Osram Lightify vs. Philips Hue

When someone talks about smart home lighting, the first thing that usually comes to mind is Philips Hue. Yet, Philips Hue is far from being the only option on the market. The Internet of Things offers us a great variety of smart home lighting solutions, like: Lutron dimmers, GE Link, LIFX, Lightify bulbs, and way more we cannot list. And even though Philips Hue is reputable and very well-known, in some cases it’s better to choose other brands of light bulbs over them. So, today we’ll compare Osram Lightify vs. Hue by Philips to help you make the right choice.

Insteon vs. Wink

Every year that passes, more smart home devices get released. And it’s incredibly important to have a great hub that lets you easily control them all. So, when it comes to choosing between Insteon vs. Wink, for us the choice is obvious. And to make it easier for you, let’s guide you through the differences between these two smart home hubs.

To begin with, let us clarify that as of now Insteon offers 3 types of hubs: original Insteon 2242, Insteon Pro hub 2243, and the new Insteon hub 2245. The original one and the new one are very similar, and even though the original Insteon hub is officially discontinued, you can still buy it from Amazon. To learn more about the differences between the old and new Insteon hub, please refer to this article: Insteon 2245 vs. 2242 — What’s the Difference?

And then there’s a Pro version 2243. The Pro hub is very different from the original and the new one. The Insteon Pro hub is designed to be used specifically for Homekit devices. You can still control a few Insteon devices, but you’ll need to sacrifice Insteon cameras, motion and leak sensors in favor of Homekit. For a comparison with the Wink hub, we’ll take the most complete and absolute version of the Insteon hubs — the new Insteon hub 2245.

Wink hub also has two versions which are the Wink hub and Wink hub 2. As it usually happens, the newer version has better features and aspects, plus it’s been around for a while already. So, for our comparison with Insteon, we’ll take Wink hub 2. And if you’re interested in reading the differences between the two Wink hubs in detail, feel free to check out our Wink Hub comparison article: Wink Hub vs. Wink Hub 2: What’s the difference?.

GE Link Hub vs. Wink Hub

GE Link Hub vs. Wink Hub — What’s the History?

Before we even get into comparing GE Link Hub vs. Wink Hub (which you’ll find below), we need to talk a little bit about the companies themselves.

Both GE Link Hub and Wink Hub allow you control your smart home appliances, and both hubs come from the same company, Quirky — Except that Wink is a spin-off from invention incubator Quirky. According to a Quirky report, by 2015 there were Wink products in 300,000 homes, and the business was growing until April 2015, when Wink experienced a security problem.

Now, the problem caused a lot of Wink hubs to go offline or break. This incident forced the company to issue a recall. And already by November 2015, the Quirky company went through bankruptcy proceedings due to financial difficulties. Wink was sold for $15 million to Flextronics (now called Flex). It wasn’t surprising since Flex was Wink’s primary supplier of hardware and firmware. As of now, Wink continues to successfully operate as an independent subsidiary of Flex.

Wink Hub vs. Wink Hub 2

So, what is the difference between the Wink Hub vs. Wink Hub 2? Both hubs are great at connecting all your smart home appliances together in one app. But there are a number of differences that set the newer model ahead of the older one.

Now, when we first saw the Wink Hub 2, our first impression was that it just looked sleeker and slimmer. But there’s more to it than that; so let’s go over whether or not the upgrade is worth the price!

Insteon vs. WeMo

As smart home automation becomes more popular, more companies integrate smart home solutions. Nowadays, it’s easy to control your home remotely from your smartphone. But as it becomes more popular, it gets harder to choose between home automation systems.

Overall, it all comes to compatibility issues and number of options. Before buying a smart home automation system for your home, make sure it’s compatible with all your smart home appliances. So, as a result, you can control everything from one app, instead of downloading apps for each device separately.