place… the emulated Hue interface for Alexa continues to work. I’m still using emulated Hue, mostly from laziness and since it continues to work, and I have unrelated new stuff to work on in Home Assistant.
If you’re just trying to control lights and switches, emulated Hue works just fine. I’m controlling a bunch of Z-Wave switches and dimmers, some Sonoff switches with MQTT, and up until a couple of months ago, some X-10 lights hung off my Elk Alarm system using Alexa. Tastes great, less filling.
I do use emulated Hue for most of my IR and RF stuff but this is through a Broadlink RM Tasker Plugin running on a dedicated Android box. But this is designed to work only with Broadlink RM universal remotes (IR/RF blasters). The plugin still requires considerable effort to set up but at least, there’s no coding involved.
Anyway, I might look into doing that with Hassio when time permits.
Thank you for that article.
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But that is the difference between paying and not paying the subscription, a lot of work
its not really a lot of work. I have Google Assistant fully integrated into HassIO, light control, IR using broadlink etc, all without the Cloud option. The HUGE wealth of knowledge on this forum will get you through anything you need
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I agree, and I am not begging for a free lunch. I hope that’s clear. Just wishing/hoping for some slack for individuals in a similar case that I’m in.
But this is moot. I will read up on the article about integrating with Alexa and/or just decide to give up. I really and wholeheartedly don’t take it against the owners if they charge the full $5.
To give slack to some would mean that everyone have to be checked if the need is real. Because knowing the human race, there would for sure be many in need. Its just how people are
Well, you can’t blame a person for trying. 