If you're tired of Vera this is your chance

I just thought I’d pop in here and say that I too have switched over to Homeseer. I got fed up with the controller’s instability and confusion as to why a scene didn’t fully trigger or it just failed to complete. Ironically, the system can look stable, but in reality, the luup engine just keeps restarting in the background! On homeseer, there is actually protection for scenes to pick up where they left off after a reboot, yet I have not even had to worry about that because the platform is so much more stable!

The cost is definitely higher, and there is a learning curve, but man, the stability and overall ease of creating events (scenes) is by far night and day beyond Vera. I’ve even written plugins for Vera, so from a passion standpoint, it took a bunch for me to decide to want to look elsewhere.

If you are even toying with the idea of another controller, get their trial and invest $35 for a z-wave stick. I have a hard time believing you’ll regret it!

I realize my opinion wasn’t solicited. but did want to comment on HS.
the thing that i don’t care for with that platform, is the plug-in cost… everything is $30-$60 extra
My vera plus has been stable for me since i put it in.
I have ~50+ devices and 12 plugin’s.
i can’t see paying $30 each for my plugin’s on top of the high up front cost.
gl to those of you with deep pockets who switch :slight_smile:

I agree that the cost is high on the plugins - one of the bigger downsides. The interesting part is that there is more incentive to maintain them and Homeseer seems to keep the plugins cleaned up, which I do not believe to be true with Vera.

I have been very happy with the plugins I have paid for - they work flawlessly. And with that, there is that old adage: you get what you pay for!

[quote=“mvader, post:22, topic:192246”]I realize my opinion wasn’t solicited. but did want to comment on HS.
the thing that i don’t care for with that platform, is the plug-in cost… everything is $30-$60 extra
My vera plus has been stable for me since i put it in.
I have ~50+ devices and 12 plugin’s.
i can’t see paying $30 each for my plugin’s on top of the high up front cost.
gl to those of you with deep pockets who switch :)[/quote]

Read post #25 and #26 this was just brought up yesterday.

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,37575.msg281037.html#msg281037

None of my plugins were 60.00 and I went from needing more plugins on Vera to less on Homeseer. PLEG, PTS, Vera Alerts, and more are not needed unlike with vera. And most of my plugins are free also. I attached a screen shot of my current plugins installed bleow. I do have Blueiris But I never used the plugin with VERA and I do the same right now with HomeSeer (http commands and virtual motions). No plugins needed for day/night, logic, timers, virtual devices of any kind, Amazon Echo and more.

I have around 255.00 and tax (125 for HS3, 35 for usb z-wave dongle and almost 100 in plugins) in Homeseer at one of my houses and at another I have around 455.00 since I have 3 z-wave Antenna’s (Usb dongle and two Z-Nets) or controllers at that house due to size and range. I already had Blueiris and PLEX running on a mini PC at both houses so I didn’t need any major hardware but could have cost me 100-200 extra for a mini wintel (Pipo x7 or the like). I have upgraded each house every year with a new vera. So I’m averaging 100-150 a year with vera (Lite, Edge, Plus). Homeseer is not cheaper but it’s probley only going to cost me maybe 200-300 in the short run and save me money in the long run.

I estimate between both houses I have around 70 switches, 6 door locks, 5 garage doors and one driveway gate plus a bunch of other things for alarm sensors, motions, smoke detectors. I would estimate around 6k in z-wave or related costs that didn’t happen at once and have been building over the last few years. The Heart of the system (VERA) cost probley half of what people spend on a single door lock and price is scrutinized only on the controller purchase (which doesn’t seem logical to me).

I’m sure that I’ll need more plugins down the road as I’m looking into getting Somfy blinds. Its going to cost me around 200 per window for motors and battery stuff. Solar recharging would be another 100 on top per window if i choose that. I will have to buy a 39.99 plugin (RFXCOM which works for other devices too) for homeseer but after I spend 200 per window for around 17 windows I probably won’t be complaing to homseer about the 40.00 cost to add it to my automation system.

On the screen shot. You can see on the right in my screen shot if they say “Licensed” I paid for them and the rest are free or say included. So taking your current plugin list and multiplying by 60.00 is not going to give you a fair assessment. And there is alot more that goes along with it then just the price of Plugins, Quality of plugins is way better with alot more child devices/info at your fingertips.

EDIT: Opps just added the attachment.

[quote=“mvader, post:22, topic:192246”]I realize my opinion wasn’t solicited. but did want to comment on HS.
the thing that i don’t care for with that platform, is the plug-in cost… everything is $30-$60 extra
My vera plus has been stable for me since i put it in.
I have ~50+ devices and 12 plugin’s.
i can’t see paying $30 each for my plugin’s on top of the high up front cost.
gl to those of you with deep pockets who switch :)[/quote]

I haven’t seen a $60 plugin myself. They’re usually between $29 and $39, but still, I agree. Plugins are the most painful expenditure on HomeSeer. I understand developers wanting to get paid, but plugins are usually little tiny applications and don’t require an enormous amount of coding. If they were half the price, that’d be great. Integlikewhoa is correct though, tons of plugins are free and if you look through the forums, you can find even more free plugins that are not listed in their Updater. For example PHLocation, which is their geolocation plugin, and from what I hear, it happens to be fantastic.

Lutron RadioRA2 Plug-in for HS3
PI-LutronRA2-HS3
Price: $59.95

MNSandler Insteon PLM Plug-in for HS3
PI-INSTEON-HS3
Price: $59.95

mcsSprinkler Plug-In (Professional) for HS3
PI-MCSSPRINKLERS-P-HS3
Price: $149.95

mcsSprinkler Plug-In (Standard) for HS3
PI-MCSSPRINKLERS-S-HS3
Price: $89.95

Plenty of $40 and $50 plugins.

just too much IMO