Question

Thoughts on Vera Hub?  

Answer 1

Don't do it

Comments

@hague I have contacts that would help me out on access to programming

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@rasping782 that may be a better way to go then. I don't have any personal experience with control 4 but I did some research into it 2 years ago when I was exploring options.  

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@hague it's definitely a very robust, well supported, and powerful platform, it just cost a bit more then Vera

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Hi, I have a vera plus, while it works, support for new devices can be very slow to be provided. Complex programming can be performed with some free/cheap apps. Mostly my system works. Any specific questions, please ask!  

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Vera is DIY, cheap and simple to use but small number of users and supported devices compare to SmartThings or Homeseer. Personally I went from SmartThings to Vera to Homeseer. First because SmartThings used to be a major pain to do anything that someone had not already written an "app" for. Vera was simple point and click only needing programming for complex stuff. Still have 4 Veras and 2 SmartThings laying about. Vera had some real issues with updates awhile back not sure if that is still and issue. SmartThings went through a major mess when Samsung wanted people to merge accounts. Knocked mine offline and I have not bothered to try setting it back up give I still see people posting about issues. I moved to Homeseer so I could link 3 buildings and multiple networks of Z-wave, Hue, Harmony . Homeseer kind of bridges the gap between the cheap DIY hubs and the pro stuff like Control 4. Usually I would not recommend it as a first hub though for some things it is actually easier to use than Vera or SmartThings. Homeseer cost if mid range too. Homeseer will also use a lot of the DIY hubs as gateway devices (like a Hue "hub"). Control 4 is Pro install system you let someone do for you not yourself. Hence the high cost.  

Answer 2

Terrible platform. For lots of reasons. Not innovating. Hubitat is the new Vera.  

Comments

@unclothe1851 are you saying Hubitat is no good either?  

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@hague haha. Not really saying either. As it stands today, Vera is a very old platform, no innovation, had a once very strong enthusiast user base that is mostly all gone now. Hubitat reminds me a lot of Vera in its heyday. I hope they don’t become what Vera is.  

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@unclothe1851 gotcha. I have no experience with Hubitat but have been curious about it

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@hague Me too! I watch it closely - and it looks like it’s gotten more reliable lately, that’s for sure. I think SmartThings still has better “zigbee hacks” to make the mesh more reliable. and still more community support. RBoy’s Rental Lock Automator, which I use to automate the door lock and other things at my Airbnb, is the “killer app” for me. If that worked on Hubitat - along with a solid Ecobee integration - I’d probably be experimenting with it today. I’m also disappointed that I never got a reply when I asked them for a sample hub and API access to write a Stringify integration (I was the director of engineering for Stringify).  

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@unclothe1851 yeah Rboy is amazing - in use the door lock and the thermostat apps. The thermostat apps are the big ones for me.  

Answer 3

I had a Vera lite for two years, and upgraded to a newer Vera, and put the old one in another house. I never had a problem with either of them. Currently I’m on SmartThings, but only because Vera couldn’t connect to Stringify at the time. I still liked it well enough to not throw it away. I have it for a backup option or friend/family if they need it. The settings were a little daunting, but was also very flexible. And this was at least 8 to 10 years ago.  

Comments

@away62949 We (Stringify) tried to connect to Vera. it never worked out, heh.  

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@away62949 thanks for the feedback. Glad to hear a few good thing

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@unclothe1851 yeah, that was the only reason I left Vera at the time. There were just some connections and complex routines I wanted that Vera couldn’t handle on its own.  

Answer 4

I tried it a couple years ago and moved on. I was attempting to migrate from another platform ran into two issues, one of which was very limited Zigbee support (which doesn't seem to have improved much--I wouldn't care as much if I didn't already have Zigbee devices and if the Plus didn't claim Zigbee support), but another thing I wasn't a fan of was the awkward interface. It's not totally without merits; it does everything locally that it can, unlike the SmartThings hub you can see many others have mentioned. That's actually what I was trying to migrate away from due to their frequent cloud (and other) problems. I tried Home Assistant (not a lot better but at least it was free) and eventually landed with Hubitat (works with a similar set of devices as SmartThings and runs locally like Vera). I see you mentioned Control4. Vera and Control4 are really different markets: DIY vs. professional. I'd decide which one of those you want first; I'm personally quite happy with the DIY route.  

Comments

@pelpel good observation. I'm straddling the line between professional and DIY. Most of my stuff comes from the professional world, it (cost) starts to add up. Control 4 and Vera integrate well ( supposedly) with everything else that I have and future planned upgraded. I was exploring Vera as a way to save a little money. It's sounding like it may not be worth it.  

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If the devices you're planning on using with Vera are Z-Wave (a standard protocol widely supported by various smart home hubs: Vera, Fibaro, HomeSeer, SmartThings, Hubitat, Home Assistant with the way most people configure it, and many others), then you'll at least be able to re-use most of them if you move? :D

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@pelpel true

Answer 5

Have a Vera Edge, I play around with it from time to time, keep it on line. It might be a fair backup if Wink goes away.  

Answer 6

Had three of them. Homeseer is far and away better, with much better community and company support. Vera had decent community support and terrible, terrible company support. Homeseer performs SO much better, has fewer (zero) crashes, and is much, much more flexible.  

Answer 7

I used Vera Lite since 2010 and moved to Vera Plus in 2018. To be fair I’m only using them as a Z-wave gateway to main DIY smart home control system. In this respect they work OK and fairly reliable but do reboot quite a lot. They just don’t support enough of the smart home functionality I developed to be anything more than a basic smart home hub. Like most consumer smart home tech, the focus is far too much on the technology and not on the user experience. And similarly, it requires a fair bit of tinkering and programming to get it to work the way you want it to.  

Answer 8

I have a vera lite. I use it with zwave devices only. No major issues.  

Answer 9

I tried a Plus for about 2 months and gave up. Unstable, not ready for prime time and didn't support anywhere near the range of devices supported by EVERYTHING else. I'm now running Homeseer 3, quite reliably, with a much wider range of devices. What's most important is the WAF. Wife-Acceptance-Factor is key. I can get in the dog house well enough on my own, I don't need a Rube Goldberg of automation junk annoying her.  

Answer 10

Been using Vera Lite for a long time. Recentlym purchased a Vera Plus to use a hub only (HA in use for the logic)