I’ve flashed my basic the day I received it so can’t say I’m afraid.
but if it says IFTTT is supported, then yes potentially, only issue would be lag…
You’ve never had to solder anything to flash a Basic, you can just rest the header in the holes and away you go.
At less than £4 each, you won’t get anything cheaper or more versatile as your confidence/imagination grows.
lol call me OCD but I can’t see myself flashing a device on “unstable” connections, just hoping that all 3 pins of the header make perfect contact with the holes.
So yes I did solder the header 
It’s probably no more risky than all these dodgy knock-off fake batteries or cheap dodgy chargers that everyone has in their house, but you still have to weigh up the pro’s and con’s and make an informed decision yourself.
Whilst I am not an electronic engineer, my colleague in our office has taken several products that he and I both purchased from Amazon, eBay and other online sources, and frankly they were so dangerous they all went directly in the bin (I am not talking about smart plugs specifically). It’s scary what is being sold out there, but its cheap, so everyone buys them.
Just be sensible and do what you feel comfortable with (and before anyone says it, yes I am well aware that even known, reputable brands can and do have issues!).
Yeah I guess everyone has their own tolerance of risk Given these appliances often run unattended and their power draw I’m more worried about them than other stuff around the house.
Plugs are not a problem in the UK (as opposite to Sockets). You should definetely take the Zwave way. I mostly using TKB plugs, they are cheap, popular and good enough.
Nothing remotely unstable about it unless you’re a complete klutz, just like anything that plugs into something else rather than being soldered.
I went down a low tech route RF sockets -
https://www.maplin.co.uk/p/remote-controlled-mains-sockets-5-pack-n38hn
I then use RF Transmitter/Receiver Kit -
with an ESP8266 board
running an MQTT gateway -
Bit of electronics involved, but 0 soldering. The range is 3 floors of an old victorian house. I’ve also extended my RF ‘Network’ to motion sensors and a doorbell and weather station.
If it aint broke, don’t fix it - there is nothing wrong with RF frequencies is a household setting. And the various bits are peanuts compared to wifi or z-wave products.
Interesting question.
I have been doing this stuff for a lot of years, and have tried most socket option. I custom built my home 10 years ago, and agree that its Lights first, at the time I did not know about EIB/KNX and as a result I chose to install CBUS.
While this is 100% reliable, and never has given a days trouble, I would next time use KNX, just because its a MUCH larger ecosystem and have a LOT of options, to the components to use.
However depsite all the planning, one never thinks about the fact that we NEED to have about 12 Candle Bridges at christmas - gets old pretty quickly running around turning on and offer these at least 2 time a day.
My first stop was Home Easy - its a 433Mhz system that has no feedback, and is only so-so for reliability. I still have a box of the stuff in the garage (a lot in the original blister packs, if some one is looking)
Next was the Engenine Stuff; which i promptly returned to amazon as soon as christmas was over - why? because it has to do everything via the cloud; its slow and clunky; and while it offers feedback, I can tell you its not very reliable.
TPLink - Simple, and Easy - works, and is pretty reliable; I however took a personal dislike to the devices; and they are now living happily with my brother; still working, and he is pretty happy.
GreenWave PowerNode; these are Z-Wave, and connected to my PI, originally with a Z-Wave Me card to Domoticz; full mesh; which is very important in an old or a large house. These have been very reliable, have feedback, and power consumption reporting, plus Vesternet have offers from time to time, I picked up 20 of these for just over £220;
There are so many choices, and personal preference is almost but not quite as important as the Wife Acceptance Factor. Therefore I would recommend if its 433mhz - move on, thats old hat stuff from the x10 days; and choose either the TPLink or Z-Wave options - the Aeotec Z-Stick is a very cool device - I had a Vera Plus which got returned as this stick with Home Assistant was multiple times easier and more importantly RELIABLE.
Last comment, - I have had belkin Wemo stuff, that mad the wife angry, so it lasted about 1 week before the return process was started;
Damian
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I use Energenie (only £7.50 per socket from Screwfix) and can confirm that you don’t need to access them via the Energenie cloud. You can use an RF blaster like a Broadlink and bypass the Energenie cloud altogether (but I think you’ll need an Energenie handheld remote for code learning). Been using them a couple of years and find them reliable.