Smart Home Hub Brands
SmartThings, Hubitat, IKEA DIRIGERA, and Aeotec compared. Which hub connects your devices, runs automations locally, and supports Matter.
About Smart Home Hub Brands
SmartThings Station ($60) is the easiest hub to set up — pair devices with the Samsung app, build automations with drag-and-drop, and it supports Zigbee, Thread, and Matter out of the box. The downside: automations run in Samsung's cloud, so a server outage takes your smart home offline. Hubitat Elevation ($150) runs everything locally — your automations work during internet outages and latency is near-zero. The app and dashboard are less polished than SmartThings but the reliability trade-off is worth it for serious users. IKEA DIRIGERA ($60) controls IKEA smart products (TRADFRI bulbs, FYRTUR blinds, VINDSTYRKA sensors) and now supports Matter, but does not work well with non-IKEA devices. Aeotec sells the hardware for SmartThings and also makes Z-Wave accessories like range extenders and multi-sensors.
Buying Tips
- SmartThings is the best starter hub — easy app, wide compatibility, and Matter support built in
- Hubitat is better for power users who want local control and do not mind a steeper learning curve
- IKEA DIRIGERA only makes sense if you are already buying IKEA smart home products
- If you already use Home Assistant, you might not need a separate hub — it supports Zigbee/Z-Wave via USB dongles