After half a year fiddling around with HA I say goodbye today.
I only wanted to do some basic lighting and some comfort things. Nothing too fancy.
Problem: Stability!
Nearly every update broke something. I often had to reconnect ZigBee devices, reboot the os etc.
For me, HA has a nice UI, lots of functions but it lacks in stability.
I decided to dump all my zigbee devices, because it was a frustrating experience.
Ok. Bye now.
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Lack of stability ā¦ Thatās often the case with free software, unless itās from the GNU foundation or MIT.
You should try OpenHab ā¦ then come back and tell us how they compare.
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There are a number of openHAB users that are happy after leaving HA due to either Zigbee or Zwave not working for them. If you want to give openHAB 3.0 a try it was released a few days ago with a much improved UI. I have been trying out both and openHAB 3 wins for the devices that I use.
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Thank you @Skinah ā¦ I sure will give it a try. My experience so far has been a bit āfrustratingā as Openhab has (had?) a very steep learning curve. I know my way around computers, but it appears OpenHab is for people with a computer science backgroundā¦ Or maybe Iām old-fashioned and missed the boat
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HA has a very good installation and first 1-2 hour experience, but once that hour is up the learning curve is probably the same, for me I find HA worse after that time is up. I donāt know how many hours with openHAB is needed to reach the same point, but it would probably be twice as long to go through the new user tutorial and read the concepts. For me the learning curve and setup is a 1 time thing. Every few months I check out HA again to see how it is progressing but each time I do, what I did have working is broken.
openHAB 3 has 100% of its āintegrationsā all supporting the use of a graphical interface (textual method also) so all of them are consistent which help long term after your over the initial learning curve.
openHAB supports many different programming languages for rules (on top of multiple graphical methods) including python, the added choice does add complexity and reduces the examples you will find on how it works. That is a common comment, that it is more flexible and hence has more complexity as a result.
You may find your brain is wired better for understanding one over the other and that can be true, but if your having issues, it is worth trying both out as they are both opensource and you only waste some time.
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Lots of people have said this before, but just donāt update if you donāt want to.
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Iām sorry but these days of increased hacking that is not a valid option. Never run outdated software for security reasons and often you get cloud APIs that change that force you to update. Hardware devices that are local also do automatic firmware updates that bring changes.
I havenāt seen any security-related things in the release notes recently. (I know recently this did happen, since I posted this.)
Ideally all of your devices would be local.
Only updating on the important releases that fix big bugs or security flaws is better than updating every single release.
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I like the concept of OpenHAB, and have no complaints with setting up a system through config files rather than UI (in fact, I wish HA was still fully like that, it makes so much easier experimenting with something on a test system, and copy the config files to the live later)
What gives me a headache though is setting up its UI for any device that is more complicated than a simple switch or light.
In HA it could not be any easier with Lovelace cards: even if it is a thermostat or an amplifier, everything is nice and have good functionality already (like an amplifier hides its controls until it is switched on)
Its amazing (not being sarcastic here) how people can have totally different experiences.
I came to HA about 5 months ago, probably have about 60-70 total devices in my home (Z wave, zigbee, wifi mqtt, wyze) and have had very little stability issues. I wonder sometimes if its the type of devices and the integrations/add-ons you are choosing to use.
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OP is still active here and getting along quite nicely by the looks of his post history. Just temporary frustration I guess.
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Guess I can confirm that. I started with HA on a raspberry, and it constantly had stability issues (around once or twice a week) like crashing or updates that broke the entire system. After a while I switched to a VM running on a NUC and it runs smoothly for a few Months now.
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Actually i gave HA another try.
My installation now runs on a docker container on my new Synology NAS.
Another difference is, I use a ConnBee 2 stick now to connect my Zigbee devices.
Maybe my problems were related to the CC2531 sticks or my VMWare installation.
ATM it runs stable, but iĀ“m still a little bit critical.
I believe we all got those frustration momentsā¦ Iāve often felt like a slave to my smart home wondering whether a regular house would be more confortable than the āsmartā one. My family loves it though xD
ā¦ as long as it works, it is a fine thing.
But like all technical things, they have their flaws.
Some more, some less.
Can confirm.
When I first started out every second integration I tried had issues. Took a while to find solutions that worked reliably. Not all integrations are created equal. There was a conference talk on how to identify the good ones which is worth watching:
I donāt understand the notion of becoming frustrated with a platform, cracking the poos, posting a goodbye message, then staying on.
If you donāt like it, leave, without grandstanding, and do something else.
At least this forum is very accommodating and helpful, unlike an audio forum (www.diyaudio.com) which allows complete arrant monsense, more so if you are a moderator. If you want the complete opposite to HA, venture forth into insanity with DIY audio and good luck. 
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In contrast, I find OPās message āclearā, and appreciate such type of feedback. Many people leave quietly ā¦ but that is not much use to the rest of us, who are just beginning on this journey and facing many challenges. I for one was debating for a while between HA and OpenHab ā¦ such comparisons are not readily available out there. The OPās feedback is certainly welcome and gives us beginners a taste of whatās to come. Granted, his successes/frustrations might not be applicable to all of us as we all have different expertise/experience ā¦ nonetheless, such feedback definitely has its place here.
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I would leave in a heartbeat if there was something better to go to. The documentation is terrible and always has been, breaking changes are common and have been since day 1, and the cherry on top is the linuxy often passive aggressive toxicity. Try visiting the discord to ask a question and youāll see what I mean. The OS version must be so good nobody needs any help.
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